A senior detective who worked on the September 11 investigation has joined calls for a public inquiry into the July 2005 suicide bombings in London.
Detective Superintendent Des Thomas told The Times that an independent examination of the apparent intelligence failures that allowed the 7/7 bombers to strike was essential to prevent a repetition of those mistakes.
– The Times
The Bush administration’s most senior advisers on Iraq, the commander of US forces, General David Petraeus, and the ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will launch a new drive today to defer any exit of troops until April 2008 amid growing doubts about their credibility in Congress and among the public.
In two days of testimony before Congress, Gen Petraeus and Mr Crocker will make the case for the White House that America should maintain the current strategy and force levels in Iraq.
– The Guardian
MI5 is struggling to recruit women and fears the macho image of the TV programme “Spooks” might be to blame.
Until recently, more than half the security service’s staff was female but the proportion is now in sharp decline.
Last year, just one third of new joiners were women and MI5 has commissioned research to find out why.
– The Telegraph
The Basque separatist group Eta said yesterday that it plans to continue its bombing campaign in Spain. A statement released to the Basque newspaper Gara said the group would “continue to hit against the … Spanish state on all fronts”. In the first statement since Eta called off a self-imposed 14-month ceasefire in June, the group blamed the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Basque Nationalist party, which rules the Basque region, for the breakdown in peace talks. Eta also claimed responsibility for a spate of recent explosions.
– The Guardian
The ray gun has been a staple of science fiction since HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds, but fantasy is now reality as the first heat-ray weapon goes on display in London this week.
Raytheon, the American defence company, is hoping to find customers for its Silent Guardian system, developed as a form of non-lethal crowd control, which will be shown at the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition, the world’s largest arms fair, at the Excel centre in Docklands, East London.
The weapon emits a wave of energy that vaporises skin moisture, causing an intense burning sensation. Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials will be invited to place their hands in front of the machine’s ray and experience what its maker describes as “intolerable” pain.
– The Times
