Miguel
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Straw: 'No warnings over Bali'
21st October 2002
ritain had no specific intelligence warning ahead of the Bali bomb blast, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted today.
"I dearly wish there had been intelligence that could have prevented this atrocity, but the answer sadly is that there was none," he told the Commons.
Mr Straw said he believed "correct judgments were made about the available streams of intelligence" before October 12.
"There were generic threats. There was no information which could have enabled us to warn, in advance, of this atrocity."
But in the face of "nagging anxieties" among relatives of the dead, he said the intelligence would be made available for examination by Parliament's Security and Intelligence Committee.
In a statement, Mr Straw announced a strengthening of the travel advice to British people, advising against all travel to Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia in the wake of the atrocity.
Mr Straw again apologised to the families of the dead and injured for "shortcomings in getting sufficient extra staff" into place in Bali following the October 12 terror blast.
He warned: "Further attacks can, sadly, not be ruled out."
In his statement, Mr Straw said 11 Britons were now confirmed dead, and a further 22 were missing - "sadly themselves presumed to be dead".
At least 27 British citizens were injured. "There may be other British injured among the unidentified in intensive care in Australia."
The British Government, he said, would organise a British memorial service and would consult families of the dead about what they considered appropriate.
Of the help give to victims' relatives, Mr Straw said: "I am very sorry that shortcomings in getting sufficient extra staff on the ground in Bali early enough last week exacerbated the terrible burden the families were under."
There were currently 15 British officials in Bali and 32 British police officers assisting in the aftermath of the atrocity.
The Government would work urgently with the insurance industry to see how, in future, they could ensure "the pain of victims of terrorism is not made worse by financial hardship".
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Romans 9:11-24
Our Eschatology may vary even our Ecclesiology may be disputed among us but our Soteriology most assume a singularity and exclusivity which in biblical term is known as Quote; "The Narrow Way" and Quote!
Posts: 2792 | From: Stockton,Ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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