From fake 2000 electoral rolls to fake 9/11 victims

[Paul Rigby]

A pseudo-reality becomes credible by association with fiction - and previous pseudo-realities.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/...p=15056874

Irish citizen feared to be among London blast dead

Jerome Reilly

Sunday July 10 2005

A NEW ZEALAND woman in her 20s who holds an Irish passport is feared to have been among those killed in Thursday's terror bomb blasts in London.

A huge forensic investigation was stepped up at the four bomb sites yesterday to recover the bodies of thevictims and identify thoseresponsible.

It has emerged that not one of the victims has yet been positively identified. Authorities say that is because the remains were so badly damaged and difficult to retrieve.

Police have confirmed that 49 people died in the blasts, 700 were injured and 25 are still missing, feared dead.

The relatives of the missing continued yesterday to hand out posters and pictures of their loved ones in a desperate attempt to find information of their whereabouts.

"It is a very harrowing task," police Detective Superintendent Jim Dickie toldreporters.

"Most of the victims have suffered intensive trauma, and by that I mean there are body parts as well as torsos."

The missing woman, who has dual Irish and New Zealand citizenship has not been accounted for since the terrorist attack. It is understood she was travelling on the Piccadilly line on Thursday morning when the bombs went off but did not arrive at herdestination.

Her desperately worried parents were travelling to the UK last night from Auckland to join in the search for their daughter and will arrive at lunchtime today.

Minister for foreign affairs Dermot Ahern said he had "serious concerns" for the young woman who has been living in the UK for some time. It is thought one or more of her grandparents was Irish.

The Irish Embassy is also aware of an Irishman who is in hospital as a result of the explosions. The injured man has been joined by his family, who are requesting his identity not be revealed.

Meanwhile the family of Ciaran Cassidy are convinced he was on board the tube that exploded near King's Cross but are refusing to giveup hope.

His parents, Sean and and Veronica Cassidy from north London have heard no word from shop worker Ciaran, 22, after his employer called to say he had not reached work.

Injured architect Willie John Walsh, 24, from Moycullen in Co Galway remains in hospital but is expected to recover from serious head and arm injuries sustained in the Liverpool Street bomb blast.

He was in the carriage where the explosion killed seven people. His mother, Barbara said her son does not remember much but that somebody broke the windows and he and a girl got out.

The families of at least two other Irish people posted messages on a ticker-tape on Sky News yesterday, appealing for them to make contact.

In an uncanny coincidence, an Irish actor, whose wife miraculously survived the King's Cross bombing is starring in a play which centres on a suicide bomber who blows upa bus and was to have premiered on the night of theattacks.

David Ganly, originally from Dublin was caught up in the attacks when his wife, Londoner Liza Pulman, captured scenes from inside the train on her camera phone which were later shown on TV.

David was in rehearsals yesterday ahead of the rescheduled opening of The Arab-Israeli Cook Book, which was supposed to have begun on Thursday.

The huge forensic investigation was stepped up at the four bomb sites yesterday.

A specialist team of senior police officers, coroners and medical experts will oversee the identification of victims.

Most of the serious injuries suffered by the bomb victims were caused by the shock waves from the blast - particularly traumatic for air-filled parts of the body.

Shock waves can cause perforated eardrums, collapsed lungs and perforated bowels. But the force of a high explosive bomb causes devastation of soft tissues and was responsible for many of the limbs lost. Smoke inhalation causing lung damage, burns and ripped skin, caused by debris such as shards of glass and metal, were also commoninjuries.

The Identification Commission, which comes together to deal with mass casualties resulting from major disasters, has been convened to handle the aftermath ofthe attacks.

They will meet every day to direct the process of formally identifying the dead.

They will be supported by a team of hundreds of police staff and medical experts, many of whom have experience of major terrorist attacks or natural disasters, including the devastating Asian tsunami which occurred on St Stephen's Day.

Det Supt Dickie said forensics experts would use fingerprints, dental records and DNA analysis to help put names to the bodies.

"The environmental conditions are extremely uncomfortable. It's very confined and workers trying to retrieve the bodies are enduring intense heat," he added.

Asked whether international assistance from other police agencies or forensics experts was being sought, he answered flatly: "We don't need help. We have sufficient expertise in the UK."

The police, with the consent of the victims' families, intend to collect hair samples from their homes as partof the ongoing effort toidentify the remains, Det Supt Dickie said.

Saturday, July 09, 2005 :

Bomb survivor’s tale has surreal twist of fate

Neans McSweeney, South East Correspondent

AN IRISH actor whose wife survived the King’s Cross train bombing last night starred in the premiere of a play which centres on a suicide bomber who blows up a bus.Londoner Liza Pulman captured scenes from inside the train on her camera phone and her husband, David Ganly, who is originally from Dublin, downloaded the images and emailed them to ITV and Channel 4.

David was in rehearsals yesterday ahead of the rescheduled opening of The Arab-Israeli Cook Book, which was supposed to have begun on Thursday.

It was a surreal day for the couple but the reality of what had happened and how lucky Liza was to survive only began to sink in for her yesterday as she watched television reports.

She said: “I watched back the footage and they described me as a bomb survivor. It was only really then that the penny dropped. An uncanny calm came over me. We didn’t really know what had happened. I took about 30 seconds of footage on my phone and when I came home, David downloaded it for me and sent it off to the TV channels via email.

“Even watching the footage was uncanny. I can’t quite believe that I was there. That I survived it. It was very difficult to breathe and our eyes were stinging. Thankfully, I didn’t have to walk past the carriage that was blown apart. While there was a certain element of chaos, everyone was calm and very well behaved. Things like this are a great leveller... It really was a life-changing experience.”

David Ganly’s father, Patrick, said the content of his son’s play was a strange twist of fate. “The story behind the show has an uncanny resemblance with what happened. It focuses on a suicide bomber who goes in a bus,” said Mr Ganly, who lives in Stonyford, Co Kilkenny.

“When I heard of the bomb on the radio, I switched on the television. I saw the footage taken with a camera phone and thought to myself how cool and calm the person filming it was. It wasn’t until I spoke to David that I realised it was Liza’s footage. Lisa is also an actor but was beginning a part-time job. I knew she’d be on the train at that time. She had been in touch with him so we knew she was fine. But she was stranded in London in her dusty clothes for hours because the transport system just ground to a halt.”