Lt. Col. Bill Cowan to appear on WMAL 630 to discuss the credibility of the "Predator photo"

WMAL ^ | Perdogg

[Kozak]

3. Get said jet over the target. We generally do not have jets flying around in circles over all of Afghanistan, burning lots of jet fuel, just in case a good target comes up.

We need to develop a "bomb truck" for situations like this where we have no air or ground defense threat. Take a good sized commercial jet, modify it to carry a range of internal ordinance including high speed cruise missiles or stand off attack missiles. Have them fly a racetrack over hot spotswhich at cruise and altitude is very fuel efficient. They would have great bomb loads, long loiter times and it would be cheap cheap cheap compared to our conventional bombers.

[Sacajaweau]

If I remember correctly, al queda hid in cemeteries in Iraq. I'm not sure if I remember any cemetery being blown up there. It's kinda the Mosque thing.

I think it would be frowned on IF it had occurred.

And for all we know, we had our dudes in the group. Perhaps the intelligence is worth more than the hit.

[Echo Talon]

Col. Cowan said the it was an unarmed drone/predator.

[Echo Talon]

grrr, he said that it was an unarmed drone/predator, just now on Fox & Friends.

[SE Mom]

So to clarify- the drone saw the target, but we did not have time to scramble and nail the target, correct?

The question remains- who was the first news org who said we don't target funerals? Who was behind making this look bad for the administration?

[Kewlhand`tek]

the only reason these things should be UNARMED is after they have delivered their payload. what is the point in having the damn things oooo looky a formation, man some ordanince would be nice!

[TomGuy]

Cowan was just on Fox & Friends.

He said (1) the drone was unarmed, (2) all up the chain of command wanted to attack, but they couldn't get a weaponized plane their fast enough.

But he also said up the chain of command were all livid that they didn't have authority to fire.

Steve Doocy countered with: NBC reports that the drone WAS armed with a missile.

Cowan says that is not true.

===

So, there are still unanswered questions about the incident or failure to make an incident.

[Perdogg]

I would believe Bill Cowan over Steve Doocy any day.

[Perdogg]

The Pentagon has plenty of Clintoids there.

[TomGuy]

WMAL recently changed their coding for their stream.

You need the new one.

Try this [cut and paste it into your player]:

http://abcrad.wm.llnwd.net/abcrad_wmal

[SE Mom]

Wow. Once again, the truth slips through the cracks..

[maica]

It seems that nbc was the recipient of the original photo.

[mware]

I think the television news outlets got the information for the print outlets.

[Bahbah]

Thanks, TomGuy.

[SE Mom]

So NBC gets the photo. Did they then conclude we don't target funerals? Did NBC make this ROE up out of thin air, or did an anonymous military official tell them that?

[TexKat]

U.S. passes up chance to strike Taliban - MSNBC

[TexKat]

Pentagon: Release of Taliban Funeral Photo Unauthorized - FOX NEWS

[TexKat]

Lt. Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman with the U.S. military in Kabul, said the photograph was released to the network by someone who did not have the clearance to hand it out.

"It is an operational security issue and the photo was released at an inappropriate level," Lawrence told The Associated Press. "Inquiries are being made into how it was released."

Lawrence declined to provide further details. It was not clear when the photo was taken nor where the gathering took place.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213641,00.html

[TomGuy]

From the MSNBC article:

a coalition spokesperson said. “A decision was made not to strike this group of insurgents at that specific location and time.”

If a decision was made not to strike, then either coalition forces were close enough to strike or the drone was armed.

If the drone was not armed, why wouldn't the coalition spoksperson say that?

[mware]

With the attacks in the Congress on Rummy, I can guarantee, he will find out who leaked the photo and what it was described as by the leaker.

I got a feeling the media did their own interpretation of this photo.