So was the Afghanistan helicopter shot down?

[TexasLawyer]

There are lots of official announcements that the helicopter that went down in Kunar Province was not shot down, but somehow they don't seem convincing. Like this from Voice of America. We're going to investigate, because we don't know why it crashed. But we DO know ahead of any investigation that it was NOT shot down.

The helicopter was doing military exercises, all aboard were killed, the place is crawling with insurgents, it was a remote area (fewer witnesses than in, say, Basra so greater "deniability"), insurgents claimed they shot it down, and another helicopter was shot down in the same place last year with RPGs.

Hmmmm.


Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Kills 10 American Soldiers
By Benjamin Sand
Islamabad
06 May 2006


A U.S. helicopter has crashed late Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 American soldiers on board. U.S. military officials say the crash late Friday occurred during combat operations in Kunar province. The CH-47 Chinook went down about 240 kilometers east of the capital, Kabul, not far from the Pakistan border.

Military spokeswoman Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence says an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the crash.

"But it is important to note that the crash was not due to any hostile action or enemy fire," she said.
She says the bodies of all 10 soldiers have been recovered.

More than 2,000 U.S. and Afghan soldiers have been targeting al-Qaida and Taleban insurgents in Kunar province since last month. It is one of the largest offensives since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taleban from power in 2001.
<snip>

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-06-voa1.cfm

[MadMaddie]

1. Let's think about it....if they admit that it was shot down...that would

lead the world and American citizens to come to the conclusion that Afghanistan is spiraling out of control.....if the * cabal is forced to admit this...this is just another sign that by pulling troops out of Afghanistan and attacking Iraq was a big mistake.....

As we are seeing day in and day out....the lies these guys have been telling are catching up with them and the truth is spinning out of their control.....The truth is what is destroying them!!

[blonndee]

4. You're so right, and Afghanistan is WAY worse than

most people think. Hardly a blip on the corpmedia radar.

I have a feeling Afghanistan is about to explode...from what I hear, it's very tense, even in the "calmer" areas.

ETA: Of course, this MAY be just an accident. Still, how could we ever know?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. OTOH

The oldest Chinooks are 30 to 35 years old, though I don't know how old this one was. I further do not know what the elevation it was at in the Kunar Province. Conditions can be quite dusty, which can wreak havoc with bearings, air filters, and engine efficiency.

I'm in the wait and see mode.

[Bigmack]

3. Gotta tighten those "Jesus Nuts". nt

nt

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. If it wasn't, we would have heard before they could construct

the final reason/

[TexasLawyer]

6. Here's the Taliban side reported on Al Jazeera

Taliban claim helicopter kill

Sunday 07 May 2006, 2:58 Makka Time, 23:58 GMT

The Taliban claim to have shot down a US helicopter in Afghanistan, killing all those on board. An Aljazeera correspondent in Afghanistan said Muhamad Hanif, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed that his movement had brought down the US Chinook.

The US-led forces said the 10 multinational force soldiers on board were all killed, but denied that the Chinook, which crashed near the Pakistan border, had been brought down by the Taliban.

<snip>


The Chinook crashed near the Pakistan border (file pic)

Advanced weaponry

Hanif claimed that his movement has acquired advanced weaponry capable of destroying US helicopters. The Taliban shot down another US Chinook helicopter in Kunar in June last year, killing all 16 soldiers on board. It was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, the US military said.

The aircraft that came down on Friday was taking part in an anti-Taliban offensive, Operation Mountain Lion, which was launched in Kunar last month. Mountain Lion involves 2,500 Afghan and US-led troops backed by a range of US and British aircraft. While those forces battle the Taliban and other fighters in eastern and southern Afghanistan, a separate Nato-led force of peacekeepers is deployed in the west and north, and in the capital, Kabul.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8706BB7C-FE72-4553-96F1-B5D017454AF4.htm

[TexasLawyer]

7. In the crash last year in Afghanistan, the US had also denied

that the helicopter had been shot down. And regarding "no signs of fire" I would guess that a guy sitting around with an RPG would not give himself away, say with small arms fire, before or after taking out a helicopter.

Sorry, but our government spokespeople, who have brought us such fantasies as Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, have no credibility with me.

From today's NYT:



<snip>
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for Friday's crash when he was reached by telephone, saying Taliban fighters had shot down the helicopter, a Chinook transport. "Whenever we shoot them down, they announce it as a technical problem," he said of the coalition forces. "This is their propaganda." But Lieutenant Lawrence said Saturday that so far there was no indication of hostile fire. People on the ground at a landing zone near where the helicopter crashed as well as people aboard other aircraft in the air at the time of the crash did not see any signs of fire, she said.

Insurgents used shoulder-held rocket-propelled grenade launchers to shoot down two American military helicopters last year. One helicopter was carrying 16 people, including eight Navy Seal commandos, and went down in Kunar Province in July. The second, with five American crew members on board, was shot down in September in Zabul Province, in southeast Afghanistan.

In the Zabul crash, the United States at first said hostile fire was not involved, but investigators later confirmed that the helicopter had been shot down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/world/asia/07afghan.html?ex=1304654400&en=14e0927a35dfbdc3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss