LONDON GAMES

Defense Head Gets Shootdown Power

Row over missile battery atop residential flats.

A senior British army official has told a high court there that, under the terms of a secret agreement forged with the local council, Defense Secretary Philip Hammond could personally order the shooting down of any suspicious aircraft approaching the Olympic Park during the upcoming Olympic Games. The missiles would be shot from the top of East London’s Fred Wigg Tower, a residential building. On Monday, occupants of the flats will protest the move in court. A lawyer representing many of the occupants said that it was “astonishing” that the government had agreed to “place explosives over the heads of men, women and children, without any form of consultation with them.”