Please don't refer to the early reports.  An example: "The man who was shot was under police observation because he had emerged from a house that was itself under observation because it was linked to the investigation of yesterday's incidents," police said in a statement. "He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behavior at the station added to their suspicions."

While I was still laboring (laboring, as in what Jean Charles had been doing legally in England for three years) over why police would allow the kind of individual they were describing to proceed all the way to a subway station, I was hit with a totally revised report -- one of many being issued these days by London authorities -- which, inexplicably (I'm sure, forever) clarified that the "suspect" was now NOT definitely linked to any terrorism

In complete contradiction with previous official statements.

Earlier reports had also noted a) Jean Charles was shot by a marksman (FOX on the "cornered petrified fox"), b) Jean Charles had been wearing a wired device (an iPod of sorts?), c) Jean Charles had jumped a turnstile (swirling our fantasies!), d) and so on.

I'm looking at least another baker's dozen of fried notions which the authorities tried to serve up for the public to swallow.  Really quickly...while it took them over 24 hours -- using whatever torture techniques they cared to use, no doubt -- to provide a name for the dead man, and something beyond the vague description of "looked like he was South Asian."

But I'm not gonna take the time to dot all those "i"s.  "Cause the scorecard's in, but...people aren't coming up to bat in the bottom of the 9th.  Want to drag people out of the dugout. Doesn't matter at present whether one spells Blair Blair or Bliar. 'Cause while the opportunistic London mayor plays both sides against the middle --supporting Blair's tactics when it suits him-- and both Blairs (Police Comish & Prime Ribber) bare their fangs at anyone who suggests that -- in these times! -- we can do anything but give the police carte blanche, I've got better things to do. Even while others continue to talk and write...until they're blue (in the face).  Spinning that endless dead end street of neat blah blah about...the pressures of today and the policeman's mindset.  It's disingenuous, disgusting and definitely doing you and me in. I mean...where are those millions who demonstrated in the streets of London on February 15th a lifetime ago?  And those who put notches in their leftist credentials file lecturing on, collating for, and delineating that historic demo?  Where are they now...when a spade must be called a spade?  Howling about the London horror like scared, castrated werewolves, cowering in a corner...yelping for pudding...as they pass the passports to the police for an ID check?

Biography of Jean Charles de Menezes January 7, 1978–July 22, 2005 He was a Brazilian electrician living in Tulse Hill in south London. Menezes was shot and killed by Metropolitan Police officers at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground. A Roman Catholic from Gonzaga in Minas Gerais, Menezes had lived in the United Kingdom for three years before his death. While his shooting was reported to have occurred as a result of the police investigation into the 21 July 2005 London bombings, it was later revealed that he had nothing to do with the attempted attacks. The son of a bricklayer, Menezes grew up on a farm in Gonzaga, Minas Gerais. After discovering an early aptitude for electronics, he left the farm aged 14 to live with his uncle in São Paulo in order to further his education. At 19 he had received a professional diploma from Escola Estadual São Sebastião. He entered the UK on a student visa in 2002 which may have been expired at the time of his death. This, however, has been denied by his cousin who claims that Menezes had a five year visa [1].  Within 4 months of arriving in the UK he had a good grasp of the English language, and spent his time earning money to send back to his family in Brazil. Source: Wikapedia

I guess it's not so clear what must be done when Brazil's Foreign Ministry describes Jean Charles as "the victim of a lamentable mistake," and then under enormous national pressure puts in an obligatory firm word or two the next day.  Or when Mayor Livingstone describes the killing as a "human tragedy that was a consequence of the attacks."  Or when Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, says "an investigation is critical for reassuring the public."  And adds "it's very important that young Asian men don't feel that there is some kind of trigger-happy culture out there." 

Hey, The Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Muslim Council of Britain are going to have to get a lot more vociferous and clear on what's come down here, what's slated to come down additionally...with the way in which this Jean Charles' death is being whitewashed.  The way in which the authorities they're taking pains not to violate "boundaries" (of decency and otherwise) with...are getting away with murder.

There is no current climate of anti-Muslim hysteria, and innocent people are not being killed because of overzealousness.  I say that with all...due...respect to...The Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Muslim Council of Britain.  And the political line they must walk to some degree.

Why did Jean Charles de Menezes Run? It turns out a few days prior, Jean Charles was mugged by several white men.  Though he spoke some English having been there four months; it is not his first language, Portuguese. The police officers chasing him were white and in plain clothes.  Fearing another mugging, he bolted.  They chased him...then fired eight bullets into him, killing him.   He saw muggers and reacted.  The police, who were trained by Mossad anti-terrorist specialists, saw a terrorist and reacted.  No warning shots.  No non-lethal shots to the legs, (he was running away and no threat so disabling him would have stopped him just as well). Rather London police simply killed...striking him eight times. Fact: Both the victim and the police misinterpreted the event.  The difference is Jean Charles died for their misinterpretation.  Nobody would have been hurt over his. -LDL

But unless someone gets a bit more hot under the collar about the lethal collars being made by police (and prevents the parameters of discussion from swirling around the question of whether or not x # of shots to the head are warranted), let's not expect any changes in Britain's policy in Iraq or terrorist momentum in the West...or elsewhere..... After the most recent defeat of England by Brazil, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said: "I feel it has been a job well done. To be alive and not to die, that was the only thought we had. That was the only thing I had in my mind and this was the subject of the talk we had before the match amongst the players." To be alive and not to die.  Show me the alternative writers who aren't dead.  The ones who aren't churning out Karl Rove-type crap, O'Connor tripe.   Show me the the street activists who haven't given up.  The ones who have risen above playing old-hippie,  content to conceive of America as "where the action is."

There is zero going on here. Unless it's self-gratifying first and foremost.

There are many ways to become a martyr for "The Movement" -- something which rises way above the concepts of success/failure -- without using a bomb.  It is something that the "possibility of improvement" begs for, but which goes unexplored, in great part, because of the masturbation noted above.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,/ there is a field.  I'll meet you there."

A worthy sentiment in Rumi's 13th-century, and a penetrating thought now.  However, please note that my computer (today) attacks "rightdoing" as...not a word.  A technicality.

My unsolicited advice is for us to focus only --right now-- on the wrongdoing of the London police playing "I'm an Israeli agent protecting the public interest."  And the "wrongdoers" on the Do Nothing Left.  Not to get caught up with technicalities and/or spiritual purity.  To not even bow to The Truth of the Universe.

There is only one cause this morning.  And it must center on scoring a goal.  Something that will really be counted in this game, something akin to what Arundhati Roy called for following that February 15th demo, a real victory of some kind, no matter how small.

But one can't score such a goal with corrupt officials...following the rules of the game.

One must have a different goal.

Richard Oxman is dueleft@yahoo.com, but not for long; the goalposts are being moved too much these days during play.  His most recent non-fiction and fiction is found at www.oxtogrind.org.