Comment Re:So What??? (Score 1) 1325
"Route Force (Vernon) runs North/South and does not intersect with either the airport or the Green Zone."
Problem with this is twofold: first, the US report states specifically that Route Vernon leads to an intersection with Route Irish essentially at the on-ramp to the Airport. Second, how to explain why Sgrena said they entered the Green Zone to get to the road - this is very clear in Klein's interview. If Sgrena is entirely wrong about this, then I might accept it, but there seems to be no reason to believe this. It also does not explain why the fact that they were on Route Vernon is almost completely ignored in the US report except to explain how they got to Route Irish - which is heavily emphasized in the report as being dangerous (as we know it is).
Per the report, the Force/Irish intersection is the third one to the East of the airport. I can tell you from personal experience that route Force does not intersect with the airport.
I should clarify as well, Route Irish runs North / South until a little outside the Green Zone where it curves south (not that it's germane to this conversation but for the sake of completeness I figured I'd mention it), you actually turn off onto another road to get into the Green Zone.
So I'd say that Ms. Klein or Ms. Sgrena are mistaken, it wouldn't be the only part in the interview that appears incorrect (for example the "It was a four-inch bullet that entered her body and broke apart"). Completely understandable, however you slice it there's no doubt that Ms. Sgrena had just been through quite an ordeal (rather a series of ordeals certainly including her captivity).
Why they were on route Force (Vernon) is not addressed in the report, it's not spectacularly relevant to the question of the shooting itself, though I can tell you that route Force did have a lot of attacks occuring on it during the time I was there.
Roadblocking does serve the tactical purpose of reducing access to potentially bad people from a given area. It's tactically useful under circumstances, protecting the convoy with Negroponte would be one of those circumstances (though we all agree that the roadblock should only have been in place for about 15 minutes).
Thanks for the link, I'll do some more googling for the pictures. The CTV report does not indicate any bullet holes entering through the rear of the vehicle. The hole in the rear passenger seat is presumably from the bullet that went through Ms Sgrena's shoulder.
The Pentagon appears capable of admitting it's mistakes (possibly not real happy about it, but certainly capable). This report while not finding criminal wrong doing certainly has a laundry list of shortcomings and recommendations.
On the other hand the Bush administration does appear completely incapable of admitting any mistakes, wrongdoing, errors, or culpability in any forum or manner, but that's a whole other story.
The long and the short of it is that neither of us were at the scene when it happened so it's all speculation really. By the same token I'm glad they didn't just decide to pin this on a Specialist from the NY National Guard for the sake of political expediency (particularly being NY ARNG myself) and political correctness.
Problem with this is twofold: first, the US report states specifically that Route Vernon leads to an intersection with Route Irish essentially at the on-ramp to the Airport. Second, how to explain why Sgrena said they entered the Green Zone to get to the road - this is very clear in Klein's interview. If Sgrena is entirely wrong about this, then I might accept it, but there seems to be no reason to believe this. It also does not explain why the fact that they were on Route Vernon is almost completely ignored in the US report except to explain how they got to Route Irish - which is heavily emphasized in the report as being dangerous (as we know it is).
Per the report, the Force/Irish intersection is the third one to the East of the airport. I can tell you from personal experience that route Force does not intersect with the airport.
I should clarify as well, Route Irish runs North / South until a little outside the Green Zone where it curves south (not that it's germane to this conversation but for the sake of completeness I figured I'd mention it), you actually turn off onto another road to get into the Green Zone.
So I'd say that Ms. Klein or Ms. Sgrena are mistaken, it wouldn't be the only part in the interview that appears incorrect (for example the "It was a four-inch bullet that entered her body and broke apart"). Completely understandable, however you slice it there's no doubt that Ms. Sgrena had just been through quite an ordeal (rather a series of ordeals certainly including her captivity).
Why they were on route Force (Vernon) is not addressed in the report, it's not spectacularly relevant to the question of the shooting itself, though I can tell you that route Force did have a lot of attacks occuring on it during the time I was there.
Roadblocking does serve the tactical purpose of reducing access to potentially bad people from a given area. It's tactically useful under circumstances, protecting the convoy with Negroponte would be one of those circumstances (though we all agree that the roadblock should only have been in place for about 15 minutes).
Thanks for the link, I'll do some more googling for the pictures. The CTV report does not indicate any bullet holes entering through the rear of the vehicle. The hole in the rear passenger seat is presumably from the bullet that went through Ms Sgrena's shoulder.
The Pentagon appears capable of admitting it's mistakes (possibly not real happy about it, but certainly capable). This report while not finding criminal wrong doing certainly has a laundry list of shortcomings and recommendations.
On the other hand the Bush administration does appear completely incapable of admitting any mistakes, wrongdoing, errors, or culpability in any forum or manner, but that's a whole other story.
The long and the short of it is that neither of us were at the scene when it happened so it's all speculation really. By the same token I'm glad they didn't just decide to pin this on a Specialist from the NY National Guard for the sake of political expediency (particularly being NY ARNG myself) and political correctness.
