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SAVE US

by | 27th, July 2006

“A UK ‘BETRAYAL’ OF THE US IN THE WAR ON TERROR.”

That’s the headline above the tight print that fills two pages of the Times.

And there is more. There are bullet points, two of them. 

* “A ‘MORAL FAILURE’ BY THE METROPOLITAN POLICE TO CLOSE EMBASSY ROADS ACCORDING TO THE STANDARDS SET BY ITS OWN TOP ANTI-TERROR OFFICIAL.”

* “THE US MINISTER IN LONDON HOLDS THE US SECUTORY SERVICES AND HER MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE.”

Please excuse the capital letters, of which there are many, too many. But this is clearly a pressing thing for the “GROSVENOR SQUARE SAFETY GROUP” which has posted its missive in the Times.

For those of you not in the know, the US Embassy sits like a massive concrete carbuncle along one side of genteel and expensive Grosvenor Square, London.

Outside the building is a stature of Dwight D. Eisenhower. You can just make it out behind the huge concrete bollards and armed police. The place is under siege.

And what the Embassy wants is to shut two roads that run by its compound. And the GSSG agrees. Taking up a magnifying glass to the fine print, we learn that the Embassy is a “terrorist target unlike any other”. It was ranked by the Metropolitan Police as “one of the top six terrorist targets in London”. So, it is like others. Five others. Or not?

The Embassy is surrounded on three ides by buildings, only 20 feet away. And this “not only exposes the Embassy, but also the residential neighbourhood, to catastrophic, collateral damage” should a terrorist explosive device go off on the two roads the group wants closed, namely Upper Brook and Upper Grosvenor Street.

For reasons of emphasis the GSSG enlivens its message with a graphic. It shows an area so London and at its centre is the US Embassy. A series of three concentric circles shows what would happen if an 85kg device was detonated in the area – the same size bomb as the IRA used to blow up Bishopsgate.

The circles tell us that anyone caught by the blast in the inner circle would be hurt. Anyone caught in the middle circle “could suffer serious harm”. And those on the outer circle, which includes the Selfridges department store, a section of Oxford Street and the chap who sells perfume from a suitcase, will see 50 per cent of the sector’s windows crack.

Something must be done. And there then follows a long sting of letters sent between the GSSG, the US Embassy and the Met. And it is all just too much like hard work to read.

Yes, we know we are supposed to read this so you don’t have to. And we have tried. You know the basics and that is all you need. The rest is like sitting in on planning committee at the local council. It is horribly dull.

But we offer a plan. The choices are: a) the US to become popular and so a less likely target for terrorism; b) London to be closed; or c) the US Embassy to relocate to a small island off the coast of Norfolk.

Your thoughts on the matter would be appreciated, and may be forwarded to the GGSC. Please use capital letter in all correspondence…



Posted: 27th, July 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink