Manchester Bombing - Are we any the wiser?
All down to a 'technical hitch' with the computer system.
What a surprise?
In the best traditions of British enquiries, no one is to blame and the Intelligence services come out smelling of roses. No real challenge to the central assertions despite all the indicators and strange goings on. Yet again, millions of pounds spent not to discover the truth but to wrap it up and put it to bed. Good job done and not a bad earner for all the actors. Meanwhile honest researchers who raised important questions are hounded and silenced.
See:
https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=richard+hall
https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=ariana+grande
https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/search?q=manchester
Those damn Conspiracy Theorists!
Manchester Arena bombing: How flawed UK intelligence sharing system was rolled out months before attack
A former counter-terror officer who used the system at the time of the Manchester bombing told i it was ‘the wrong piece of equipment, at the wrong time’
File photo dated 23/05/17 of armed police at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande, as the third and final report from a public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing will be published on Thursday. PA Photo. Issue date: Thursday March 2, 2023. Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds were injured in a suicide attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 2017. See PA story INQUIRY Arena. Photo credit should read: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Armed police at the Manchester Arena on the night of the attack in 2017 (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA)
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By Richard Holmes
Senior Reporter
March 2, 2023 6:01 pm(Updated 9:23 pm)
Counter-terrorism police and MI5 failed to communicate information about the Manchester Arena bomber after the roll-out of a flawed IT system in the months before the attack.
The Manchester Arena Inquiry on Thursday found MI5 missed a “significant” opportunity to prevent Salman Abedi from carrying out the attack which left 22 people dead, as it failed to share vital information with counter-terror police officers.
Information was not shared because of problems with the “systems used” by security services and counter-terrorism police, according to the chairman of the inquiry.
The third and final report published by former high court judge Sir John Saunders looked at whether MI5 and counter-terror police could have prevented bomber Abedi from carrying out the atrocity.
Sir John detailed how, during the inquiry’s investigation, “several examples of communication failures have been found” and concluded that these “problems” emerged “from the systems used by the security service and counter terrorism policing to communicate with each other”.
The report did not specify the name of the system. But the criticisms of the technology were strikingly similar to those of the National Common Intelligence Application (NCIA), which was rolled out in Manchester in March 2017 and was the primary tool for storing, managing, and sharing intelligence at the time of the attack.
A 2015 draft foreword to a confidential handbook for officers using the NCIA, seen by i, states the system is “directly connected” to MI5 and will “be the primary route for communication with our key security partner”. The programme promised to “make a significant contribution” to the joint working between counter-terror police and MI5.
But a former counter-terror officer who used the system at the time of the Manchester bombing told i the NCIA was “the wrong piece of equipment, at the wrong time.”
They said: “The sharing issues with the system were there for everyone to see and this, in my opinion, is indicative of those issues.”
Officers had been warning as early as 2013, while the NCIA was under development, about the very problems identified in the inquiry, according to an investigative report by BuzzFeed News and BBC Newsnight carried out last year.
In Sir John’s report, he said the security service and counter-terror police had accepted “there were difficulties” with the current systems used.
“The general view of witnesses was that matters had improved already, since the Attack,” he said. “However, there is undoubtedly still more that can be done, and I will make some recommendations that I hope will assist.”
(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 24, 2017 A carpet of flowers and messages lie at St Ann's Square in Manchester, northwest England, placed in tribute to the victims of the May 22 terror attack at the Manchester Arena. - The Manchester bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017 might have been stopped if Britain's MI5 security service had acted on vital intelligence, an official inquiry found on March 2, 2023. Delays in relation to one of two pieces of intelligence led to the "missing of an opportunity to take a potentially important investigative action", inquiry chairman John Saunders said in his report. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP) (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Manchester bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017 might have been stopped if Britain’s MI5 security service had acted on vital intelligence, an official inquiry found (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP)
The BuzzFeed and BBC Newsnight investigation cited hundreds of pages of confidential police emails, intelligence files, and internal police memos, along with interviews with five sources inside Britain’s counterterrorism police, and found that the NCIA was plagued by crashes and blackouts, and bogged down by mass duplications that made sifting through crucial intelligence almost impossible.
Officers repeatedly warned that sharing intelligence between agencies was a “critical” problem which risked “intelligence failure.” They repeatedly deemed it “not fit for purpose” but claimed their concerns were brushed aside.
One officer who spoke to BuzzFeed News who used the NCIA in the immediate aftermath of the bombing to help determine whether another attack was imminent came to believe the NCIA was a reason why police did not prevent the bombing in the first place.
“A terrorist attack is a perfect storm when a dozen different factors go wrong at the same time,” the officer said. “But in Manchester, NCIA made up 11 out of 12 factors.”
At the time of reporting, a spokesperson for UK Counter Terrorism Policing said in a written statement that the NCIA “is constantly being improved” and the “suggestion that concerns are ignored is simply not true.”
“Following the 2017 attacks CT Policing and partners undertook a significant review of UK Counter Terrorism, leading to 104 recommendations for improvement,” the statement said. “The NCIA has been an essential tool in helping us achieve this.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office added in a statement that the NCIA had “greatly enhanced” authorities’ ability to respond to the Manchester bombing and “manage the huge volumes of intelligence.” They added that the public inquiry into the Manchester bombing would decide whether the data systems they used “impacted their ability to prevent the attack.”
In the months before the attack, MI5 received two pieces of intelligence that were highly relevant to the plot and failed to share them with counter-terror police officers, Sir John concluded.
The first piece of intelligence, he said, was not passed on by an MI5 officer accompanied by sufficient contextual detail and, had this happened, it is likely that further investigative steps would have been taken in relation to Abedi. The chairman said there is a “material possibility” it would have led to investigators learning more about Salman Abedi’s activities had it been shared promptly.
The second piece of intelligence “gave rise to the real possibility of obtaining information that might have led to actions which prevented the attack,” the chairman said.
Sir John said the fact that intelligence was not shared was of “concern” and proved “a further example of a communication breakdown between the Security Service and CTPNW.”
MI5 Director General, Ken McCallum speaking in Manchester, following the publication of the third and final report from a public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing. A "significant" missed opportunity by MI5 to act over a key piece of intelligence might have prevented the Manchester Arena terror attack, the inquiry into the bombing has found. Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds were injured in a suicide attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 2017. Picture date: Thursday March 2, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story INQUIRY Arena. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
MI5 Director General, Ken McCallum, speaking in Manchester following the publication of the public inquiry report (Photo: PA)
Responding to the report, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Today is a difficult day. On 22 May 2017, an act of pure evil took the lives of 22 people at Manchester Arena. My thoughts are with their loved-ones and all those who had their lives changed for ever.
“Over the past three years, the Manchester Arena Inquiry has carefully analysed critical evidence to ensure vital lessons are learned. I am grateful to Sir John Saunders and his team for their thorough and considered approach.
“I am committed to working with MI5, policing and partners to study the recommendations. Together we will do everything possible to prevent a repeat of this horrifying attack.”
MI5 director General Ken McCallum said he was “profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack”, adding: “I deeply regret that such intelligence was not obtained.”
The public report does not say what the intelligence was and much of MI5’s evidence to the inquiry was heard in secret for reasons of national security, meaning the report is limited in what it discloses.
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