[Chairman_December_19th_Society]

Early in the article:

The Marines were practicing urban warfare tactics on Failaka Island in the Persian Gulf and were carrying no ammunition for their weapons, U.S. officials said.

Later:

The shootout happened about 11:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. ET) Tuesday...

SOMEBODY had some bullets. The story is inconsistent.

[drjimmy]

SOMEBODY had some bullets. The story is inconsistent.
Those who actually read the article instead of shooting from the hip will find that the story is not at all inconsistent:
"U.S. military police chased down the two assailants, who were dressed in civilian clothes and driving a pickup truck, and shot them dead, according to the officials."

[Sonar5]

Hi All,

Every excersise I ever trained on was a no live ammo excersise. Live ammo was only used on a live fire controlled range.

facts

1) This entire island is supposed to be empty except for civilian contractors.
2) The terrorists were killed by Military Police of the 11th Marine Force. They always, always have ammo when operating in a Law enforcement capacity.
3) It is also possible that it could have been Marines on Guard Duty that killed them. Although they say MP's. I'll wait for the official Marine Corps Press Release.

This is a tragic event, and those to blame are the terrorists, or the ones responsible for area security, unless these unfortunate Marines were that security. But If they were on Guard Duty, they would have had ammo as well.

Clinton's fault. I don't believe so. It is a breakdown in security procedures, though. Much like the Cole attack.

May God Bless those marimes, and their families and friends.

Semper Fi,
Joe

[rstevens]

Military Police, like civilian policemen, always cary live ammo. Its their job to enforce law and order. Soldiers and Marines, when conducting non live fire exercises, actually that is the only kind of training excerise, use blank ammo. This is for the very reason pointed out above, to keep from having the troops kill one another, unintentionally.

Typical knee jerk reaction from non military people.

Not sure sure about the Kobar Barracks incident, but normally guards are always allowed live ammo. I'd rather this statement, of them being unarmed, be verified.

[stuartcr]

Yeah, the security team had ammunition, and they did their job. Do you think the bad guys were going to attack someone that could shoot back if they didn't have too?

[OKSooner]

Maybe there were some security people deployed for the exercise, who did their job when the shooting started?