London Bombings Inquiry

There is progress ahead in the push for an inquiry into 7/7. Rachel North has a detailed update on her blogsite http://www.rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com/ entry Wednesday July 08, 2009.

I have supported this move, not because it will change anything for me, or my family, but because there are questions to be asked and answered, if we hope to successfully avoid further incidents, such as 7/7.

The series of investigations so far, come to the conclusion, that given the way the Intelligence Services work, given the funding and staffing resources they have, other than hindsight, there was little else they could do to counter the plans of the four successful suicide bombers.

This may or may not be the case, and hindsight, as we all know plays little part in analyzing such brutal events. Yes, maybe they could have put the pieces together better, maybe they should have been aware of the intensity and purpose of these four suspects and their alleged, though proven not guilty conspirators (Operation Theseus Trial).

Changes have been made, both to way the Security and Intelligence services work together and the way the Emergency Response services work together. This is all good and hopefully, will lead to a more co-ordinated, speedier response to multiple scene events and overwhelming numbers of those requiring assistance. I hope so.

This does not devalue the point of a full Ministerial Inquiry. There are such matters as the delineation of policed areas and the lack of the sharing of information. This is horrific to me and completely nonsensical. Why do the powers that be not view the whole country as one and set up data bases that make readily accessible all the tit bits of information about various individuals? Is it a matter of guarding your own power base? I am certainly left wondering how logic does not win this argument.

I would like to see a fair and just system that does not take away the rights of the individual but also does not squander information and render useless, the purpose of the Security and Intelligence services.

The use of torture abhors me, and I have already made comment about George W Bush, having the audacity to claim the support of families of the 7/7 dead and injured, to prop up disgusting practice.

17/02/2008 Pukekochic

As for Bush – I can’t believe he has used the 7/7 London bombings to prop up his support and justification for the torture process of “waterboarding”. How dare he use any of my family to prop up his argument. I do not condone torture nor do I appreciate his stating that he is sure families of the 7/7 victims would endorse or support this practice. He hasn’t even called me to ask me!! That’s is partly what I mean about media, making hay out of every possible scenario without any thought to the sensibilities of those he is invoking. Absolute rubbish and a disgrace. I was going to email him but thought the SIS may descend on my paradise and throw me into a bath of water!! Coward I know but I really prefer showers. Maybe he will read this and send me an apology. Ha ha.

If we are calling this, the war on terror, then surely the tennents of the Geneva Convention and justice should prevail. Persons should be detained in humane settings, faced with evidence and the right to defend themselves judicially speaking, and deal with the consequences. The processes should be transparent, not clandestine nor should they add to, man’s inhumanity to man.

Rendition should not be enacted in anyone’s name.

Enough said for now.
Arohanui

KG
XX

Shelley 7/7 2009

Shelley,


I look in the mirror
and see a person
that may be me

she
looks like me

somewhat older
working on being thinner
an ex drinker
(ah but still a smoker
well I am not a saint!)

I do not understand
who I am anymore

part of my soul
has been ripped out
by your murder

I think
maybe
you have
a piece of my soul
with your soul

maybe
it is something you
can wrap around yourself
and know
you are loved

it is a comfort

I will think of it like that
I can live with that

in my half shadow world

with a piece missing


XX always

7/7 Fourth Anniversary

The 7th July dawns in NZ, one day ahead of London.

Today, we will huddle, as Shelley’s small family, linked by the love and friendships
Shelley created on her life’s journey.

Tomorrow in London, at the Hyde Park unveiling, an amazing group of people will stand, in Shelley’s name, to honour Shelley and all those murdered on 7/7.

I could not be more proud or humbled by the love shared and displayed.

My thoughts and love are will all those present, and of course, with all the families of the 51 murdered and the hundreds of survivors and injured.

The special friends we have made, will know who they are, and are in our hearts today as always.

Much love
Kia kaha

KG

XX

Interlude

I bet you didn’t even know we had left the country! Well we are back now, my HB & I. We had 10 days in Oz, and no, we aren’t oinking or sniffling with the swine flu. We just made it out of there before their somewhat lax procedures got a wake up call and they realized that, yes, there is a problem.

We were in Brisbane about the time the debacle over the cruise ship passengers took place. Thankfully they were sent out to quarantine off shore til we departed the country.

It was a time for family catch up in both Perth & Brisbane and suffice to say it was fantastic with plenty of stories to be told. We went for my best friend’s son’s wedding. Well second wedding ceremony to be exact. The first one was up in Karijini, which is in the middle of nowhere but spectacular. The second celebration was for the slightly less adventurous family members, and was held at a surf club in Perth. It was wonderful to be able to share in this celebration. In Brisbane we had a family reunion, with my two sisters and partners. One lives in Brisbane and the other one who had come from Christchurch for the weekend. We also caught up with Shelley’s dear friend J in Brisbane, and that is, as always, very special.

Before we left NZ there was much to organize for the 7/7 Fourth Anniversary this year when an amazing steel structure will be unveiled in Hyde Park. There are 52 columns representing all those murdered on that day. There will be a plaque with names on, in a garden by the sculpture. It is designed so that you can walk around, between the towers. I think it will give an incredible sense of the individual and collective number of loved ones lost. We will get to stand there but not this year.

Through no actions on mine, and again through the amazing network of friends Shelley made, I deputized our wonderful LM and he undertook to be our man in London. He has since got a list of names of about a dozen friends who will be standing in that place on the 7th July. The govt department organizing the event has been incredibly helpful and so real in their communications with myself, and now our Man in London. If there is a sensitive and caring way to do these things, they sure have got that sussed.

There are not sufficient words to express how incredible and true this amazing group is. They were there for us from the morning of the 7th, when they knew Shelley had not got to work. They drove all over London, to all the hospitals looking for her, giving her photo to policemen on the street. They were by our sides from the minute her dad and I got to London on the 9th and have stood with us ever since.

Many of them will reunite on the 7th along with two of our Auckland friends who happen to be in London, and who were there for the 1st Anniversay and our two amazing Police Liaison Officers, who we now count as friends.

On the home front, the winter has set in. We have had 2degrees at night and thick white frosts in the morning. My two hibiscus plants look like cooked spinach and I am hoping they will revive in the spring.

SBS & his SH and their dog are staying with us for a while. They came to house sit and then get sorted to find a new flat closer to their work places. It is lovely having a full house. It is hilarious trying to keep up with the comings and goings as all for of us, (excluding the dog!) work shift work. It is the funniest household; there is usually someone sleeping, someone cooking and someone heading off to work. We have totally confused any prospective burglars, which can’t be bad.

FBS is also wanting to move out of his work/home so he will become part of the new set up once they find a house that they all three, plus the dog, like. FBS will keep working at the same place, but the time for living and working there has now past. It will be great for them to be all together.

Today is the first of my four days off and I am feeling energetic and looking forward to getting some things done around the house and to do some more writing.

There is a lot going on in my head, believe it or not!! I hope to be able to sift through the murk and get some focus for my writing.

Keep well, keep strong,
Arohanui

KG

XX

Terrorist Trial London Bombings

There is a second trial happening in London, for three men Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all of Beeston, Leeds. The first trial ended with a hung jury. These three men are charged with “consipiracy to cause an explosion.” The jury had been told that Ali, Saleem, and Shakil, visited a series of locations on December 16 and 17, 2004, which bore a "striking similarity" to where the bombs were detonated on July 7 the following year.

Suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay detonated rucksack devices packed with explosives on three tube trains and a bus killing 52 people (including my daughter, Shelley), and injuring up to a thousand more.

The trial heard that the three defendants travelled from Leeds to London with Hussain, who later detonated his bomb on the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square claiming 13 lives.

There they also met Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line underground train, and the group stayed overnight in a hostel. The prosecution alleged that the trip was "an essential preparatory step in the plan to bring death and destruction to the heart of the UK".
The jury in the second trial, retired to consider the information on April 18th. We are all waiting with baited breath, for their decision.

It is an agonising process for those bereaved families, and those who survived the bombings. A “hung jury”, is perhaps the worst outcome possible. If these men, were involved in any way, then they should be held accountable. If they are not, that should be the end of it.
The impact of the trial is manyfold, in that the inquests into the deaths cannot proceed until the trial is completed, which includes the jury being able to make a decision.

It also puts on hold, calls for an inquiry in the 7/7 bombings and the actions or inactions of the Security Services. The reason for this is that some information is said to be sub judice.
There has been a tremendous amount of work undertaken by members of the 7/7 Inquiry Group made up of survivors and families of the bereaved.

I do not know if these men are guilty or not. I do know that there are some serious flaws in the actions/inactions of those groups charged with monitoring the potential threat to Londoners.
It is well documented that the 7/7 bombers where not in fact “clean skins” as first claimed by the powers that be. In fact there was video survelliance of them long before 7/7. Taped conversations and observations which, you would think, should have raised a few alarm bells.
The drive and determination to get some answers, is from a place of ensuring that no such errors, if that is what they are, occur again. That the separate groups monitoring persons perceived to be threats, communicate with each other; that pre-emptive actions be taken.
That no other persons have to go through what the bereaved families and survivors have gone through – especially if it could have been prevented.

UPDATE: April 28, 2009: The jury is back and all three were acquited of the main charges “conspiracy to cause an explostion. Two Ali and Shakil, were however, convicted of conspiracty to attend a place used for terrorist training. They were about to board a flight to Pakistan when they were arrested in 2007.

So four years on, two trials later and the result is in. There will be no more trials in relation to the 7/7 bombings.

I am not sure what I think as a result of all this, The police must have been confident to undertake a second trial, at such huge expense in money terms and resources. They may have hoped for a more certain outcome, though it seems lots of the evidence is circumstantial. On reading some of it, as a lay person, there is still sufficient doubt in my mind about the reasons they went to the places they did, the association they had with the bombers, that I am not fully convinced their intentions were innocent. However, that is that.

It is not unreasonable for me to say, that I am at least glad the terrorists who detonated the bombs, killed themselves. That is what they wanted to do so I guess they are satisfied.
I will wait for my thoughts to settle before adding any more.

Arohanui
KG
XX

47 Seconds

It’s movie kind of weather, still slightly summery with a touch of autumn chill. The nights are cool and dewy with the days dawning clear and sunny. It is refreshing not to be in constant heat. You can taste the freshness of the air on your lips as the coolness caresses them and you suck in the air. A sweet autumn kiss, that holds with it a sense of renewal, a change.

The evenings are good for snuggling into the sofa and watching dvds, knowing it is getting cooler outside while you have all the creature comforts and some distraction, inside.

I watched “Across the Universe” and initially wondered if I would be able to stick with it. Thank goodness I did. It is an amazing, totally absorbing commentary on life as seen through a compilation of characters, music and events from the 70’s. Fabulous animated sections interwoven with the ongoing story line of the lives of young men and women from around the globe. The songs are interspersed throughout the movie and the characters burst into song at times that surprise and delight. It is not a musical as such but an extremely artistic and carefully constructed combination of story-telling and the significance of the music of the times. Highly recommended and one of those movies, you just don’t want to end. (Amazing singing by Dana Fuchs – another one to go onto my cd list.)

At the other end of the scale, though no less compelling was “The Bridge.” A documentary film about the Golden Gate Bridge and its claim to fame as the most sought after suicide spot on the planet.

It takes 47 seconds to make the plunge into the waters below the bridge. A body reaches the speed of 120 miles per hour before impact.

In 2004 twenty-four people successfully ended their lives in this manner, at this place.

The film carried stories of the families and friends of those who had died in this manner. It wasn’t macabre. It was compassionate and deeply moving.
All of the dead were loved, if not by family, then by friends, who were left frustrated, sad and sometimes angry. The documentary showed clips of people taking the leap, of others being talked back over the ledge and of one woman who was hauled back over by a passing stranger.

One young man, who had taken the leap, survived. He spoke of changing his mind at the point that his feet left the ledge. He somehow managed to effect and entry into the water, feet first which was the saving factor. He suffered from a mental illness that requires him to be medicated for the rest of his life. He was 24 when the documentary was made. He now just wants to be seen as normal but that is not so easy for his parents, who live in fear of his death.

His father spoke well and said he had told him that if he had cancer, he wouldn’t have a choice but that with medication, he could control his illness and live his life, while limited by that fact, to his fullest potential.

The young man spoke of the experience of something brushing up against his body when he was in the water. He commented that he thought having survived the fall, he was now going to be consumed by a shark!! It wasn’t a shark, it was a seal that circled him and kept him buoyant in the water, which facilitated his rescue. He said this seal was god.

Another young man who had been suicidal all his life, made an agreement with a friend not to kill himself while his mother was alive. He also agreed to put this friends name is a sealed plastic envelope on his person so that she could be told of his death and also promised to phone her to say goodbye.

He kept to those agreements and the woman, who would have been in her 60’s spoke most wisely of the conflict this young man had lived in his life and of the effect this had on her. She spoke with compassion and honesty but like all of us, didn’t have any answers.

The father of another young man who had killed himself, said that he felt his son had been imprisoned in his body and that death was the only way he had of being free.

Both movies exploring the human dilemma of life and death, of happiness versus despair, of coping or not with what the hand of fate, god whatever, deals you.

In the context of my life experiences these movies have given me much food for thought. I doubt I would cope with a child of mine, taking their own life. I would hope there would be sufficient links established that he/she would not feel a plunge into the cold dark deep water was the only answer. As long as there is life there is always a moment of choice. How to accept that death was your child’s choice escapes me. It is another whole area of pain that, thankfully, I do not have to explore. I have the utmost respect and compassion for the familes of those so effected and their ability to make the best of the rest of their lives.

As the mother of a murdered child, I can speak about the death of my child when that choice has been taken away, made by some unknown person on their own secret mission.

I am extraordinarily angry that they felt they had a right to end my child’s life. That they thought this would somehow achieve something, other than the heartbreak and lifelong sentence of grief they have so uncaring inflicted upon myself, my family and anyone who knew and loved Shelley.

A grief that at times, has made me not care if I should die as opposed to making me want to end my life. A grief, that accompanies me every day of my life.

The futility of war and mankind’s inhumanity to man, is still a question with no obvious answers. There can be no answer, when we as peoples of the world, continue to live under the same beliefs that allow such actions to be taken. That someone is right, and therefore someone is wrong and must die, that as a nation, a religious group, a political entity we know best how some other nation or people should live; that we fail to care for or support our less well off members of society, our mentally unwell, our homeless or even our own kin.

There are seconds only, between life and death. Once the line is crossed, no matter by what means, there is no going back.


Kia kaha

KG
XX

Leonard Cohen - Anthem - Ahoy Rotterdam

May the light get in. Much love.
KG
XX