By Steve Hynd
Marc Ambinder and others are now confirming the Guardian story today that a U.S. SEAL killed kidnapped aid worker Linda Norgrave when he threw a fragmentation grenade instead of a smoke one, fatally wounding her. Marc writes:
A senior military official tells me that a preliminary investigation into the killing of British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Northern Afghanistan found that a U.S. Navy SEAL tossed a fragmentation grenade into the compound where Norgrove was being held, thinking it was a smoke grenade.
...NATO originally blamed the Taliban for Norgrove's death but immediately launched an investigation after commanders reviewed after-action reports.
For me, this admission only begs more questions, chief among them:
--- The AFP reported on Saturday, while NATO was still blaming the Taliban, that a U.S. grenade had caused Norgrave's fatal wounds. They got this from an Afghan intelligence official. That calls into question the official narrative of a SEAL commander acting "on a hunch" and reviewing mission tapes to discover one of his men hadn't told the whole story. Was the investigation really begun in response to AFP's report and others that challenged the then-official story?
---The official story is that the raid to rescue Norgrave was mounted because NATO was certain that she was about to be moved into Pakistan or possibly killed. Yet the Guardian today also ran a story in which Afghan negotiators say they were on the doorstep, ready to bargain for her release.
Meanwhile, a senior western official in Kabul said it was difficult to see why the US and UK governments did not give negotiation a greater chance. "We've had over seventy abductions of NGO people this year, with just three or four killed. That's a 5% chance of being killed," he said.
Paul Refsdal, a Norwegian journalist who was kidnapped for six days in the same part of Kunar last November, criticised the rescue bid: "When I was in captivity I called my embassy and I was very clear that I didn't want any rescue attempt," he said. "I understand that every politician wants to take credit for the raid on Entebbe," he added, referring to the successful 1976 Israeli commando raid on a hijacked airliner in Uganda. "But this was stupid, really."
Was the raid premature?
--- Why is there a NATO investigation, being led by US special forces chief Maj. Gen Votel with a junior British officer, Brigadier Rob Nitsch - the head of logistics for UK forces in Afghanistan - as his aide?
One Army officer, dismissing Brigadier Nitsch as a �blanket-stacker� responsible for sorting out troops� bedding supplies, told the Mail: �It�s a one-star logistician and a two-star special forces general. How much clout will our man have? Not a lot.�
Tory MP Stephen Phillips said: �The U.S. military has got a history of investigating things and not getting the full truth. That is a serious concern.�
A senior defence source said: �The Americans have been reticent in the past to share information, especially if it is controversial. In this instance complete transparency is vital. There mustn�t be even a hint of a whitewash.�
If David Cameron had really intended that there be not even "a hint of a whitewash", he would have followed British law and insisted the Americans co-operate fully. Why hasn't there been a Coroner's Inquest convened into Linda Norgrave's death?
"According to an Afghan intelligence official, the rescue team was closing in on the house where Norgrove was being held when her captors threw a grenade into the room where she was kept, killing her."
ReplyDelete