The BBC showed tonight a Panorama documentary presented by Peter Taylor about the events of July 22nd 2005 that saw the killing of the Brazilian electrician Jean Charles De Menezes by firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police force.
No new evidence was revealed but it was good to have all the little bits of information that have leaked slowly out about the operation presented together as a whole here.
I think the most striking thing was that in contrast to the Israeli policy concerning suicide bombers where the bomb or suicide belt must be seen before the order to shoot to kill is given there is no such need contained within the Operation Kratos guidelines.
Officers operating under the Kratos guidelines must be sure that such a device is present but need not actually see it.
Also the Designated Senior Officer must give the order to fire but the firearms officers radios could not communicate with the command center as they were underground. Therefore the order was not given by the DSO immediately prior to the shooting, it was either given at a time before the officers had entered the underground station or was not given at all.
There was also in the programme the slightly bizarre denial that there was a shoot-to-kill policy to deal with suicide bombers but admission that the policy was to shoot at the head in order to cause immediate incapacity of the bomber. Now I’m sure there is a very slim chance that a person could survive being shot in the head to the extent that they have become incapacitated. So whilst strictly speaking the purpose isn’t to kill it will in all but the very rarest of circumstances actually result in the killing of the bomber.
