Diplomatic fiasco

Interesting programme (the first in a series) on the attempts to settle the Arab/Israeli conflict (shown last night on BBC2). One thing that emerged was the paramount importance of Jerusalem, above all Temple Mount/Haram al-sharif. Refugees, other land issues have not been mentioned (yet). Also, I'd heard about Camp David in 2000 and Taba in January 2001 (see one of my previous posts, for example),  but I wasn't aware that important talks had taken place at the American Embassy in Paris, early 2001, where Chirac didn't help with his inept attempts to intervene.

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Norm highlights Mark Townsend's report in The Observer of firefighter Aaron Roche's experience in carriage 346A of the 8.51am Piccadilly Line service from King's Cross on 7 July. As Norm says, 'you may prefer not to read this',  but I think everybody should. Unable to radio, Roche makes his way back from the train: 'He did hear one scream, a wail from a woman beneath the train. "She was screaming for help, she must have seen my legs as I ran," he said. Roche faltered as he toyed with whether to free her, but then he remembered the cold, bureaucratic language of their emergency coda; he had to keep moving; he had to let the world know of the horrors he had seen.' ...

But Roche could never bring himself to ask if the woman beneath the train survived. 'I never followed up what happened to her. I can't bear to think she didn't make it. I still feel guilty.'