London knife attacks

[Cain]

Well, to an extent.  ISIS's media arm claims attacks if the attacker dies in the attempt or later on, and they always have some kind of evidence to back these claims up.

And I have no doubt he has a computer.  His reading material and web history will be highly revealing.

[Junkenstein]

So far 5 dead, 40 wounded and "attacker known to police".

Shitshow imminent.


Rolling media news in minor frenzy, strongly suspect that this style/level of reporting is not going to decrease incidents and is actually making the problem much worse. If it is ISIS related it's pretty much free PR and will almost certainly be used as a recruiting tool. If it's not ISIS I'll have a fiver on them getting the blame anyway for now as means to shove through some very questionable emergency measures.

[Cain]

7 arrests in raids in London and Birmingham too.

Also, I knew one of the people who died in the attack.  Not very well, I just worked with her a few years back.

[P3nT4gR4m]

So far 5 dead, 40 wounded and "attacker known to police".

Shitshow imminent.


Rolling media news in minor frenzy, strongly suspect that this style/level of reporting is not going to decrease incidents and is actually making the problem much worse. If it is ISIS related it's pretty much free PR and will almost certainly be used as a recruiting tool. If it's not ISIS I'll have a fiver on them getting the blame anyway for now as means to shove through some very questionable emergency measures.

That's the beauty of terrorism as a strategy. In essence, the physics of what happened here is remarkably similar to the guy who took a heart attack at the wheel of a bin lorry in Glasgow a couple of years back, ie. vehicle ploughs into a bunch of pedestrians but, because this prick did it on purpose, with an agenda, the rest of the country seems hell-bent on honoring that agenda and carrying his last wishes out to the letter. One demented twat has more political authority in this country than the corporations and government combined who are all, right now, bending over backward to serve his will.

Terrorism is the act of making millions of people dance to your tune. I can't help thinking the correct response would have been to shoot the twat then give him a byeline on page 20 of the local paper but, hey, planet full of demented primates. As you were...

[Cain]

The man believed to have carried out the attack in Westminster has been named by police as Khalid Masood.

Kent-born Masood, who was shot dead in the attack, was not the subject of any current police investigations, but had a range of previous convictions.

The 52-year-old was believed to have been living in the West Midlands.

The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the attack, in which PC Keith Palmer, Aysha Frade and US tourist Kurt Cochran were killed.

[Cain]

At least Amber Rudd knows what is truly important - covering your own arse

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39373907

Home Secretary Amber Rudd warns against pointing "any finger of blame" at intelligence services after the London attack

She told the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg that although the attacker was known to them, it did not mean "24 hour cover".

Ms Rudd said that the intelligence services do a "fantastic job" and that people should "give them the space they need" to do it.

She was like this at Defra too.  And make no mistake - if Masood was on a watchlist, then the intelligence agencies fucked up.  Simple as.  They don't often do, compare France, Germany and Belgium to the UK when it comes to ISIS inspired terrorism - but pretending they are perfect, less than 24 hours after the attack, is the most obvious case of protecting your career I have ever seen.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I will say this much for ISIS and their ilk.  They have the poor man's psyops down to a tee.

[Junkenstein]

I will say this much for ISIS and their ilk.  They have the poor man's psyops down to a tee.

Quite true. I think Cain linked to the ISIS recruitment/news rag a while ago and a strong theme in the issue was "Knives are awesome, cheap and effective". It's not surprising to see shit like this and other recent incidents as a result.

[Cain]

BTW, the news story vanished almost completely due to the other guy who was picked up with knives next to Parliament yesterday, and the woman who was shot by counter-terrorism police last night, but the security services were able to read the Whatsapp message he sent before he attacked, using a mix of "technical" and "human" intelligence (ie; they traced who the message was sent to, and threatened to break their fingers unless they unlocked the phone and let them read it).

The message itself was the usual jihadist nonsense, but it shows Amber Rudd's bizarre desire to install a government backdoor in every device in the country to circumvent encryption for the tedious nonsense it is.