I knew it was just a matter of time before the truth was revealed... Here is why the woman is dead... thank you america...another FUCK UP.
Moment British aid worker was killed in Afghanistan was captured on special forces' helmet-mounted camerasBy James Chapman, Ian Drury and Arthur Martin
Last updated at 2:50 AM on 13th October 2010
The death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove was caught on helmet-mounted cameras worn by the officers who mistakenly killed her with a grenade, it has emerged.
It comes as Miss Norgrove's parents last night demanded to know how the elite U.S. troops sent in to rescue her apparently ended up killing their daughter in the botched Afghanistan rescue bid.
The U.S. yesterday issued an extraordinary apology to Britain over the doomed mission to free the aid worker from the clutches of the Taliban.
American officials initially claimed Miss Norgrove had been killed when one of her captors detonated a suicide vest. But a review of footage taken by helmet cameras raised suspicions that in fact, it was a U.S. grenade which killed Miss Norgrove.
British aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been killed in a botched rescue attempt by U.S. troops
Tragic aid worker: Linda Norgrove on a trek in Afghanistan, a country that she loved
An ashen-faced David Cameron yesterday revealed the tragedy a few hours after General David Petraeus, the American commander of the Nato-led force in Afghanistan, telephoned Downing Street to express ‘deep regret’ about the operation.
But last night urgent questions were already being raised about the true independence of an inquiry into 36-year-old Miss Norgrove’s killing.
It had been billed as a joint U.S.-UK investigation, but will be run by U.S. Central Command ‘in close co-operation with UK authorities’.
Yesterday Norman Macdonald, a family friend, said Miss Norgrove’s parents had ‘no clear picture of what actually took place’ and were finding it ‘very difficult to cope’.
He added: ‘What the family are looking for is the truth of what happened in Afghanistan, and that’s the only thing that’s going to allow them to get closure and get on with the rest of their lives.
‘They want to know what happened that resulted in her being lost to them. They’re looking for information and clarity.’
Ashen-faced: David Cameron (left) learnt Miss Norgrove had been killed by so-called friendly fire from the American commander General David Petraeus
Mr Cameron was clearly shaken and disclosed he will replay the circumstances leading up to the green light for the operation ‘100 times’ in his head.
But there was also growing criticism of the tactics of the U.S. special forces sent in to try to rescue Miss Norgrove from the remote, mountainous Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous and lawless places in Afghanistan.
Military sources raised particular concern about the training the team had for hostage situations.
There were also questions over why they used lethal fragmentation grenades in a rescue bid – and why they used helicopters which would be heard and alert the gunmen.
The Prime Minister authorised the rescue mission with Foreign Secretary William Hague in what aides said was his first hands-on life or death decision.
Yesterday, he had to delay a rare Downing Street news conference for almost an hour as he rang Miss Norgrove’s family to express his regret.
Mr Cameron, who is due to meet General Petraeus for long-planned talks on Thursday, also insisted on viewing the U.S. footage of the bungled rescue attempt himself.
‘It’s a judgment, it’s a balance,’ the Prime Minister said. ‘I will go over in my own mind 100 times whether it was the right decision, but I believe it was.’
Globtrotter: Linda Norgrove was an experienced aid worker who had served in South America and the Far East
Lorna and John Norgrove
Desperate for answers: Miss Norgrove's parents Lorna and John want clarity about events surrounding their daughter's death
Asked if he had considered using British special forces to try to rescue Miss Norgrove, Mr Cameron said: ‘Of course I asked a huge number of questions.’
But he insisted it would have been ‘quite unorthodox’ for him to overrule commanders on the ground and insist on British special forces undertaking the rescue in an area known by U.S. forces.
‘I am clear that the best chance of saving Linda’s life was to go ahead, recognising that any operation was fraught with risk for all those involved and success was by no means guaranteed,’ he added.
But the dramatic change in the story of how Miss Norgrove died has left her parents ‘stunned and very tearful’, according to a source close to the family.
A soldier with a helmet-mounted camera, similar to the ones used by the U.S. special forces (file picture)
Yesterday her parents, John and Lorna Norgrove, were telephoned by the Prime Minister at their home on the Hebridean island of Lewis. Family friends and local politicians later offered words of comfort at their farmhouse.
Dr Alasdair Allan, a member of the Scottish parliament, emerged to say that the truth about the aid worker’s death was ‘a terrible blow to this family.’
He said: ‘They have had an appalling few days and had terrible news. They would like facts and it’s reasonable to expect that they get facts.’
U.S. president Barack Obama last night had a telephone conversation with David Cameron about the botched operation.
A No10 spoeksman said: 'The president offered his condolences for the death of Linda Norgrove.
'They agreed that the decision to launch the rescue operation had been right, given the grave danger to Linda's life, and that US forces had shown great courage.
'The Prime Minister and the president agreed that it was now essential to get to the bottom of what had happened in the course of the rescue operation.
'They looked forward to close co-operation between the UK and US authorities on the investigation and agreed to stay in close touch as it moved forward.'
THE DEADLY DAWN MISSION: HOW DARING RAID TO FREE AID WORKER ENDED IN DISASTER
As darkness fell, Linda Norgrove had no inkling of the bloodbath to come. Held in a mud compound in a part of Afghanistan known as ‘Enemy Central,’ the Scottish aid worker had settled down on Friday for her 13th night in captivity.
All was quiet, save for the noise of farm animals brought into the compound for the night.
But the silence was shattered shortly before dawn as U.S. special forces began a daring operation to ‘extract’ the 36-year-old hostage.
An intensive military operation, one that had been planned and co-ordinated from Kabul – but had involved discussions in London and Washington between Britain’s most senior intelligence officials, David Cameron, William Hague and their American counterparts – was about to come to a violent head.
Action was taken after reports that Miss Norgrove was soon to be moved to another, secret location.
The first intelligence suggesting Miss Norgrove’s whereabouts – a few buildings surrounded by a perimeter wall – had come from U.S. pilotless drones. She had reputedly been moved after being seized on her way to open a new water project.
SO WHY DIDN'T THEY SEND IN THE SAS?
Rescue mission: Troops at the compound after the failed attempt
Ministers were last night facing questions over why the SAS were not called in to rescue Linda Norgrove. Instead of crack British soldiers carrying out the mission, it was handed to the U.S. military, which has been accused of ‘gung-ho’ tactics.
The revelation that Miss Norgrove probably died following an American grenade explosion inevitably raised questions over whether she might have been rescued alive if British special forces had been directly involved.
British SAS commanders had been consulted by the U.S. before the raid. But the Americans took control because they have been operating in Kunar. ‘They knew the ground like the back of their hands,’ said one source. Yet doubts remain over their suitability for such a sensitive mission involving a British citizen. Indeed, members of the SAS apparently had deep reservations about the rescue plan, especially the use of helicopters.
Their fears were echoed by Tory MP Bob Stewart, a former commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia. He told MPs: ‘Sometimes helicopters are heard from a long way away, so there is warning. One of the first principles of war is surprise.’
British special forces have emerged from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan with glowing reputations. General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has praised the SAS and Special Boat Service for their ‘world-class counter-terrorism expertise’. However, British forces were criticised a year ago over the ‘high risk’ operation to free reporter Stephen Farrell.
The New York Times journalist was rescued but a British Paratrooper, along with Mr Farrell’s interpreter, Sultan Munadi, and two others, died.The SAS also failed to rescue British hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq.
David Livingstone, an Afghanistan
defence expert based at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, said the
delicate nature of hostage situations made it difficult to conclude whether U.S. troops had been gung ho in attempting to rescue Miss Norgrove.
An experienced aid worker who had served in South America and the Far East, she had been travelling in the region wearing a burqa to disguise the fact that she was a Westerner in this insurgents’ stronghold.
But she had been seized with three Afghan colleagues, all of whom were subsequently released and soon became the subject of frantic negotiations between British agents and local tribal leaders.
Nato forces had also received ‘hu-mint’ – human intelligence from local, paid spies – confirming the hostage’s location in the remote, mountainous Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous and lawless places in Afghanistan.
But time was pressing: disturbing intelligence suggested she was about to be smuggled over the border to an even more lawless area in Pakistan, where she would be held to ransom or used as a bargaining chip.
‘It was clear from very early on that the level of threat was very high that she would be moved from the very bad people who were holding her to even worse people across the border in Pakistan,’ said a senior security source.
‘The last thing we wanted was for her to be passed into the hands of Al Qaeda. It was agreed that if there was an opportunity to mount a special forces mission we should do so.’
So, with a media blackout in force, the idea was to attack the hideout at night before the insurgents rose for dawn prayers.
Dressed in black, wearing night-vision goggles and carrying automatic weapons and grenades, a small band of Navy Seals – the U.S. equivalent of the SAS – were informed that over their earpieces that the situation was a ‘go’.
Unaware that the compound had been located and was about to be stormed, some Taliban gunmen had dozed off. Miss Norgrove slept in a separate mud-floored room with women and children.
First, a small party of men – the ‘forward extraction’ unit – crept into the compound on foot. Snipers were deployed to pick off anyone attempting to flee.
With the forward team in place, the clatter of helicopters shattered the silence and five more Navy Seals abseiled down ropes into the compound.
The Seals then sprinted to the building where Miss Norgrove was being held, as 150 other U.S. troops surrounded the compound.
Overhead, Predator drones and Apache attack helicopters hovered, ready to provide air support. But the Taliban were not prepared to give up their prize lightly.
Using Colt M4A1 automatic rifles and grenades, five Navy Seals were engaged in a vicious fire-fight as they attempted to get to the hostage. She was being guarded by at least eight terrorists.
Despite the fierce Taliban resistance, the Seals managed to fight their way towards the Miss Norgrove’s building. And then, with six Taliban gunmen already dead, one of the Seals threw a grenade through the door.
When the Seals entered the room, they found Linda Norgrove. She was still alive, but had terrible injuries caused by the grenade blast.
To cries of ‘medic! medic!’, doctors rushed to the scene. But it was too late. She succumbed to her injuries as she was being airlifted to hospital – the third British civilian to die in Afghanistan in the last three months.
Yet, inexplicably, the U.S. and Nato both claimed that she had died at the hands of a suicide bomber, who had apparently detonated his vest as he stood beside her when the Seals were closing in.
The official statement released on Saturday by Nato, was unequivocal about the cause of death: the blast that killed Miss Norgrove occurred ‘seconds before rescuers arrived. [U.S. special forces] had entered the compound … [but] an insurgent detonated an explosive device that was attached to his person. He was in close enough proximity to Miss Norgrove. She was wounded.’
That statement, we now know, was inaccurate. For three days, the special forces failed to reveal the fact that one of them had apparently thrown a grenade that exploded close to where she was being held, bursting into razor-sharp steel shrapnel.
It was only yesterday morning when their commanding officer reviewed audio and video footage from their helmet cameras that he ‘saw an arm throw a hand grenade’ and confronted his troops.
It was the tragic end to weeks frantic efforts to secure her freedom.
When news emerged on September 26 that Miss Norgrove had been seized, the Prime Minister immediately activated COBRA – the Whitehall Unit responsible for dealing with national emergencies. In 12 meetings of COBRA, liaising with their counterparts in Washington, it was quickly determined that there should be a military rescue.
Dedicated: Miss Norgrove also spent time working in Peru for the World Wildlife Fund
British officials were determined to ensure that Miss Norgrove did not meet the fate of Karen Woo, the British doctor shot dead by Taliban insurgents in August, or that of Shaun Sexton, 29, a British security consultant who worked with Miss Norgrove and was murdered in July.
So what went wrong? According to British sources, the U.S. made clear it was ‘their’ operation, insisting that they knew the terrain better than the British.
Yet members of the SAS, who were on standby for the operation, were understood to have had deep reservations about the rescue plan, fearing that the use of helicopters would simply have alerted the insurgents.
The report that Miss Norgrove had been ‘killed by an insurgent’ who had detonated his suicide vest as the Seals closed in, was officially announced within hours of the operation taken place. The same information was relayed to Miss Norgrove’s parents – John, 60, a retired civil engineer, and her 62-year-old mother, Lorna.
But in the early hours of yesterday morning, David Petraeus, the U.S. chief of coalition forces in Afghanistan, made a personal call to Downing Street, leaving a message for Mr Cameron to phone him immediately. He had grim news. In military jargon, it was clearly a friendly fire killing.
While shocked, Mr Cameron does not believe the Americans lied. ‘It was wrong information in the fog of war,’ said a source. ‘General Petraeus cleared up the facts as soon as they became clear. It is a tragedy, but tragedies can happen.’
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319683/Linda-Norgroves-death-captured-US-special-forces-helmet-camera.html#ixzz12Ckfz7sE
