[Rictor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4504589.stm

Oops!

Props to the Greek and to the Italian media for publishing it. This is exactly the type of thing we need more of. Political censorship of any kind has no place in a free society.


Pages of the censored report.

[Corsair]

Yeah, the glorious of electronic media... security? What security?

[Flipside]

LOL!

It'll be interesting to see what was removed. Though I think they should still withold names from the public for now, at least until this is settled.

[Zarax]

Good move, people here is getting quite fed up of the american military, especially after the cermis massacre which ended with the people involved practically unpunished.

[Night Hammer]

so does this mean italy is next on Bush's list?

[Andreas]

This is a very good thing indeed that the document is now "de-classified".

[Zarax]

Nah, more likely that in 2006 francesucks.com will have a sister website

[aldo_14]

Of course, releasing the critical document was completely and utterly accidental............

[karajorma]

I'd be interested in knowing what were the two clicks that removed the censorship.

I've got a lot of pictures that could use that

[vyper]

Aww, I wanted to see a link to the unclassified document

[Rictor]

It was probably a PDF, which is how it de-censored with 2 clicks.  Zarax: could you check around on some Italian websites and see if they have the de-classified report up for download? I would love to see it.

[Zarax]

http://www.unita.it/images/2005maggio/noomissis.doc

Courtesy of L'Unità, my favoured news source.

[n00by]

Originally posted by karajorma
I've got a lot of pictures that could use that

o.O Okay....if you say so:lol:

@Topic: Expect to see a "secret report about the WMD Italy has" somewhere in 2006-2008. Together with secret photos of processing plants and apple pie.

[Zarax]

Of course Italy got WMD...
They are all stored in the US and NATO bases

[vyper]

Heh, clever point lad.

[Swamp_Thing]

I found a couple of things to be strange at best.
First, what was the 10th Mountain doing manning checkpoints? I was under the impression the 10th Mountain was a special ops type of unit. Weren´t checkpoints supposed to be left for the reserve guys, and regular army forces?
As a side note, the 10th Mountain was the unit that got surrounded in Somalia, over a decade ago (Blackhawk Down).
Even supposing they were there to protect the passing Embassador, i find it shoddy at best. The 10th Mountain is the type of unit that would compose the convoy, not a unit that runs a mere checkpoint.
Another thing i found strange was the findings. They say the US army was not informed of the operation, yet i remember reading how one of the iraqi captors told Sgrena NOT to inform the US forces, but that she went ahead and called them on a cell phone!
So, were they informed or not? Surely there are records. Or are they saying the US army WAS informed, but they "neglected" to inform the 10th Mountain boys?
Also, the report mentions digital pictures of the car, prior to being moved. Where are they? How many shots were fired? How many hits did the car suffered? What kind of ammo used? Lots of blanks here...

Finally, does anyone have a link to an overview shot of the area? Or a 3D representation of the area? It would help analysing it if we know where the roadblock was, and where the car was coming from, how fast it could be travelling, etc etc.

Finally, this little tidbit:

1. (U) Doctrinal Discussion of TCPs and Roadblocks (Army Field Manual 3-21.9,
(...)
 • (U) Check and/or inspect and register all personnel and vehicles in and out of the controlled area.
• (U) Deter illegal movement.
• (U) Create an instant roadblock.
• (U) Control movement into the area of operations or on a specific route.
• (U) Prevent smuggling and contraband

Yeah, right...

[Bobboau]

what you don't think they'd be wanting to stop the flow of weapons into an area, as futile an effort that might be.

this whole thing is just supid, as rictor pointed out in the thread title it's nothing more than sheer incompotence. do you honestly think the US would openly atempt to assassinate someone when they could just as easily.. no more easily killed them and blamed there deaths on Iraqi insurgents? no, all that's going on here is that a bunch of guys monitoring a check point weren't told there'd be a car comeing through like they should have been and they see a car bearing down on them that won't stop two days after a few of them get killed by insurgents.

[karajorma]

I think Rictor was refering to the incompetence of releasing a censored document with a "Turn off censorship" option in it.

Personally I don't think there was any conspiracy before the shooting just incompetence. As to whether there was a cover up after the shooiting, that's a different matter.

[aldo_14]

Well, according to http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/10mtn.htm,  "The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), stationed at Fort Drum, New York, is a specially tailored infantry division that is rapidly deployable by strategic airlift to conduct a full spectrum of operations from humanitarian relief to combat."

So it would make sense if they were manning temporary roadblocks set up at short notice (the British army did the same when deployed to Camp Dogwood... partly because permanent fixed roadblocks are inviting attack, and also because they're easy enough to circumvent).

The thing is, surely no competent hostage retriever (forgot the appropriate term, sorry) would leave this sort of thing to chance - you'd make sure your escape was clear or even escorted if necessary.  I don't think it was an assasination; but I do think it was a massive error of judgement and/or breakdown in communication at the very least, and because of the high profile nature of the victim has become publicisised. I'm pretty sure there are many similar incidents that take place and are unreported - I remember (vaguely) a story of a US soldier emptying an M-60 into a family in a civvie car, because said family didn't understand english and where or when to stop....

[Grug]

Perhaps they were fast deployed in order to intercept her? They intended to kill her. o_O

[/consipiracy]