POLICE marksmen and army surveillance teams following Jean Charles de Menezes onto a Tube train could not receive orders in the vital moments before he was shot dead because their radios did not work underground.
This communication failure has emerged as the likely reason why Scotland Yard commanders were not told that the 27-year-old Brazilian was not the suicide bomber that they were hunting.
The undercover officers sitting alongside Mr de Menezes are understood to have decided he was not a threat, but they could not get this message back to Gold Command at the Yard nor relay it to the marksmen.
As the firearms officers ran into the station they are believed to have been out of touch with everyone else involved in the operation. It has been disclosed that the two groups involved — one from Scotland Yard and the other from the Army — were using different radio networks as they trailed the innocent electrician from his home on July 22. Officers on the train are understood to have decided that from the way Mr de Menezes was dressed, and that he was not carrying a bag, he was not about to blow himself up.
But that crucial assessment by surveillance experts reportedly never reached the Yard officers taking part.
Independent investigators are trying to discover what messages were missed because soldiers and police couldn’t talk directly to each other. Senior police sources say that surveillance teams lost contact with one another as they were trying to make a positive identification of their target.
The revelation comes as troops and police were understood to be blaming each other for the mistakes that led to the fatal shooting. Troops from the Army’s Special Reconnaissance Unit are understood to have told the independent investigators that the police “panicked”. One of the troops who accompanied the Yard marksmen on to the tube also reportedly told military chiefs that the armed police arrived far too late and should have intercepted their target outside Stockwell Underground station, in South London.
At least half a dozen soldiers specially trained in reconnaissance techniques in Northern Ireland took part in the operation on July 22. They had to be drafted in because the police were so short staffed.
All were armed for their own protection but ordered to leave any arrest or lethal action to their counterparts in the police.
Scotland Yard detectives have offered a different version. They say that a soldier made a catastrophic error at the start of the operation in not realising Mr de Menezes was the wrong target.
They point the finger at a soldier who was already on attachment to the Yard. Codenamed Tango Ten, he was supposed to photograph any man emerging from the block of flats at Scotia Road in Tulse Hill, which intelligence agents believed was being used by two terror suspects, both of East African origin.
Leaked documents from the Independent Police Complaints Commission show that the soldier was relieving himself behind a tree, so could not film Mr de Menezes. He wrongly described the young Brazilian in police jargon as “an IC1” which means a white, north European man. A senior military source told The Times: “It is quite wrong to blame him for the identification mix-up.
“It’s the job of the whole surveillance team to make a positive identification. After the soldier’s warning that someone worth watching was on his way, other members of the team or an individual should have gone up close to check him out. All this should have been properly recorded back at headquarters, so that every move was properly followed.”
It is still not clear if this was done and, if so, who positively identified Mr de Menezes as a terror suspect.
Both police and military that day were under control of Gold Command at the Yard, run by Commander Cressida Dick, but it is not known whether she had a senior military officer at her side, which would be usual in such operations.
This increasingly bitter disagreement between the rival services will only add to demands for a public inquiry. The differing accounts emerged within hours of the killing of Mr de Menezes after some of the soldiers were moved out of London. The dispute could jeopardise future joint operations which are still ongoing as the search continues for what security chiefs believe is another terror cell in Britain.
The war of words comes as the independent investigators told an inquest into the death of Mr de Menezes yesterday that those involved in the shooting could face criminal charges.
Richard Latham, QC, appearing for the IPCC, said: “In due course there may, and I emphasise the word may, be recommendations that criminal proceedings should be initiated.”
The inquest was put off for six months as confusion continued over whether police did find any closed-circuit television footage at Stockwell station. John Cummins, senior investigating officer for the IPCC, refused to say if evidence handed over by the Yard included video footage.
The first police on the scene claimed that the cameras on the platform were not working and would not say if they recovered any film from inside the tube carriage. Tube staff say the CCTV equipment was operating that morning.
A Brazilian delegation sent to London to assess the investigation said last night that they too want to see any CCTV footage. There was some respite for Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, when Brazil’s Ambassador, Manoel Gomes Pereira, said he did not believe the Yard had attempted a cover up. He added the fact finding mission has full confidence in the IPCC enquiry.
The IPCC told the inquest that they should finish their work by Christmas but it will not be made public until any legal and disciplinary proceedings are completed.
