So the message is sent: Do not fuck with us.

Seeing as we were only ever going to get any truth from the investigation into how Jean Charles de Menezes was shot eleven times was via leaks, it’s probably time to shut up the shop and gives us the “shit happens” explanation we’re all expecting.

What bothers me, and what went under-reported at the time of the leak, is how the IPCC are botching their own investigation without any help from the Met:

She [witness, Sue Thomason] says two IPCC investigators who interviewed her were equipped with a map of Stockwell tube which had key features in the wrong place. This initially led them wrongly to challenge her account.

In an email of complaint to the IPCC she wrote: “If the people investigating such a serious matter… can’t even get the plan of the station correct for interviewees to point out where they were, then what chance does the rest of the case have?”

She also says a key detail she gave of the number of shots and the interval between them was missed from her final statement until she insisted it be included: “I’m not anti the IPCC, I just want them to get it right.”

What she said about the number of shots was:

“The shots were evenly spaced with about three seconds between the shots, for the first few shots, then a gap of a little longer, then the shots were evenly spaced again.”

Which, if true, certainly gives lie to the statement that Tony Blair gave to a supine-even-for-him Andrew Marr yesterday morning: “I wouldn’t describe it as a shoot-to-kill policy. They’re not deliberately going out to kill people.”

“[T}he shots were evenly spaced,” sounds pretty deliberate to me.

From the Prime Minister, this can be shrugged off by the simple of expedient of remembering that he is mentally ill. He believes that when he says something, it becomes true whatever the provenance. Some pitiable creatures still take him at his word but, fortunately, the bubble of artificial reality in which he exists is contracting and may suffocate him yet.

Blair (Sir Ian) has made another, similar, mental shift whereby he now considers his career, those of the man who pulled the trigger and those that gave the order, more important than lives, transparency and accountability. Don’t look for comfort from him. He wants a private army. (And you don’t have to be an Iraqi shot by undercover British soldiers or a grieving parent trying to get to the bottom of what went on at Deepcut Barracks to know that, if anything, the army are even less accountable than the police.) The investigation into a shooting by his force is still ongoing and he says he wants ex-squaddies cocked, locked and ready to rock on the streets of London.

So, as they say, who’s watching the watchmen? And, to be honest, we could also do with someone to watch those who are supposed to be watching the watchmen? Whoever made the original leak, whatever their motives, did the cause of transparency and accountability a favour. But we can’t expect any more leaks now the frighteners are on.

Again, I could be wrong, but the investigation sounds as if it’s being conducted with the utmost incompetence. It is not, however, for the likes of the humble tax payer and those of us who believe that a man shot in the head eight times deserves a scrap of justice, to be party to such lofty matters.

(Thanks to Andrew for the link.)