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Justin Davenport, Benedict Moore-Bridger, Martin Bentham — Evening Standard May 23, 2017

Aftermath of the Manchester bombing. Click to enlarge

Aftermath of the Manchester bombing. Click to enlarge

The suicide bomber who killed 22 people, including children, at an Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester was known to security services but they did not believe he posed an immediate threat, sources said today.

About 59 people were injured when the terrorist detonated an improvised explosive device in a foyer packed with fans and families at the Manchester Arena last night.

Police said the atrocity was carried out by a lone male bomber, who died at the scene. He is not included in the death toll.

Continues …

Comment — May 23, 2017

By their own admission the Manchester suicide bomber was known to police. The incident has that much in common with the Westminster attack in March, 2017, as ISIS also claimed responsibility for that attack and the culprit was ALSO known to police and security services.
Like Khalid Masood, who carried out the Westminster attack and was shot dead, the suicide bomber was killed during the Manchester attack. Meaning that we won’t be hearing from them who commanded and helped carry out their attacks.
The coincidences don’t end there because although Khalid Masood was known to police, he wasn’t deemed to pose a terrorist threat. Like the Manchester bomber wasn’t seen as posing an “immediate threat”.
In fact these two attacks also have this in common with the 2013 Woolwich attack. As the Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale who murdered British soldier Lee Rigby were also known to the security services.
Indeed, apart from Muslims allegedly being responsible, all these attacks share this with the 7/7 attack. Insofar as two of the alleged suicide bombers involved in that attack were also “under surveillance” by British security services. Although a subsequent review concluded that Mohammed Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the four suicide bombers, and Shehzad Tanweer, who carried out the Aldgate tube bombing, weren’t fully investigated because of a “lack of resources”.
So police and security services knew or actually had under surveillance the culprits involved in four major terror atrocities in Britain BEFORE they carried out their attacks.
Is this really a coincidence? In each case the police and security services have pleaded “lack of resources”, or simple oversight, as the reason why they were unable to properly investigate and prevent these crimes.
But was this really the case? Or did the security services actually know beforehand what was being planned? Did they in fact allow these attacks to take place, and maybe even covertly facilitate them?
Which begs the question: to what purpose? As a correspondent pointed out: there have been a string of terror attacks just prior to elections in Europe (in French). Given that the British general election is in just over two weeks one wonders if this isn’t part of the same game plan.
If nothing else it could enhance Theresa May’s appeal, given her attempts to cast herself in the role of Margaret Thatcher’s successor as the next “Iron Lady”