LONDON, Feb. 6, 2007
Leaked Video Details Friendly-Fire Kill
Cockpit Video Captures 2003 Exchange Between Two U.S. Pilots After Killing British Soldier In Iraq
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Despite British requests, the Pentagon had refused to release the video to the family of Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, who died when U.S. jets fired on his convoy in the southern city of Basra. But after excerpts of the video were published in The Sun newspaper, and the footage was widely broadcast, U.S. authorities agreed to release it for the British inquest.
Neither pilot from the Boise, Idaho-based 190th Fighter Squadron was disciplined in the U.S. military's own investigation, which concluded the pilots "followed the procedures and processes for engaging targets," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday.
The leaking of the tape strained relations between the Department of Defense and their British counterparts, who were previously given a DVD of the classified video.
The dramatic cockpit video and recording begins with two pilots identifying a target and checking with ground control that there are no coalition troops in the area — to which ground control says, "That is an affirm. You are well clear of friendlies," according to the transcript released by The Sun.
Tempers flare between the two pilots, with one saying it looks like the prospective targets are carrying orange rockets. Coalition troops are often equipped with bright orange markers to identify them as friendly forces.
"I know what you're talking about!" the first pilot says, after asking about the alleged rockets.
"OK, well they got orange rockets on them," the second pilot says.
"Orange rockets?" the first pilot asks again, telling the other pilot they need to get back to base soon.
"I think killing these damn rocket launchers, it would be great," the second pilot says.
The two U.S. A-10 jets opened fire on Hull's tank, which was part of a five-vehicle convoy engaged in combat outside Basra on March 28, 2003. Four other soldiers were wounded, including the convoy's leader, Capt. Alexander MacEwen.
Gunfire is heard. Minutes later they learn there are friendly forces in the area and that one person is dead and another is wounded.
Pilot 1: "I'm going to be sick."
Pilot 2: "Ah f---."
Pilot 1: "Did you hear?"
Pilot 2: "Yeah, this sucks."
Pilot 1: "We're in jail, dude."
The pilots communicate with ground control again. "They did say there were no friendlies," the first pilot says.
"Yeah, I know that thing with the orange panels is going to screw us. They look like orange rockets on top," the second pilot says.
The first pilot then asks if his tape is still on. Seconds later, there is silence.
A publicly releasable version of the U.S. investigation report — which found the pilots followed procedures and practices for engaging targets — was given to the British Defense Ministry in November 2003, said Lt. Col. Teresa Connor, a spokeswoman at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.
On Tuesday, after the leaking of the tape, Connor said Central Command authorized Britain to display the video to the coroner and family in the presence of the Defense Ministry. It is up to the ministry to decide whether and when to do so, she said.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that the coroner's office says the tape may now be used in court, as it had come into the public domain.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 82 CommentsCompassion for the soldiers and their families? Yes! .....but you're an idiot
Friendly fire in always going to be a problem in a warzone.
But what is disgusting is the fact that the Bush Administration has refused to hand over the tapes to the British - our supposed allies - and tried to keep them secret.
My heart goes out to those involved - the family of the dead British soldier and to those who fired on them.
However, I have nothing but contempt and disgust for that moron GW Bush.
That moron is a war criminal and deserves to be treated as such.
ROFL.. You sure are egotistic. Falsely though.
If americans did as you suggested, nothing would get said. Truth would not come out. Opinions would not be heard, and those with money and power would always keep money and power and the corruption that goes with it would (and is) bring nothing but sorrow, pain, and poor living conditions for the masses in comparison to those powerful few that work so hard to entrench their power. And yes, it is the GOP's fault. They have run the government for 7 years through Bush's disasterous presidency & Congress. Their policies have brought us all that has gone wrong for the general public. Secrecy, deny the constitution, consolidate power. Those are their goals.
Well, with the nickname "Warthog", A-10's aren't exactly known for their advanced technology :)
Newer aircraft like the B-2, F-22 and the soon to be F-35's can directly tap into AWACS, JSTARS and even each other's aircraft to get an overall view of the battlefield. Theoretically, mistakes like this would be greatly reduced.
Do you people really think "friendly fire" is a new thing? I am sure that during WW1 WWII had it too. Intel is to blame for this whole mess from the beginning. I remember Clintons as the first to use the words WMD
It is obvious that there is nothing classified in terms of value to the "enemy," but it does reveal the US & UK's improper use of the classification system.
Whoever classified the tape should be prosecuted for tampering with evidence and interfering with an investigation.
Mistakes happen in war with tragic consequences, but the improper classification was not a mistake, it was an attempt at a coverup.
This story has NOTHING to do with Bush, so quit talking about him.
It is amazing how ignorant people are to the consequences of us losing in Iraq. Amazing.....
I think most sensible people fully understand the problems of warfare and do sympathise with both pilots and the controller, who,like Mrs Hull will find that the hurt will not go away.
What is at issue here is the cruel supression of the evidence and the refusal by both the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence to assist the Coroner in coming to a truthful verdict in this case. The people of both America and the UK also have a right to know the truth. We elected these people, they work for us the people, and in accepting their lofty positions should take heed of our wishes.
The second issue is that they are leaping about gnashing their teeth because someone within their ranks copied and gave the tape to US the people. They are more upset about that than they are about Cpl Hull's death and the anguish of the flyers. What sort of people hide under a cloak of official secrets ? Cruel and evil people who took us to war on a lie. After killing and mutilating over 100,000 people including their own, the life of one British soldier is nothing to them, which in itself should tell the American people that they care little for the 3000 of their sons and daughters sacrificed for their hidden agenda and lies.
there were fascist nazi german collaborators as well.....
but maybe you are actually a fascist nazi muslim yourself pretending to be an american liberal........
The A-10 is a thirty year old airplane which was desgined around a 30mm gun firing depleted uranium shells, built to take a lot of damage and still fly (think "flying tank") and designed to kill tanks in Europe. Except for a heads up display, it has few advanced systems and not worth upgrading because of it's age. In fact, it was supposed to be retired many times, but they kept finding uses for it.
It is very difficult, even in a "fancy" jet, to ID targets. Planes have IFF devices that can identify enemy and friendly planes, but ground vehicles do not. When you are at 5 or 10 thousand feet and flying between 300-400MPH, it's impossible to eyeball small vehicles and a single pilot would have much difficulty with cameras or binoculars, trying to ID targets, fly the plane and watch for threats.
lars008 also really needs to learn the meaning of the word "fascist" too since he seems to wrongly use it with liberals all the time instead of the true facsist currently occupying the White House. You see lars008, the biggest thing about fascism is it's belief in authoritarian rule, secrets and using war to further it's goals. Since that describes neocons and not liberals, you are using "fascist" entirely wrong.
jh6379. Your repeated posts are annoying. You must work for some far left smear website that pays people to blog and post negatively....funny.
What are the consequences if we lose? Even if we stabilize Iraq, it will be a ***** dominated government sympathetic to Iran. You don't think they will eventually turn on us once the troops are gone? And if that's the case, then what? Do we stay for 100 years?
The reason we can stay friends with western governments or the Israelis is becasue we share common values and lifestyles. Familiarity breeds friendship. We share none of those thing with any Muslim countries and any "friendships" are only what is politically expediate at the time and fleeting. Look at all the effort we spent in propping up Iran pre-1979. How badly did that end? Expect the same with Iraq. Is the cost worth what could end up a situation where we are simply arming our future enemies.
Yeah....sure. I am a posting robot, I'm a loser, but my posts actual change in wording as opposed to yours....whose drinking kool-aid?
Rafterman1...
If we lose in Iraq, it will become a more powerful version of Iran. That is not an option. And no we don't need to stay there 100 years. But we need to stay there long enough to have a trained Iraqi army and police to maintain the peace and keep foreign powers out. A democratic Iraq is good for everyone but the people that are against American, British, and any free peoples interests. If we leave too soon it will turn into a swill of terrorism and authoritarianism.
The majority of Israelis are communist atheists from the former Soviet Union or E. Germany.
The only reason Americans believe we have anything in common with the communist state of Israel is due to the outrageous lies Zionists tell & repeat.
Search on "Operation AJAX" and you should discover that the Iranin revolution of 1979 was the direct result of US interference in Iranian affairs that resulted in the installation of a brutal dictator known as the "Shah of Iran."
Saddam Hussein & the Shah of Iran were both actively supported by the US.
The US can stay in Iraq for 1,000 years and nothing will change so long as the goal is to "westernize" Iraqis. Maybe Iraqis do NOT want to be "western."
Did that ever occur to you?
The fact that this is news is because the "Hawks" in both the Pentagon and the MOD in London attempted to hide the truth from the Coroner and prevent him from giving a truthful verdict, this is about the law of the land, They got found out. If anyone is niave it is you and those idiots who thought they could disregard the people and the family of a dead soldier.
I responded already to your post, and in the sae style as you as well.
I should have added that it is due to the naivety of the public as well as the news media.
They lied and lied and lied, in fact Saddam was doing a far better job but they lied about him too. Get the hell out of there.
If we leave now when the country is in the midst of a civil war the whole Middle East could blow up. It is best for everyone that we solve the problem there now.
strunke, Iraq will never become like Iran. It is too divided by sectarian blocks. The most likely scenario is that if we leave now it will spiral out of control and will become fractured further possibly into three countries. BTW, the rest of your observation is right on target.
I can understand the Brits being upset about the war. But if you look at the history, Tony was beating the drums as early as W. was, even if not as loudly. You Brits are more restrained. At least some of you.
jh6379...is your IQ below 70 or something? Click the down arrow on your browser. I responded to you already. You spout nothing but empty slogans. I respond to you in kind.
Prior to the invasion of Iraq, US & UK oil companies were prohibited by Saddam Hussein from bidding on development of Iraqi oil fields.
Immediately following the invasion, the US & UK announced contracts would only be awarded to "coalition" partners (US & UK firms).
The primary reason the US & UK invaded was to gain control of Iraq's oil fields. Oil companies have no intention of providing "cheap oil" to anyone, including Americans. Nor do ExxonMobil & British Petroleum (exclusive agents for Iraq's oil) intend to let the profits be used to repay the US Treasury for the hostile takeover they engineered.
Anyone who believes the US & UK invaded Iraq for any reason other than oil (profit generally) is either very naive or a moron.
ExxonMobil has been posting record profits since the invasion began. And most recently posted the largest annual profits of any company in world history.
The facts are clear and speak for themselves.
The invasion of Iraq is the greatest heist in world history. George Bush & Tony Blair are criminal conspirators who are conspiring to steal Iraq's oil.
Oh really? What about the yellowcake story (that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcakes used in nuke development from Africa)? The CIA told Bush it was false, but he still used it to justify the Iraq war in his speech. Makes you wonder what else Bush "didn't know" about WMD.
D. Rumsfeld invented the "Office of Special Plans" for the sole & exclusive purpose of creating artifical intelligence that could be interpreted to mean Iraq had WMD's.
"The Office of Special Plans, which existed from September, 2002, to June, 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Donald Rumsfeld and led by Douglas Feith, dealing with intelligence on Iraq."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans
George Walker Bush is a habitual liar and he knew that Iraq had no WMD's. We know this because if the US actually believed Iraq to have WMD's, the US would have never invaded.
George Bush is a liar and his supporters are morons (those who aren't war profiteering, that is).
Uh, isn't that what I said when I said Iraq will probably just turn against us once we leave? You can't force democracy on people at gunpoint. Especially when their history is not one of democratic leaders.
Everything I posted is based on facts and is public information.
That is a fact. The only question is to what extent and who was involved.
In any conspiracy, tracing the money usually leads to the instigator of the conspiracy. In this case, that trail leads to ExxonMobil.
The connections to D. Cheney & George Bush are well known. As are ExxonMobil's massive, unearned profits.
I suppose one could continue to believe George Bush & D. Cheney told all those lies and invented all that phony intelligence because they couldn't sleep at night knowing Omar the Tentmaker couldn't vote for Mohammaed the Goatherder, but that sounds far more ridiculous and implausible than what actually occurred.
The GOP conspired with ExxonMobil (et al) to steal Iraq's oil.
That is precisely where we are, so only a moron would deny that's what occurred.
Anyway, Iraq did have WMD%u2019s. Syria now has them. Coalition forces observed Iraqi military vehicles crossing into Syria, including vehicles appropriate for transporting chemical and biological weapon systems. Evidence (which the liberal media declined to report) of biological weapon development was found in Iraq. But this is not the issue here.
The issue is the dead British Lance Corporal. I can tell you that cockpit footage from US planes is classified for good reason. I have worked with these tapes, have seen what they show, and can assure you that there are things potentially very damaging to national security that could be observed or deduced by the active systems shown on those tapes. It is possible for the audio to be recorded separately. Without knowing more about the specific tapes in question, I could not tell you if it would be possible to sanitize the video images. Probably not or they would have done so and released them to the parties that needed to see them. The audio, which apparently HAS been relesed, would seem most relevant to an investigation of this nature, so it should be sufficient.
Bulls**t! This coroner either incompetent or working for a hostile intelligence agency.
If Iraq had WMD's, they would have used them on US forces. Sending them to Syria would have been really stupid. And, if that is the case, given the assertion there are videotapes and all, why didn't the US invade Syria?
That is one of the dumbest assertions Bush bootlickers ever came up with.
The BBC showed the footage and there was nothing that could be deduced from the pictures other than it was a cockpit.
If there was something within the cockpit that would be a threat to national security if seen, it was not obvious. And, there was something I missed, it could have been pixelated so it was not discernible.
It was a coverup attempt, same as all the other coverups the GOP has been using since Bush ordered the unnecessary invasion of Iraq.
Bush bootlickers are pathetic in their desperation to make excuses. It must he difficult to go through life forever licking someone's boots. Expecially a contemptible, habitual liar such as George Bush.
Or, without a backbone or testicles (if you are a guy, that is).
Lick on, bootlickers, the GOP loves bootlickers who parrot the party line regardless how ridiculous it may be.
That's not the complete picture, CBS. We didn't just refuse to release it at first. We denied it even existed.
The US and UK stonewalled on this for three years. You didn't even bother to point that out.
NBC, here I come.
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