FROM ACROSS THE POND

How are we ever going to have faith in the powers that be, the authorities, in UK and USA when they keep making such unconscionable errors. America has thirteen 'intelligence agencies' and yet either because of reluctance to share information, or arrogance on the part of whomever was the leader of whichever agency, not one of them prevented 9/11. In fact, if I recall - certain high security safety procedures were stood down in the week preceeding this heinous carnage..a day when we all stopped breathing for a few seconds, in numb shock at what unfolded in front of our eyes. The USA citizens spend millions (billions)? on these agencies, should they not be more transparent, more accountable as to where this money goes? We are in the same situation now in England. It was bad enough that Jean Charles de Menezes was followed from his home in a block of flats (the same block of flats where a perceived terrorist resided we were later told) all the way to the tube station, a journey which took him on busy roads, a bus journey, and entrance into a busy tube station. ONLY when he was sitting IN the tube - was he surrounded by armed police, one of whom held him pinned to the seat, whilst another (others)? pumped him full of 11 (ELEVEN) bullets...ending his life. It turned out he was 100% innocent of any crime whatsoever...the police lied about his clothing, he was wearing a denim jacket, not a thick duffel which they said could have hidden a bomb (what - so they let him travel amongst hundreds of people thinking he was carrying a bomb)? he had as much resemblance to the perceived protagonist as an amazonian tree frog would have had...and the excuse given for the mis-identification is that when he left the block of flats, the Policeman who was supposed to check his visage against a photo' was behind a bush relieving himself, ergo missed him leaving! NOW we have two Moslem brothers in Forest Gate, East London, having their home invaded in the early hours by 250 Police (yes, you read that right) one brother being shot in the shoulder as he came down the stairs to see who had smashed his front door in. Having held them in custody for a week, they have been released WITH NO CHARGE. The Policeman who shot one brother, says his weapon went off "by mistake". The home was trashed, the rest of the family shocked, stunned and traumatised. The Police say they were acting on "intelligence" given them by a "reliable source", but now admit, it was groundless. We have MI5 and MI6 (both of whose accounts are not open for public scrutiny, meaning we pay for their existence, but have no idea how they apportion the funds) SAS and whomever else who are supposed to be protecting us. Is it not beyond the wit of the Police to realise that the "reliable source" was probably settling scores or deliberately being polemical to stir the mix...to add fuel to the fire of West vs Moslems? When we suffered our 7/11 and hundreds were injured and died in the tube and bus bombings...it was the day Blair was in Scotland at the Conference with all the other world leaders, taking the cream of our terrorist experts and intelligence personnel with him...leaving London vulnerable..if we could work that out...quite clearly the terrorists could (and did). Can Bush and Blair and their respective Cabinets be more witless? more mendacious? more short sighted? more undeserving of one single penny they receive in remuneration for putting us all in the cross-hairs of every disaffected Islamic insurgent? I say get rid of Ian Blair (the Metropolitan Commissioner) and Tony Blair (our Prime Minster) and perhaps - PERHAPS our children may live to see the next generation...for now, I have never felt more unsafe in my own country. We are being led by idiots. I have NO faith in any of them...none whatsoever. A few months ago I was driving my daughter's boyfriend through Slough, a town nearby where I live....I noticed a black car seemed to be tailing me, it had blacked out windows and it started to concern me - just as I was going to go up a side road, to see if it would keep following, it suddenly burst out in lights all over, the roof, and around the number plate...and a loud hailer shouted out "pull over". I did...and to our shock four heavily armed Police jumped out, ran up to us, and surrounded the car. It was clearly an unmarked Police car. I am obviously totally English, green eyes, blonde hair, pale skin and my daughter's boyfriend is clearly not (in fact he is Moslem) rather tall - 6'4" plus...with olive skin. I wound down the window to be told, after they looked hard at us both..."drive on". I started to ask them why they had stopped us - but was ignored....they just got back in their car - switched all the lights off...and drove away. I hardly think Bin Laden would be visiting Slough! They only had to run my car licence plate through their computers to know who I was..... I was left shaking...though B***** was more stoic...to my horror, he told me he has been stopped about three times. I want the horrid people to be caught...but thus far, it seems only the innocent are.