Free Republic

OTTAWA (CP) - The death of a Canadian soldier under the fire of two American warplanes in Afghanistan on the weekend conjures memories of a deadly 2002 incident that killed four other Canadians. But the similarities are only superficial. Pte. Mark Graham was killed and 30 other Canadians were injured when the A-10 Warthog aircraft accidentally strafed a Canadian unit in the middle of a major combat operation. The four Canadians killed in 2002 died after an American pilot dropped a bomb from 10,000 feet as the Canadians conducted a night firing exercise in a recognized practice zone near Kandahar,...

PANJWAII, Afghanistan (CP) - NATO warplanes accidentally strafed Canadian troops on Monday, killing one soldier and wounding more than 30 others in a massive anti-Taliban operation that claimed four Canadian lives just the day before. The five deaths in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar are the most sustained by Canada in a 24-hour period since the country began serving in Afghanistan in early 2002. The identity of the soldier killed in the friendly fire incident on Monday was not released. The five soldiers were killed as NATO forces launched Operation Medusa, aimed at purging Taliban militants from the dangerous...

IsraelNN.com) A Katyusha rocket fired by Hizbullah terrorists wounded a Reuters News Agency cameraman Thursday afternoon in Nahariya. Rami Amichai was filming when he suffered leg wounds from shrapnel. He was treated at the Nahariya hospital. Two members of an Israel Radio broadcasting team also were hurt in Tzefat, which was under siege Thursday night by continuous rocket attacks.

Everyone has heard of the “killings at Haditha,” even though the military investigation of what happened there is still underway. Has anyone heard of the “killings at St. Lo” in July, 1944? A comparison of the New York Times coverage of those two events is instructive. A Google News search of Haditha + killings + New York Times yields 891 hits as of Sunday noon. The articles on this subject in the Times are driving the national and international news in all media on this subject. The Times and its reporters are cited in most of these articles. But what...

LOS ANGELES (AP) Three gang members tried to ambush a suspected rival but ended up killing one of their own, police said.The incident occurred Wednesday evening when Carlos Cortez, 18, Marcus King, 16, and a 16-year-old boy saw a light colored SUV they thought belonged to a rival gang, Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon said. Cortez placed himself on the opposite side of the street from the other two and fired several shots at the vehicle when it passed by a second time, he said.Cortez's shots struck King in the stomach and he died later that night at a...

<p>A criminal probe is being opened into the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.</p>

The U.S. military reports no casualties in a shooting incident Wednesday involving Canadians inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. It happened when a Canadian diplomatic vehicle failed to obey orders to stop. The Canadian Embassy in neighboring Jordan said there were four diplomats in the vehicle, including Canada's top official in Iraq. The embassy said Canadian and American authorities are investigating. A U.S. military spokesman said U.S. soldiers fired warning rounds at the front of what he identifies as a "convoy." The Green Zone in downtown Baghdad is home to the Iraqi government and numerous foreign missions including the...

There are reports that a Canadian consular vehicle came under fire from U.S. troops in Baghdad on Tuesday. The car was believed to be carrying some members of the Canadian diplomatic service through the city's Green Zone - a heavily fortified area of the capital.

Chilling video from a Bronx burger joint shows five thugs beating an off-duty cop senseless - possibly explaining why he didn't budge when another officer told him to drop his gun moments before shooting him, police sources said yesterday. [snip] Detectives released the surveillance tape last night, hoping to identify the five goons who jumped off-duty Officer Eric Hernandez inside a Tremont White Castle early Saturday - punching and stomping the intoxicated cop without mercy. [snip] It was then that veteran uniformed Officer Alfredo Toro and his partner rolled up. Toro shouted, "Drop the gun!" four times, a witness and...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, today expressed his regrets to ABC News for the injuries sustained by anchor Bob Woodruff and a videographer in what Mr. Zarqawi called, “this tragic incident of friendly fire.” “The American news media has always treated us well,” the al Qaeda leader said in a printed statement. “We were trying to kill U.S. and Iraqi soldiers when this unfortunate accident occurred. We pray to Allah for the swift recovery of the injured, and hope they can be back on the job soon.” A spokesman for ABC News said a preliminary investigation...

The American mass media are like tired old dogs, dutifully fetching official lies on command and dropping them like bones at the feet of an unsuspecting public. We in turn reward them by buying both the products and the myths they sell us. Eventually, however, the products fail and the myths unravel. When the government's popularity wanes sufficiently, despite the support of a compliant press, even old dogs can come up with new tricks, reviving the lost art of investigative reporting. Take the Pat Tillman story. Remember him? He was the star National Football League defensive back who, after the...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Police ease rules on off-duty gunsPublished November 28, 2005 PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- An old police tradition of requiring off-duty officers to carry their weapons -- "always armed, always on duty" -- is being scaled back in many police departments after the shootings of off-duty officers by colleagues who thought they were criminals.     The policies require officers to respond to crimes even when they're not on duty, a requirement supporters say protects officers from criminals bent on revenge.     But critics point to the shooting of officers in Providence, R.I.; Orlando, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and elsewhere as...

TWO patrols of elite Australian SAS soldiers were almost killed by friendly fire during their deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only luck and quick thinking prevented tragedies that could have changed the Australian public's support for the war on terror at critical political times for the Howard government. In the first incident, during 2002, US forces were about to fire more than 100 mortar shells in Afghanistan when they learnt SAS soldiers were in the line of fire. A year later, during the invasion of Iraq, SAS troops almost killed one another in a firefight on the second day of...

WASHINGTON -- The Army on Thursday issued a fresh denial that it attempted to cover up the friendly fire death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. The Army said procedural mistakes were to blame for its slow acknowledgment of the circumstances of Tillman's death. Tillman's parents have criticized the Army for waiting weeks to tell them his death was accidental and did not result from enemy fire.

(CP) - Four Canadians killed by U.S. friendly fire in Afghanistan were honoured Monday by American soldiers in a service that left family members in tears. "This is a brotherhood and this is proof," said a shaken Richard Leger, father of Sgt. Marc Leger, who died on April 18, 2002, when an American fighter pilot mistakenly dropped a bomb on Canadians conducting a military exercise. "It's a family and we're part of that family." The names of the four, including Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith, were added to a memorial on the Fort Campbell base...

WASHINGTON A published report says Army officials knew within days of Pat Tillman's death that the former Arizona Cardinal's player had been killed by fellow Rangers during a patrol in Afghanistan but did not inform his family and the public for weeks. A new Army report shows that Afghan theater commander, General John P. Abizaid (AB'-ih-zayd) and other top Army officials were aware an investigation had determined Tillman's death was caused by an act of "gross negligence" four days before a nationally televised memorial service. The Post says it obtained the information after reviewing nearly two-thousand pages of documents. The...

Israel And Freedom For Jonathan Pollard By Caroline Glick The Jerusalem Post - With INA Publisher's Note Below Jerusalem ---- April 28......Jonathan Pollard is one of the most polarizing figures of our times. Pollard, a former intelligence analyst in US naval intelligence, has now served 20 years of a life imprisonment sentence following his conviction for transferring classified US intelligence materials relating to Arab ballistic missile and nonconventional weapons programs to Israel from May 1984 until his arrest in November 1985. For his contribution to Israel's security and for his long suffering in prison, Israel considers Pollard a national hero....

WIESBADEN, Germany — It was a huge mission, the defense said, a big part of the reason the 1st Armored Division had to extend past a year in Iraq. It was “traffic control,” the prosecution said, with the hope of detaining a high-value target. “The sum total of the operation?” prosecutor Capt. Dan Sennott asked Monday in his opening statement in the court-martial of Capt. Roger Maynulet, who is accused of assault with attempt to commit murder in the death of an Iraqi man last May. “Two detainees, a dead driver and — after searching 30 houses — one 9...

SOFIA, Mar 28 (Reuters) Bulgaria will punish the head of its military operations in Iraq, the Defence Ministry said today, but declined to say whether it was linked to the killing of a Bulgarian soldier by U.S. troops earlier this month. The NATO newcomer has blamed U.S. forces for accidentally killing junior sergeant Gurdi Gurdev on March 4 when they fired on his patrol in southern Iraq, but it has also said poor communications with its allies played a role. Colonel Geno Chepilski, Bulgaria's senior representative in Iraq was responsible for coordinating with U.S. troops, but Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov...

US admits responsibility for “unintentional” Bulgarian death in Iraq (AFP) 12 March 2005 SOFIA - US forces have admitted responsibility for a Bulgarian soldier’s “friendly fire” death last week in Iraq, saying it was “unintentional” and provoked by two nearby terrorist attacks, the Bulgarian defence ministry said Saturday. “The gunfire against our patrol was preceded by a terrorist attack on an American logistics convoy nine kilometers south of communication post number 5 (which later produced the “friendly fire’) and a second attack against a rapid deployment unit of post number 6, three to five kilometers south of the same post,”...