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February 6, 2007
Trust the Cockpit Video?

Two U.S. pilots shot up a British patrol in Iraq, even though that patrol was clearly marked as friendly. A cockpit video of the incident, including the radio traffic, existed.

The video was used for an internal U.S. investigation. The result: "the pilots followed procedures." The U.K. did use the video for its internal military investigation but denied having it.

Then the U.K. claimed it had the tape but it could not give it to the investigating coroner because it was U.S. government property. Copyrights, you know …

Yesterday the video was leaked to The Sun and it runs on its website.

Now, after The Sun got a million hits on the video, the U.S. government has the grace to release the video.

U.S. to let friendly fire video be seen

The United States has agreed to release a classified cockpit video showing the dismayed reaction of two American pilots after they killed a British soldier during a friendly fire incident in Iraq, a spokesman for the coroner said Tuesday.

Bliar will certainly thank the U.S. administration for their bounteousness.

But is this the real video? There is little to actually see in it and the sound is at times garbled.

Can we trust the journalistic integrity of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, the U.K. government that leaked the video to the Sun and the U.S. military chain of custody?

Hmmm …

Posted by b on February 6, 2007 at 19:18 UTC | Permalink
Comments

no

Posted by: annie | Feb 6 2007 20:15 utc | 1

The video and audio resolution are of such low quality that it’d be stupidly easy to edit, without a trace, so as to politically satisfy both the British and U.S. governments.

Posted by: Pyrrho | Feb 6 2007 20:46 utc | 2

I watched and listened to the whole thing and it sounds very authentic to me. that is the way fighter pilots talk and they did verify no friendlies in the area two or three times. Why the one guy insisted on seeing rocket launchers where ORANGE PANELS were is interesting to say the least.
this is what you get when you have pilots picking out their own targets in a free fire zone. those guys in the trucks could have been onion sellers and they would have met the same fate but no one here would ever know about it.
fog of war

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 6 2007 21:04 utc | 3

when the united states sings the song of the slaughterhouse – what can be expected & who can be surprised at this day to day butchery full of crimes of design & error
the palpably criminal policy of the empire allows the whole repertoire of murder to be enacted & enacted in every sordid detail, every sordid minute
the sacking, the violating & the destruction of a people, their property & their sovereignty by these hoodlums who while murdering without distinction are bit by bit tearing & eating the heart & soul of their own country in a way my lai & watergate will seem so secondary
the apologists for this awful war as usual utter only out of their arseholes

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 6 2007 21:32 utc | 4

Britain hails release of US friendly fire video after leak

Britain hailed what it said was a US decision to release a cockpit video showing the friendly-fire killing of a British soldier, hours after the secret film was leaked to the British media.
Defence Secretary Des Browne said the release of the shocking video — in which a pilot is heard to say “We’re going to jail, dude” — was the “right thing to do,” after a day of confusion following the embarrassing leak.

As this from an AFP piece it may well be that the author did a bit of satire with this – Like in “Hail to the king”

Posted by: b | Feb 6 2007 21:50 utc | 5

fog of war
“I had a slightly insane discussion the other day with a winger who wanted urgently for me to understand that the Haditha massacre is the kind of thing that happens in war. Whereas I was trying to point out to him that the Haditha massacre is the kind of thing that happens in war.” — Molly Ivins

Posted by: Pyrrho | Feb 6 2007 22:17 utc | 6

Hell No!

Posted by: Rick | Feb 7 2007 0:24 utc | 7

British took part in friendly fire inquiry which cleared US pilots

British military officials took part in a US military inquiry into the 2003 friendly fire killing of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, which cleared the two reservist pilots involved, and the pilots are back on active duty, it was revealed last night.
…
Another US military official confirmed that the pilots, a lieutenant-colonel and major at the time of the incident, are flying warplanes again, attached to the 190th Air Fighter Squadron, based at Boise, Idaho.
…
The news of official British involvement in the US inquiry conflicts with earlier Ministry of Defence claims that a cockpit recording of the attack did not exist.
…

Hmm – quite high ranks for flying patrol around a war environment. These officers wanted to have some fun too?

Posted by: b | Feb 7 2007 1:20 utc | 8

I don’t trust ANYBODY nowadays
I remember now the line from one movie:
“Up until I caught my own self lying I don’t trust anybody else”.
Maybe this all was planed. This war on our minds…We do not trust anybody and do not believe in anything any more. Eventually we’ll have to stop asking questions…and give up…

Posted by: vbo | Feb 7 2007 3:47 utc | 9

It doesn’t seem to be anything that someone would ‘fake’. The audio and video are very raw and the action is stated by the pilots. If someone were to ‘fake’ a video there would be harder evidence and something a bit more damning like the pilots cheering the deaths of the Brits!

Posted by: MikeG | Feb 7 2007 4:52 utc | 10

Then we would know for sure it’s a fake…or we wouldn’t? We have already seen USA solders cheering the deaths of others. Why not Brits? Necrophilian degenerates would be the only sort of animal that can cheer the death.

Posted by: vbo | Feb 7 2007 6:02 utc | 11

I know that it’s a waste of time talking about this,but going back to dan of steele’s comment,I saw/heard the pilot say”orange rocket launchers” which is too strange.

Posted by: R.L. | Feb 7 2007 6:08 utc | 12

Canadian forces have also been bombed by USAF.
First time during a night training exercise a few years ago just outside of Kandahar. Two USAF fighters returning from a mission saw tracer fire below, assumed they were being targeted, dropped a 500 lb bomb, 4 or 5 dead. Pilots were National Guard. Joint Canadian/US inquiry learned that USAF pilots are routinely given amphetimines to help them through long missions. Their judgement may not quite be what planners like to call precision bombing.
More recently, called-in air support stuck the white hats rather than the black hats. Must be really tough on civilians who don’t have laptops, radios, forward air control, and GPS in their kits.

Posted by: Allen | Feb 8 2007 3:56 utc | 13

“Can we trust the journalistic integrity of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun[?]”
I don’t see why not… it’s not like he’d ever consciously manipulate public sentiment by distorting his own media or anything.

Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 8 2007 4:02 utc | 14

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