Death toll 'will be downplayed to minimise panic'

[BEER980]

OCT 4, 2004
U.K. MEMOS ON BIG TERROR ATTACK
Death toll 'will be downplayed to minimise panic'

LONDON - The police, seeking to minimise public panic, would withhold the true death toll if there was a catastrophic attack on Britain by the Al-Qaeda terror group, The Sunday Times claimed. According to the newspaper, secret Scotland Yard plans said that officers should not disclose the 'numbers or seriousness or nature of injuries' immediately after a 'dirty bomb' attack, even if there were thousands of casualties.

One of the memos, titled Communications Strategy For Dealing With A Terrorist Attack, suggested that poor handling of an attack would have 'political implications' that could damage the police and government, the paper said. It added that the instruction to withhold information contrasted with assurances by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunkett that the public would be told the truth about terrorism.

Circulated widely as police and Home Office experts prepare plans to deal with an 'Al-Qaeda spectacular' in the run-up to the next general election, perhaps in May, the document reflected concern that a large-scale attack could turn voters against the Blair government, the Times said. The memo, and another 'restricted' paper entitled Major Incident Contingency Plans, said that an Al-Qaeda assault here was likely to be at least as serious as the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

The memos said that a massive chemical or biological attack could endanger people for 'weeks or months'. They warned that Al-Qaeda terrorists might use planes, trucks and cars to carry out simultaneous strikes at several places and cause huge casualties. Senior officials were especially concerned that people might find out the police had failed to act on prior intelligence about an attack. The Times said the memos also warned Britain's 1.2 million Muslims not to retaliate if there was a violent 'backlash' from racist groups.

They said tensions between white people and Muslims would 'increase sharply' and could get worse if Britain or the US took punitive action abroad, the Times said. -- AFP

Source

[Aslkahuna]

Why Not? The death toll and earthquake caused damage from the 1906 Northern California Earthquake in San Francisco was downplayed and minimized for over a hal Century to minimize the perception of the seismic risk to the area for political, business and economic reasons. For many years, it was claimed that most of the damage was caused by the fire and that only about 700 people died in total. Historians now think that earthquake damage was far more severe than earlier claimed and that upwards of 3500-5000 people died and that damage was closer to 1-2 billion 1906 dollars than the 350 million claimed. Besides wanting to minimize the reprisals against Muslims (which probably wouldn't work), there would be political and economic considerations involved. Not saying that it's right but that it will be done and by our own government if it sees the need to do so. Bush would do so to hide his failures while Kerry would do so to prevent the American people from demanding a bloodbath against Muslims worldwide.

Steve

[SouthernWx]

I don't believe it happened in the U.S. on 9/11/01....but downplaying death tolls in U.S. disasters has happened before...as Steve mentioned regarding the severe 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

After both the 1926 and 1928 catastrophic south Florida hurricanes, the local political officials attempted to downplay the death toll and degree of destruction....in an effort to keep the tourists and investors from being frightened away.

I'm not sure downplaying the death toll occurred after the September 1900 Galveston, Texas monster hurricane, but the 6000 dead that is reported in history books is likely far too low. Most historians now believe that over 8000 died in the Galveston area alone...and as many as 12,000 lives (total) were lost across eastern Texas and western Louisiana during the storm.