Letter Bomb Explodes at London Office

AP via Las Vegas Sun ^ | February 5, 2007 | TARIQ PANJA

[Weight of Glory]

LONDON (AP) -

A letter bomb exploded Monday at a London company that controls the city's traffic congestion fee, fire officials said. One worker suffered minor injuries to her hand.

The letter exploded at the Capita Commercial Services, which on behalf of the government controls the $16 daily fee for central London drivers meant to cut down on traffic in central London. It also collects television licensing fees, handles mediation and insurance for the Criminal Records Bureau, and does work for the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Capita, with headquarters near Scotland Yard, was formed in 1984 and has more than 26,000 staff in the U.K., the Channel Islands, Ireland and India. A company spokeswoman said there was an incident but declined further comment.

The Irish Republican Army pioneered the use of letter bombs in the early 1970s as part of its campaign to oust Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The outlawed group targeted the offices of British government officials, security force personnel, Downing Street, and the London Stock Exchange, among others.

The tactic maimed dozens of people in the 1970s - most commonly secretaries or security guards who opened the packages - but killed nobody.

In response, the Royal Mail built barriers on letter boxes, which reduced the size of the slits so that only thin envelopes could be inserted. For larger packages, the Royal Mail has X-ray scanners to detect suspicious battery-powered objects.

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[billbears]

at a London company that controls the city's traffic congestion fee

Sounds like somebody's upset about the congestion fee

[Eric in the Ozarks]

26,000 employees ?

[OldFriend]

boggles the mind doesn't it. 26,000 employees.

[agere_contra]

It also collects television licensing fees...

I can see another reason for sending a letter bomb right there.

FR Disclaimer: I am not advocating violence against the BBC or their enablers.

[rod1]

Maybe this should go under a RED KEN ping as well???

[T. P. Pole]

OK, maybe, just maybe, we are starting to see a revolt for the extreme rush to socialism that is going on over there.

26,000?

[agere_contra]

It also collects television licensing fees, handles mediation and insurance for the Criminal Records Bureau, and does work for the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Work and Pensions.

A company that is wholly dependent on Government for its livelihood. It has 26,000 employees. Bloody hell.

[Popocatapetl]

[ClancyJ]

Oh yes, that is the way - send letter bombs. Become a terrorist to revolt against socialism.

And we think that would help our cause - how?

[weegee]

Capita, with headquarters near Scotland Yard, was formed in 1984 and has more than 26,000 staff in the U.K., the Channel Islands, Ireland and India.

And it sounds like they offshored this work.

[billbears]

I have a friend I keep in touch with regularly that lives in London. Now this is anecdotal (I have no reason to doubt him) but he said his father got a bill reminder from them on his car fee (don't know if it was this group or not) two days before the bill was due. The day the day of the bill was due, someone knocked on his door from the collection office. I imagine with 26,000 people you have to give them something to do

[DrGunsforHands]

If the Indian telephone workers have as much trouble as they do with American-English, I shudder to think what they and their customers must go through in dealing with English-English.

[Lazamataz]

Colonel Lenin!

[bkepley]

Oh yes, that is the way - send letter bombs. Become a terrorist to revolt against socialism. And we think that would help our cause - how?

Maybe he's right. Maybe we would get start getting sympathy from the UN, NY Times, and Hollywood? Isn't that how the left does it?

[randog]

26,000 employees ?

That's the shocking news.

[induk]

When I first heard about this I thought it sounded like the work of some maniac out for revenge - maybe revenge for a fine or something like that.

[jdm]

26,000 employees ?

[ExSoldier]

26,000 employees? That's the shocking news.

I dunno. How many folks are employed by the US Federal government, excluding the military and law enforcement? Heck just count the folks who administer entitlements (the largest chunk of the federal budget). Still, I guess it's unfair to make those comparisons based on the size of our two countries. For being such a small country, 26,000 employees for one company is a pretty big deal. I wonder how many folks are employed at Microsoft?

[tfecw]

"I wonder how many folks are employed at Microsoft?"

MS isn't as large as some folks like to think. It has 28k folks, which isn't that impressive. For comparison IBM has 329k, the US Post office has 700k, and Wal-mart has 1.8 million

(all stats from wiki)