AliB 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Thankfully we are all well at 2SEETV. Let us hope the London based guys can post a similar message. AliB Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baywatch 1 Posted July 8, 2005 Nothing happened here in Wales, but my partners brother had just left the tube station in London & heard the blast. It is so frightening to think of a bomb going off in a tube train 100 ft down in a tunnel. Already had a phone call to call on one of our customers (train repair yard) to look at upgrading his old system. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Thanks for all your concern guys! Just as an update, the latest figures suggest around 50 fatalaties (expected to rise), and over 700 injured (some critically). The authorities do not believe that any of the four attacks were suicide bombers (although at a guess, there is the possibility that the bus bomber didn't reach their intended target before the timer detonated the device, but that theory is somewhat speculative). This type of attack has been expected for quite some time, but there was no obvious signs of any heightened alert here before the attacks. It has literally come out of the blue. With at least three bombers still on the loose, we're going to be holding our breath for a while .... I must admit, we've subsequently had a bit of a scare at this end; I dropped Mrs. Coops off at the station to catch her train to work. The station had been temporarily closed for approx. 15 minutes for operational reasons (which has never happened before); not wanting to wait for it to reopen, she called me to collect her, and take her to a station a couple of miles away on another line. Had she got on her train as usual (on time), it is quite possible that it was actually the first train to be blown up. To compound the situation, she has since told me that the carriage which was devastated by the device, is the one she normally sits in. I'll be driving her in to work over the weekend, but it's back to using the Underground on Monday - now you know why they say us Brits have a stiff upper lip!! On a professional note, there are literally thousands of CCTV cameras on the Underground (the majority of pictures I've seen have been absolute c**p), and the Police forensic teams are going to have to go through tens of thousands of hours of recordings to try and identify suspects. Whilst our thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed and injured, we can only hope that the authorities have an early breakthrough ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Coop glad to here you and yours are okay ... How many systems do you think they have that are using tape, over DVRs ... in other words do you think they have more tapes to go through or they are pretty much already upgraded to digital at this point .. Rory Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Thanks for that rory, The vast majority of systems installed on the London Underground have in recent years been upgraded to digital, with I believe certain 'lines' going over to centralised recording at network control rooms. Video images are regularly released to the press and media as part of criminal investigations, and quite honestly they are an absolute joke. CCTV images showing blob A pushing blob B onto the tracks ... you get the picture (sorry!) From memory, the station normally used by Mrs. C. has about 15 cameras in a booking hall, no more than about thirty feet (10 metres) in diameter - and guess what; wrong location, wrong height, wrong lenses, and that's just what I can see from standing and looking at them!! Nothing has yet been mentioned about the bus, but as a fairly new vehicle in the fleet, it would almost certainly have been equipped with a number of minidomes, and a mobile DVR. As the driver survived the explosion (the device was located towards the back of the bus on the upper deck), it would appear quite possible that the DVR may have been shielded from any effects of the blast by the driver himself. The down side is that again, whenever images have been released to the public (which has happened numerous times in recent months), the quality has been about two grades above total rubbish. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Sounds familiar, the government here have their friends installing everfocus and eclipse cameras in the customs, government buildings, etc, and they are awful, i mean they are even their cheapest models. They all get a cut so thats why they push their friends ... you know that thing called coruption .. It has been since 1993 since i lived in london, but it all looks so familiar still .. even just on Tv ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 8, 2005 1993 in London really was another world! If you were here now, most of the buildings look the same, but I doubt you'd recognise the place. We had less than 24 hours when the town went absolutely loopy over the Olympic success, and now emotions have swung completely in the opposite direction. Here's to a peaceful weekend! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Have a larger on me .. and yeah hope it stays quiet .. hopefully one good close up shot will get something for them to go on .. or someone in the mosques may know something and speak up .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 8, 2005 Cheers for that rory, The news report just said the Police are involved in the biggest CCTV search ever (they describe the task as "daunting").... quelle surpris! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 8, 2005 they should have used the cctv crew Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 9, 2005 at least they have some ExtremeCCTV cameras out on the roads ... CNN had a program tonight on the amount of cameras they have there ... something like 1/2 million cameras ... and whether the cameras they have would actually capture anything ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cctv_down_under 0 Posted July 9, 2005 I must admit from what I have seen there are many cameras, it is a bold effort to try to avoid them. Lets face it the Brits have some of the best Intel around, they will know who did the deed, but finding them will be hard. What a story about Mrs.C, very relieved, I would like to know how many have reported in so far and whom we are still waiting on, to put our minds at ease. I sadly tend to agree that they will never stop unless they are wiped out completely or drastic unrealistic measures are taken. (I would never want this to happen) I do not agree with the following idea...however this is a suggestion bandied about that worked to stop a lot of terrorism in USSR. They think they are gods after doing suicide bombs, they often get rewards for their families for money and it is considered godly to die in the cause and they are worshipped for it. The ruskies decided enough was enough (or so I have been told) they decided if a suicide bomber does his bit then they execute every relative in his immediate family, they may not care about their own lives but they may stop to think about their families. I dont agree with it and I dont know what else we can do... hell I am not even convinced yet that the US didnt make it all up just to get Oil Reserves and lets face it if someone came here accused us of mass weapons, took our resources and killed in the process, hell i would be pretty pissed. I dont think thats the case nor do I see the USSR way as the answer, but something dramatic has to be done to stop this from always happening. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 9, 2005 yeah the previous russian gov knows how to take care of terrorists ... maybe the western world need to follow their lead .. but then ofcourse they may become just as bad as the terrorists themselves .... i guess .. heck even what they did didnt stop the terrorists anyway. i say take it to the next level and get even more extreme than them ... i doubt it was all a lie over oil ... there would be no way to cover that up. Sadaam had weapons and that is well known, has been from back in '93 .. and before. I think they need to ask, where the heck did those weapons go ... thats the real question ... does some phyco have those weapons now .... obviously they just didnt dissapear ... they existed so they are somewhere for sure ... maybe castro has them.. EEEeek! To stop it happening, pull out of the mid east, then if it still happens tell them we told them so, and drop the big one ...nahh just jokin but yah know .... there is no way to fight these terrorists, they want to kill anyone that does not belong to a fundementalist islamic society, that includes Saudi Arabia ... they arent extreme enough for them .. they have to take them our at the root, where they start from .. where they get the ideas to kill others ... whereever that is ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cctv_down_under 0 Posted July 9, 2005 I am not about to start a debate on the whole Oil thing, but one thing for sure ..there are no weapons now and a ****load of OIL, well the oil keeps coming out and still no weapons??? I think we all did the right thing but it wasnt only to get rid of Saddam, it was in my opinion about OIL as well, after all, they secured the OIL fields first and Saddam tried to destroy them. Doesnt matter anyhow, there is NO justification for loss of inncocent lives and Terror is Cowardice!! One thing though... I recently got asked by a 6 yr old Kid.... "why did they blow up the trains?" I answered in truth that it was bad men doing bad things in order to scare people "why do they want to scare people" because they think they can stop people living their lives in normal peace " did we stop them from living in normal peace? we didnt go to their place and blow them up so why did they blow up them trains?" Makes it kind of hard to justify... and worse.. what will i say to my children when they grow up to ask "so we thought they had mass weapons and they didnt and we killed 1000's of people. how could you let that happen daddy?" look I know they were up to no good, but if the cops raid your place looking for smoking gun and they dont find it and they leave you alone.. all well and good but if they dont find it and hang out in your house rasing hell...well id be pissed too. But never pissed enough to take innocent lives and spread panic world wide, this is cowardice.. pure cowardice and I hope they are all captured and excecuted. i know this is mostly a US Forum so please don't hate me for my comments... I just think that no one does something like this unless there is pure hatred or a major objective, no one kills for killing sake.. there has to be a reason.. a statement and if the bastards can organise this then they should be able to organise Television type statements to staet why they are doing it..\ The will never be a justifictaion for terrorism... NEVER but I would hate for a fellow Australian or Relative to Die without fully understanding why it was done.. yYu cowards have my attention so speak the hell up or i support you all being hunted down like animals. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slrpro02 0 Posted July 9, 2005 If we look at Sadam we see a totaly insane person. Was he as bad as say HItler??? I say probaly worst, the only reason we didn`t see millions and millions of murder victims is because he didn`t ever get in a place of power where he was able to show his true insanety. Should he of been removed from power (of course). Having said that there are others that should also be put out of power, but nothing done. The oil might come into play maybe?? I think the U.S. should recive some benefit, but only to pay back the cost of the war. I agree with RORY when he says where are those weapons at now?? Everybuddy knew even from years ago he had them. As far as why these terrorists do these things you need to watch 20/20 when they showed even the children in SAUIDA beening told to KILL JEWS & the other infieldells. This was filmed in the Sauid schools. They say they are trying to change that from being taught, but the ISLAM clierec`s control the schools. I`am not saying all MULSEM people belive these teaching are right, but it is taught in schools, and I not saying all there school teach this,but I know \SAUID schools do. I dont remenber the 20/20 it was on, but it WAS ON. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UMDRanger 0 Posted July 9, 2005 We secured the oil fields quickly this time because in '91 Saddam set a grip of them on fire, causing massive ecological damage. The fires were put out by a large effort that took a lot of time. And the smoke hampered military movements. If you note, Bush did not setup a pipeline to his own fleet of tankers in the Gulf. We secured the wells, and mvoed on with the next military objective. Iraqis have full control of their oil exports. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
C7 in CA 0 Posted July 9, 2005 One thing though... I recently got asked by a 6 yr old Kid.... "why did they blow up the trains?" I answered in truth that it was bad men doing bad things in order to scare people "why do they want to scare people" because they think they can stop people living their lives in normal peace " did we stop them from living in normal peace? we didnt go to their place and blow them up so why did they blow up them trains?" Makes it kind of hard to justify... and worse.. what will i say to my children when they grow up to ask "so we thought they had mass weapons and they didnt and we killed 1000's of people. how could you let that happen daddy?" Keep the faith my friend. We are doing the right thing. Remember no one of any credibility is saying he never had WMD's. And yes the question remains... where are they? But one thing is for sure; we found the biggest weapon. Saddam was a huge weapon of mass destruction. And the proof is readily available. Simply google "Mass Graves" and you will see what I mean. I've heard the number of dead in graves put at 400,000 and counting. And remember this whole Iraq war started in 1991. We have remained there enforcing UN sanctioned no-fly zones since he retreated from Kuwait. Saddam has repeatedly violated UN sanctions (about 19 I believe). The biggest mistake I see over there is we waited 12 years to finish taking saddam out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 9, 2005 I'm not sure where this 1/2 million camera figure came from; the latest estimates for CCTV cameras in the U.K. is actually around 4.25 million, which for better or worse makes us the CCTV capital of the world. In practice, London has the highest saturation of cameras anywhere in the country, and that in part reflects the fact that the city has been on the receiving end of terrorist attacks for over thirty years. For those not familier with the geography, the "City of London" (which is the financial heart of the country) is actually a relatively small area of (Greater London) about one square mile on the north side of the river Thames. As the City of London was a favoured target for Irish republican terrorists some years back, it is actually comprehensively covered by CCTV, with both traffic and security camera networks covering a significant proportion of the area. However, the areas outside of the City, particularly the West End where all the major shops and theatres are located, is not so well covered. I drove through this morning and it was interesting to note that the square where the American Embassy is situated, has now been completely closed to traffic. At the moment, apart from the areas immediately surrounding the crime scenes, the rest of London is 'business as usual'. This may be the worst terrorist outrage ever committed in the U.K., but it just makes us more resolute to carry on regardless. On behalf of all the Brits, thanks again guys for all your kind words. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 9, 2005 Guys whats the news on the evacuations in birmingham and manchester?? thats where my bro is cant get a hold of him .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cooperman 0 Posted July 9, 2005 Haven't heard anything about Manchester, but parts of Birmingham (the U.K.'s 2nd largest city) have been sealed off and evacuated in response to specific intelligence concerning a threat. I just drove past the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly, and that's gone up in smoke! If anyones interested in some very well done, but slightly water damaged burgers and fries.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted July 9, 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4667713.stm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baywatch 1 Posted July 10, 2005 Nothing I've heard of in Manchester, Birmingham was a false alarm. No need to worry Rory, from what you have posted about crime where you live, your brother is safer over here. Thanks to all for their thoughts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qman 0 Posted July 10, 2005 Damm, I haven't heard Anything else, was out in the "boonies" all this weekend. Cooper, nice to see that ur ok! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
