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EXPERTS HAVE CONCLUDED there were missed opportunities to identify Salman Abedi as a suicide bomber before he killed 22 people at Manchester Arena, the public inquiry into the terror attack has been told.
Abedi, 22, was reported to police and security as acting suspiciously in the minutes before he detonated his bomb, the inquiry heard, but no action was taken.
The first day of inquiry into the events of 22 May 2017 was told how one member of the public spotted Abedi wearing a large backpack, and thought he was praying, less than an hour before he detonated his bomb at 10.31pm.
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said experts had been asked to look into the security at the arena that night.
Greaney said that “of considerable importance, the experts consider, on the basis of the information currently available to them, that, on May 22, there were missed opportunities to identify Salman Abedi as a threat and take mitigating action.”
He said that the experts concluded: “If the presence of a potential suicide bomber had been reported, it is very likely that mitigating actions would’ve been taken that could have reduced the impact of the attack.
“This is because there was sufficient time between Abedi first being spotted by, and also reported to (security) staff and his attack to effectively react.”
Greaney said: “The evidence about these potential missed opportunities will need to be considered with the greatest possible care.”
He said whether there were “missed opportunities” to prevent the attack or reduce its deadly impact would be a key consideration for the inquiry, which began on Monday.
Loved ones of the 22 people who died in the bombing stood in silent remembrance as the names of the victims were recited at the opening of the hearings.
The sombre proceedings began with Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, reading the names of each of those murdered by suicide bomber Salman Abedi on May 22 2017.
Sir John Saunders, a retired High Court judge, is leading the probe examining events before, during and after the attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.
Abedi, surrounded by a throng of elated youngsters leaving the show, exploded his shrapnel-packed rucksack bomb, sending thousands of nuts and bolts shredding everything in their path.
Summarising the evidence at the beginning of the inquiry process, Mr Greaney described how William Drysdale spotted Abedi in the City Room of the arena and a second witness with Mr Drysdale then approached a British Transport Police (BTP) officer
The officer cannot recall the conversation, the hearing was told.
Two more witnesses, known only as A and B, a couple who had taken their daughter to the concert, also saw a man matching Abedi’s description acting suspiciously.
Mr A spoke to a Mohammed Agha, an employee of Showsec, the firm which provided security to the Arena on behalf of the venue’s owners, SMG.
Mr A spoke to Mr Agha at 10.14pm, some 17 minutes before the detonation.
Mr Agha then spoke to a colleague, Kyle Lawler, about the matter, eight minutes before the bomb went off.
But neither security control, nor anyone else, was informed about the suspicious activity, the hearing was told.
Earlier, formally opening the inquiry, Sir John said: “This is an exercise in establishing the truth.
If I conclude things went wrong then I shall say so, but we are not looking for scapegoats. We are searching for the truth.
The explosion killed 22 people, including children, the youngest was eight years old.
Salman Abedi blew himself up in the explosion but he intended as many people as possible would die with him.
Sir John said some evidence must be heard in secret to prevent further similar terrorist attacks.
Abedi was known to the security services, and a senior MI5 officer, known only as witness J, is expected to give evidence to the inquiry later this year.
The bomber’s brother, Hashem Abedi, now 23, was last month jailed for life with a minimum 55 years before parole, for his part in the deadly bomb plot, which left hundreds of other people injured.
Some evidence, involving information judged to be potentially of use to terrorists, is subject to restriction orders, and those hearings will be closed to the public.
The most sensitive evidence is likely to be heard at closed hearings, with both press and public excluded because of the risk to national security.
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I still didn’t get a bloody tan.
My grandfather said the same in the 1900′s
“The North and South Poles are not melting.” In that report, oceanographer Ted Maksym noted that polar ice “is much more stable than climate scientists once predicted and could even be much thicker than previously thought.”
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Al Gore , the Guru,said al the Arctic ice would be gone by 2014. He was wrong.
As a result of this global warming/climate change hysteria and it’s attendant scams every aspect of your life has been interfered with and has become more expensive. Old people have died in Ireland and the UK and on the Continent as a result of having to choose between food and heat. Further afield people are starving as food is turned into fuel. People like Al Gore make millions while having the ‘carbon footprints’ of small towns and all the time carbon is nothing more than plant food NOT the poison the alarmists make it out to be and yet we are force fed articles like this written by the useful idiots of the green religion. Wake up folks, you are being taken for a very expensive ride.
I fully agree with Uncle Mort, the biggest rip off in history, set to destroy western values and way of life and when the warmers do that they will walk off into the sunset leaving us with the mess
In before the anti-science brigade claiming that all this talk of global warming is just a conspiracy cooked up by a secret cabal of climate scientists which has been exposed by a plucky bunch of amateur oil billionaires and venture capitalists.
One of the main causes of global warming is the destruction of Rainforests …
One of the driving forces behind the economics that have driven this is none other than Peter Sutherland and his GATT arrangement…..
This is undeniable economic and historical fact .
Does Peter Sutherland want to kill trees – probably not. Are his policies destroying trees -definitely .
That will help you distinguish between fantastical theories and economic and historical facts Robin …
Or to put it simply fats buck in third world resources is destroying the planet and the beauty of it all is that no-one is to blame – “It’s just business !” …
*fast – but fats works just as well actually …
Re Robin
You mean cooked up by 2-3% of scientists. That 97% of scientists agree has been rubbished.
No one who is 18 years old or younger has experienced global warming.
As I said, in before the tinfoil hat brigade!
*sheesh*
Sorry, I forgot to provide link to backup my statement on the 97% of scientists agree rubbish.
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/03/16_not_97_agree.html
Here’s that 97% figure from a peer-reviewed scientific journal, rather than a crank website:
http://m.iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024
“Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming.”
Re Robin
Well the fact you are referencing this site shows you believe in AGW as defined by the IPCC which is that it is solely caused by man made co2 emissions.
It’s hard to have debates with people devoid of reason and bought off scientists. All the factors that can contribute to climate change(natural anyway), hundreds of them, and you believe that man made co2 emissions is the sole cause. Good God.
Man made co2 emissions make up 2-3% of all co2 emissions with planet Earth providing the other 98-97%. And you believe man made co2 emissions are solely to blame…
As I said above, innit great that all these thousands of climate scientists, bought off by bearded, nasal hippies and voluptuous earth mother types, have been exposed by a tiny group of amateur oil billionaires and venture caps?
Makes me proud to be human, it does!
So libertarian bloggers are henceforward the sole determiner of Climate Change, got it.
Congratulations Robin. Straw Men, Ad Hominum, Appeals to authority – three fallacies in one sentence. That takes some doing. None of the fallacies of course actually mean anything.
Even if you don’t believe in climate change you cannot deny green energy is the best way to power a society. Cheap, clean and doesn’t run out
“The global surface temperature average (land and sea) for 2014 was nominally the warmest since the global instrumental record began in 1850; however, within the margin of error, it is tied with 2005 and 2010 and so we can’t be certain it set a new record.”
The only conclusion to be drawn from the addition of 2014 data is that the post-1997 standstill seen in global annual average surface temperature has continued for one more year making it now about 17 years in duration. This is the opposite of what is claimed in the Nasa press release.
It is clear beyond doubt by now that there is a growing discrepancy between computer climate projections and real-world data that questions their ability to produce meaningful projections about future climatic conditions.
@stephen lane, Hilliard and co are masters of the sneer and jeer and little else. The Climategate 2 emails showed the nastiness behind the climate fraud.
Not if you actually read the stolen emails, Mort.
Which I suspect you didn’t.
Robin,
What was the volcanic activity like in 2014 compared to other years ?
When you find that out then you can talk about Glowbull Warming.
“Even if you don’t believe in climate change you cannot deny green energy is the best way to power a society. Cheap, clean and doesn’t run out”
Absolute rubbish on all accounts. You cant design a grid around “green” energy – its all but useless without fossil fuel. And btw, it takes copious amounts of fossil fuel to build and install wind turbines.
So they are a complete waste of resources :
http://www.scotsman.com/news/comment-renewables-drain-our-resources-1-3659067
Let’s just have a bit of perspective here.
It’s hotter by four one-hundreths of a degree. This is within the margin of error that the reports provide, so basically we don’t know if it was a hot year as the temperature rise was too small.
Try read that bit again there young Horgay:
“For the year, the average temperature was 0.69 degree Celsius above the 20th century average, beating the previous record-holding years of 2005 and 2010 by 0.04 C.”
Don’t be too harsh, Horgay has reading difficulties.
It appears, that even in Ireland , we have some Bible thumping, ‘world is flat’ , in denial , GOP – Tea Party types, who just haven’t even noticed – the weather changes , the ice melts , the extremities of heat and cold weather !
Well in the REAL World, in my 63 years , there has been a remarkable change in our weather and environment .
Speak to anyone – who is prepared to be truly honest . But unfortunately honesty is somewhat sadly lacking – where there is conflict of interest , or a narrow minded outlook !
Differing daily measured values from the old and new sensors for temperature measurement spurred the author [Hager] to conduct a comparison spanning from January 1, 1999 to July 31, 2006 at Fliegerhorst Lechfeld (WMO 10856) 8-1/2 years long, daily without interruption, among other comparison tests of mercury maximum glass thermometers in a Stevenson screen and a Pt 100 resistance thermometer inside an aluminum enclosure, both unventilated. The 3144 days yielded a mean difference of +0.93°C; the Pt 100 was higher than the mercury thermometer. The maximum daily difference even reached 6.4°C! Klaus Hager
@An Ciarraioch, your anecdotal opinion on climate is not exactly scientific , climate always changes.
Remarkable change in you 63 years? Really?
So 1947, 1963,1976 & 1977 were not extreme years? If a slight increase in temprature is in fact global warming then I’m all for it. Anyway, as soon as it does warm up we won’t have to burn as much oil and gas to warm our homes so it is all good really!
@Jack Delaney, I can give better anecdotal evidence than our friend for 47, 63, etc and recall going up to Blessington in 63 where the snow reached the phone wires and the army Auster plane was dropping fodder to sheep :-)
BTW the records show that 1934 was the warmest decade in the last 100 but NASA/GISS seem to have misplaced the data when the ecoloon Hansen retired.
Uncle Mort, you just prompted my memory of 1963 because although I was a small boy I do recall that Christmas, on a vist to relatives in the countryside, getting stuck in snow. My uncle had just purchased a new MF 35 tractor the year before and came to rescue us by towing the car to his yard. I think that 1973 was also a funny year when we lost a 200 year old tree from wind in early January of that year.
Yes Jack – We won’t have to Worry ? – most of our homes will be under water ??????????
You’ll need more oil Jack, if the temperature goes up the Gulf Stream will slow down and our weather will be closer to Canada’s
Always worth familarising oneself with a new religion. The Church of Global Warming has its dogma (“97% of scientists yadadada”) , its Prophets (Michael Mann, Al Gore), its Priests (Climate (ahem) “scientists”), Its Holy Books (IPCC annual reports). It preaches that sinning will result in damnation. etc etc etc – you get the drift. Basically its all bollox.
As I said above hours ago, in before the tinfoil hat brigade.
Insult is the scraping of the bottom of the barrel
The tinfoil hat brigade are the ones who dont even understand the first thing about the 2nd law of Thermodynamics but lecture to others on “globull warming”.
Do us all a favour Robin – go and borrow a book on physics please.
Global warming is just another excuse for more carbon tax
Most sensible comment yet.
Very very very very very very sensible comment
Man made climate change is a fact. Climate change deniers fall into the category of evolution deniers. Scientists overwhelmingly agree and the evidence comes from a multiplicity of sources, peer reviewed articles and so on. Thankfully intelligent people understand this.
However, reversing this and acting on it, of course, are 2 different things. However it doesn’t help having people who don’t understand the basics of how to determine reality from fiction. The usual reference to articles in bogus journals rather than esteemed journals subjected to peer reviews.
It is an arms race now between science backed by political will embarking on solutions to negate the warming amongst the depletion of biodiversity and the impact of long term climate change effecting a tipping point. Long odds in my view that correction will happen in time.
What is it exactly that the 97% of ‘climate scientists’ agree?
PS no warming for how many years now?
Currently standing at zero years there, Mort.
As the article title, and all the science, clearly indicates.
I wonder how did the British grow grapes in the 1400s?
Satellite measurement shows that September 2014 was a mere 0.195°C above normal, at least 7 or 8 other satellite-era years were warmer, such as 2003.
There are several so-called reliable measurements of global temperatures and all you see these people doing that are making, screaming and yelling of the hottest temperature ever, is using one of the least reliable datasets. Their very own NCEP reanalysis shows something very different. So, again, there’s a lot of controversy in this. And what happens is that they scream this stuff out, and then they walk it back.” When alarmist climate institutes roll out papers claiming global warming is going to cause severely cold winters, then you have to wonder if they know something is up and are acting preemptively to salvage their crumbling climate science, which not long ago predicted with high confidence balmy snowless winters.
In 2000 a leading UK climate change “scientist” said that the babies of the day will never see snow in their lives on UK soil. Yawn.
2014 was NOT the hottest year on record (in Ireland)
http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.ie/2015/02/2014-was-not-hottest-year-on-record-in.html
The hottest year in 218 years – on a planet that is 4,000,000,000 years old.
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