Nevertheless, Mr. Ashcroft said the tapes showed that the men represented a significant threat.
Greg Bishop, a retired lieutenant colonel who worked with the Medal of Honor team for two years as the Army's liaison to the entertainment industry, told me later that the men represented themselves accurately.
But Khan and Tanweer were dismissed as "small-time fraudsters" and tracking them was said to be unfeasible given the resources of the security services and the apparent low threat the men represented.
Of the remaining 11 014 men, we successfully followed 10 011 (90.9%) for the development of prostate cancer; these men represent the subjects for the present analysis.
The man represents intellect.
"The way I read the story," she said, "the man represents an extreme position as being the center.
According to two Tactical Response Reports, the man represented an "imminent threat of battery" and performed an "attack without weapon".
The man represents London, and watching him dangle from the faulty contraption, looming like a spectre over the festivities, was not unlike, well, watching London host the Olympic Games.
