XPost: soc.culture.british, talk.politics.guns, rec.autos.driving   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: atp@telstra.au   
      
   An armed public could have prevented this disaster.   
      
   LONDON — British police on Thursday identified the lone attacker   
   accused of carrying out a deadly knife and vehicle rampage as   
   Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old British-born man who had a criminal   
   record but was not suspected of plotting to “mount a terrorist   
   attack.”   
      
   In a statement, Scotland Yard said Masood was not the subject of   
   any current investigations and had not been convicted of any   
   terrorism offenses before police say he unleashed Wednesday’s   
   bloodshed.   
      
   The attack left three people dead in central London — an   
   American man and British woman mowed down by his SUV on the   
   Westminster Bridge and a police officer stabbed outside   
   Parliament — before the suspect was fatally shot by police. At   
   least 29 people were injured, seven of them critically.   
      
   [What we know about the victims of the London terrorist attack]   
      
   Scotland Yard said Masood was “known to police” and had a range   
   of previous convictions for assaults, possession of offensive   
   weapons and public order offenses. His last conviction was in   
   December 2003 for possession of a knife.   
      
   “There was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a   
   terrorist attack,” Scotland Yard said, but it gave no other   
   details about Masood or his family background.   
      
   Earlier Thursday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the   
   attacker was once investigated by Britain’s MI5 security service   
   for possible extremist links but was “not part of the current   
   intelligence picture.”   
      
   May did not name the assailant in her remarks, but she offered   
   new details about past scrutiny by authorities, who described   
   the London attacks as “inspired by international terrorism.”   
      
   Shortly after May spoke, the Islamic State-linked news site Amaq   
   carried a statement calling the attacker a “soldier” of the   
   group’s self-proclaimed caliphate. British authorities have   
   announced no links between the suspect and the Islamic State,   
   but the militant group has often independently asserted ties to   
   various attacks around the world.   
      
   [When ISIS claims terrorist attacks, it’s worth reading closely]   
      
   Across the English Channel in Antwerp, Belgium, authorities were   
   placed on high alert after a man tried to drive a car carrying   
   weapons, including a gun, into a pedestrian zone.   
      
   Belgian police said the car, with French license plates, sped   
   onto the street, forcing people to jump out of the way. Belgian   
   federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sijpt identified the driver as a   
   French citizen, Mohamed R., 39, and said a long knife, a gun and   
   a container containing an as-yet-unidentified substance were   
   found in the trunk. Further details were not immediately   
   available, but the case was referred to Belgian federal   
   prosecutors — whose cases include militant attacks or threats.   
      
   In her statement to the House of Commons, May said that the   
   assailant was born in Britain and was investigated by security   
   services “some years ago .?.?. in relation to concerns about   
   violent extremism.”   
      
   “He was a peripheral figure,” she added. “The case was historic.   
   He was not part of the current intelligence picture. There was   
   no prior intelligence of his intent or of the plot. Intensive   
   investigations continue.”   
      
   British media reported that Masood rented the Hyundai i40 used   
   in the attack from a rental company in Birmingham, Britain’s   
   second-largest city.   
      
   Meanwhile, police held at least eight people after sweeps in   
   London and Birmingham linked to the investigation. About a mile   
   away from the rental company in Birmingham, police guarded the   
   entrance to the apartment building where one of the raids took   
   place.   
      
   In London, Mark Rowley, the acting deputy police commissioner,   
   said 29 people injured in Wednesday’s attack were being treated   
   in hospitals and that seven were in critical condition.   
      
   “At this stage, we have no specific information about further   
   threats to the public,” he said.   
      
   A minute’s silence was observed in Parliament, Scotland Yard and   
   London’s City Hall to honor the lives lost in the attack. The   
   observance took place at 9:33 a.m. in tribute to slain police   
   officer Keith Palmer, who wore the shoulder number 933 on his   
   uniform.   
      
   [Trump’s son slams London mayor. The backlash is fierce.]   
      
   Queen Elizabeth II, who was due to open the new Scotland Yard   
   building Thursday but postponed the ceremony, said that her   
   “thoughts, prayers, and deepest sympathy are with all those who   
   have been affected by yesterday’s awful violence.”   
      
   The attack — which unfolded around some of London’s most famous   
   landmarks — carried hallmarks of strikes last year in Nice and   
   Berlin, where vehicles were used as tools of terrorism.   
      
   The assailant first plowed the Hyundai SUV through terrified   
   pedestrians along the bridge, killing at least two people: Aysha   
   Frade, a 43-year-old mother of two, who was reportedly walking   
   on Westminster Bridge on her way to pick up her children; and a   
   man from Utah, Kurt Cochran, who was in London with his wife,   
   Melissa, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.   
      
   On Facebook, the wife’s sister said Cochran died of his   
   injuries, while Melissa had several broken bones. “While we are   
   glad she survived, our hearts are broken and will never be the   
   same after losing our dear uncle, brother-in-law, father,”   
   Melissa’s sister wrote. “Kurt, you are a HERO, and we will never   
   forget you.”   
      
   [‘Our family is heartbroken’: American killed in London attack   
   was celebrating wedding anniversary]   
      
   In a statement released through the Mormon church, the Cochran   
   family said that the couple had been in London for an   
   anniversary trip and had been scheduled to return to the United   
   States on Thursday.   
      
   In a Twitter post, President Trump shared “prayers and   
   condolences” with Cochran’s family and friends.   
      
   The injured represented a wide range of nationalities: 12   
   Britons, three French schoolchildren, two Romanians, four South   
   Koreans, two Greeks, one German, one Pole, one Irish, one   
   Chinese, one Italian and one American.   
      
   One Romanian woman who was walking along Westminster Bridge   
   plunged into the Thames, but was pulled alive from the river.   
      
   British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said the international   
   scope of the casualties “goes to show, an attack on London is an   
   attack on the world.”   
      
   “Our houses in Parliament have been attacked for centuries, by   
   all kinds of people,” Johnson told reporters at the United   
   Nations. “But their ideals — freedom, democracy, the equality of   
   human beings under law — are stronger than any adversary, and   
   they will prevail.”   
      
   [This British MP desperately tried to save the dying police   
   officer]   
      
   After crossing the bridge, the attacker rammed his vehicle into   
   the fence encircling Parliament and charged with a knife at   
   officers stationed at the iron gates leading to the Parliament   
   grounds. He killed one officer and injured three others before   
   he was shot and killed by police.   
      
   “Unfortunately, we’re seeing an increasing number of terrorist   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)