Murray, your "it wouldnt happen here" may be credible about some details, but things like that could certainly happen here. Unpleasant decisions do have to be made sometimes. As an obvious examp[le, if some Sep 11 scenario happened, and a hijacked plane was heading for central London or Sellafield, you can be damn sure it would be shot down if there was time to organise that, full of passengers or not. And the Guardian would assuredly be full of letters saying that it was cold blooded murder and so on.Sometimes those in authority feel they have to make a lightning decision that negotiation isnt going to work. Wrong or right, that is the sort of decision that would indeed be taken here.