2017 Manchester bombing

 2017 Manchester bombing (Deep event)

Manchester Arena: 21,000-seat auditorium
Date	22 May 2017
Location	Manchester,  England
Blamed on	Salman Abedi
Type	Suicide bombing
Deaths	22
Injured (non-fatal)	119
Interest of	Richard Hall

On 22 May 2017, a bombing at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande killed 22 people and injuring 119. The BBC reported that "Salman Abedi was named by police as the suicide bomber shortly after the attack". Police were called to the scene of the bombing at 22:33 local time, along with medical personnel. The Islamic State reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Campaigning suspended

Campaigning for the #GE2017 was suspended. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was a "terrible and traumatic time" and it was important to "come together".

Suspect's Libyan links

On 23 May 2017, Greater Manchester Police named the suicide bomb suspect as Salman Abedi. Safia Aoude posted on Facebook:

"One of terrorist leader Abdelhakim Belhadj's mentally challenged "freedom warriors" blew himself up in the middle of women and children in Manchester. These are the drugged animals UK and NATO stupidly gave political and military support in February 2011. And you didn't see this coming?!?"

MI5 turns a blind eye

In an article dated 25 May 2017, the MailOnline reported:

• Former fighters including Libyan exiles and British-Libyan residents described how MI5 'sorted' their travel.
• British government is said to have adopted an 'open door' policy for fighters willing to travel to fight Gaddafi.
• Comes as Home Secretary Amber Rudd admitted authorities knew of the Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.
• Those who travelled fought alongside Islamic militants despite being subject travel bans for posing a threat.

MI6, Theresa May and the Manchester attack

On 30 May 2017, Jonathan Cook published an article entitled "MI6, Theresa May and the Manchester attack":

You would think that, as the reverberations from last week’s Manchester terror attack continue to be felt, the UK media would be scouring through the literal and figurative rubble trying to find leads. After all, is that not what a profit-driven media in a free society is supposed to do?

But in the case of this attack, the corporate media have demonstrated extreme passivity. They have mostly waited for press releases from the government, police and intelligence services. The only things they seem to be chasing are the families of the deceased. (The one exception has been the admirable Peter Oborne, an old-school, maverick journalist who has long written for the right-wing press, including the Daily Mail.)

It is not even as though these pampered journalists need to do much of the leg-work themselves. More and more information has come to light online, from “alternative” news sites like Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, of the close ties between the British spy agency MI6 and UK-based Libyans, most of them from Manchester.

Back in the late 1990s, MI6 effectively sponsored their trips overseas to become fighters against Muammar Gaddafi. They came to be known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG.

After 9/11, the LIFG became a proscribed organisation for its extreme jihadist agenda. But it was back in business with MI6 after 2011 and the Arab Spring. The fighters were encouraged to travel abroad again to help remove Gaddafi, as Libya became the target of yet more western-sponsored “humanitarian intervention”. Salman Abedi, the young man responsible for the Manchester attack, and his father are believed to have been among them. Abedi would have been only 16 at the time.

So where is the coverage of any of this in the corporate media? Why are journalists not reporting or pursuing these leads? Can we really trust the British security services to investigate their own behaviour? Does this episode not raise issues of vital national security?

And who gave the approval for such a policy, one that was bound to radicalise at least some of Britain’s Libyan community and provide them with military training and experience they were certain to bring back to the UK?

And here’s the rub. Because when MI6 began funnelling British-Libyan fighters to Libya in 2011, Theresa May was Home Secretary. May must have known of the MI6 policy and doubtless approved it. And now she is in the midst of a general election campaign. If she loses, Jeremy Corbyn is placed to become prime minister in her stead. That is not a prospect any of the corporate media appear willing to accept, even the supposedly left-liberal elements of it, like The Guardian.

And so the story of MI6 and May, their sponsorship of Islamic jihadism, and the likely “blowback” the UK just experienced in Manchester is a sleeping dog no one seems willing to disturb.

Meanwhile, Corbyn is under assault from May and the corporate media for trying to raise the connection between UK foreign policy and the "terrorism" it has spawned.

For more, check out these stories:

• 'Sorted' by MI5: How UK government sent British-Libyans to fight Gaddafi

• Why MI6 must share the blame for the jihadis in our midst

• Manchester bombing: media fail to probe intelligence-jihadi collusion under May's watch

• After the carnage of Manchester: A new matrix of terror

• Libya and the Manchester connection

Extradite Abedi Père et Fils from Libya

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi's father Ramadan Abedi and younger brother Hashem Abedi have been detained in Libya on "terrorism" charges.

In 1992, Prime Minister John Major demanded that the two Libyan Lockerbie bombing suspects Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah be extradited to stand trial in the UK.

Why isn't Theresa May demanding the extradition of Abedi Père et Fils from Libya to face charges here, asks Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies, Patrick Haseldine?

Questions for the PM

SKWAWKBOX posed a series of questions to Prime Minister Theresa May including asking why it took four hours for her to respond to the tragedy.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Hanif Qadir	“I could have prevented [the 2017?] London terrorist attacks”	Hanif Qadir	2017

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Importing Jihadi Terror to the UK – Cui Bono	blog post	25 September 2018	Craig Murray	Importing the White Helmets into the UK is obviously nuts if your purpose is to minimise jihadi activity in the UK
Document:MI6, Theresa May and the Manchester attack	Article	30 May 2017	Jonathan Cook	And so the story of MI6 and Theresa May, their sponsorship of Islamic jihadism, and the likely “blowback” the UK just experienced in Manchester is a sleeping dog no one seems willing to disturb.
Document:Manchester Alleged Suicide Bomber Linked to Libya Islamic Fighting Group	Article	24 May 2017	'Tony Cartalucci'	The British government is directly responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing. It had foreknowledge of LIFG’s existence and likely its activities within British territory and not only failed to act, but appears to have actively harboured this community of extremists for its own geopolitical and domestic agenda.
Document:Manchester atrocity: UK government must come clean about its relationship with Libyan Islamists	Article	6 June 2017	Mohamed El-Doufani	The perpetrator of the Manchester atrocity, British-born Libyan Salman al-Abedi, 22, is largely the product of the policy pursued by successive British governments – Conservative and Labour – towards Libya.
Document:Theresa May pushing for UK intervention in Syria following Manchester attack	Article	25 May 2017	Whitney Webb	Jeremy Corbyn Says What We All Knew: The War On Terror Isn’t Working
Document:Theresa May's personal role in facilitating terror attacks	video	5 June 2017	Dan Glazebrook	Theresa May and her Cabinet are complicit in murder. They are war criminals. If the principles established by the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II were applied, they would be hung.

 

The Official Culprit

Name
Salman Abedi

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