On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:47:17 -0600, Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gary Denton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 12:24 PM > Subject: Re: Special forces 'on the ground' in Iran > > > On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:54:40 -0600, Dan Minette > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Gary Denton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > He does. But, those contacts also use him in internal political games. > > > > > > If so, I wonder why the families still don't know their loved ones are > > > dead....three years later. He reported on massive casualties early in > the > > > war, and we never ever saw them. > > > > I cannot comment on this becuase you have provided no means of > > ascertaining what Hersh actually reported. > > It may be hard to get exactly what I referred to because I saw it on CNN. > It was around the time that the first embedded reporter gave green light > pictures of a small landing by Special Forces near the start of the war. > > This is a related piece: > > http://slate.msn.com/?id=2058474 > > from the New Yorker. My memory of his statment about the number of > casualties may be a bit high, but there was clearly a disagreement between > his comments and the US government's comments on the number of casualties. > > I hope this helps.
Hersh said there were 12 US casualties (=wounded). The Army said there were injuries that occurred while landing but no enemy caused casualties. I often see these points boil up into partisan outrage - "see that 'liberal' (95%+ of the time) is lying and doesn't know what he is talking about. This may really get into a CIA - Special Forces dispute where probably someone was disparaging the special forces versus using CIA forces. Another option is DoD personnel airing out policy differences. "Hersh's main contentions: 1) Despite Pentagon claims that the raids met no significant Taliban interference, in fact there was a ferocious firefight at Mullah Omar's complex and 12 Delta Force commandos were wounded, three seriously. Delta was forced to abandon one of its planned objectives, inserting an undercover team into the area. 2) The airport assault was "something less than the Pentagon suggested," producing nothing more than exciting TV footage. The Ranger parachutists featured in that footage were not the first U.S. soldiers to hit the field but came in only after a special Army Pathfinder team had been inserted and had confirmed that the field was cleared of Taliban forces. 3) The problems with both raids stem from the inability of military higher-ups to properly understand special ops missions." Gary Denton _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
