[GPRI] UK Coroner Rules Killing of Brit. Soldier by US Forces "Criminal Act"

[Richard Walton]

Hi:  This ruling by a British coroner has angered many British citizens
already opposed to the war.  Peace.  Richard Walton, RI.

 washingtonpost.com
Coroner Calls 'Friendly Fire' Death 'Criminal'

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 16, 2007; 11:18 AM

LONDON, March 16 -- A British coroner investigating the "friendly fire"
killing of a British soldier by a U.S. warplane during the invasion of
Iraq in 2003 ruled Friday that the death was a "criminal" act.

"I don't think this was a case of honest mistake," said Oxfordshire
Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker, concluding his probe into the
death of Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, 25. Walker, who had earlier blasted an
"appalling" lack of cooperation from the U.S. military, said he believed
the pilots who fired on Hull's convoy did not take steps to identify their
target that they "could easily have taken."

Hull's death and the U.S. military's initial refusal to release a cockpit
videotape showing it have caused anger in Britain and created friction
between Washington and its closest ally in the Iraq war. U.S. officials
have called the incident a tragic mistake and said that U.S. military
authorities have cleared the pilots, who have not been publicly
identified, of any wrongdoing.

"We're disappointed in the language used in the decision," David Johnson,
deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, said in an
interview.

Johnson said that separate investigations by the U.S. and British
militaries had concluded that the pilots did not violate any military
procedures or regulations. He said the incident was an accident and that
"our hearts go out" to the soldier's family.

Susan Hull, the soldier's widow, said the verdict proved that "Matthew's
death was entirely avoidable."

The coroner's report would only be used as the basis for further legal
action if the family chose to pursue it, according to a spokesman for the
coroner's office. Hull on Friday said she and her family would "move on"
from the incident and said she hoped the pilots involved "are at peace
with themselves" and can "move on with their lives."

"I'm sure they are full of remorse for what they did -- I hope so,
anyway," Hull said.

Hull also said that her husband and the British military had been "badly
let down" by the United States.

The U.S. government rarely releases video and audio recordings of friendly
fire incidents, and it initially declined to provide such evidence for the
inquiry into Hull's death. But last month a British tabloid newspaper
posted the cockpit video, which it had obtained from unidentified sources,
on its Web site.

In the video, the U.S. pilots are heard reacting with horror and disbelief
when they realized they had killed a friendly soldier. One of the pilots,
from the 190th Fighter Squadron of the Idaho Air National Guard, is heard
saying, "I'm going to be sick" and "We're in jail, dude."

Hours after the video was posted, the Pentagon agreed to release the video
to the coroner and the family, who later viewed it.

The 15-minute video shows the view forward from the cockpit of an A-10
Thunderbolt attack jet, as well as computerized flight data. It also
contains audio of the voices of the jet's pilot, the pilot of another A-10
flying in tandem, the voices of several U.S. ground controllers and the
sounds of the attacking aircraft's guns.

On the tape, the pilots are heard discussing orange panels they observed
atop the vehicles they were preparing to attack. Vehicles in the invasion
force were marked with orange panels visible from the sky. Assured by
ground controllers that there were no friendly vehicles in the area, one
of the pilots on the tape concludes that the orange panels are actually
rocket launchers on enemy vehicles. He then strafes the vehicles twice
with rapid-fire cannons before realizing the mistake.

In his ruling Friday, Walker concluded that the pilots "broke with the
combat rules of engagement in failing to properly identify the vehicles
and seek clearance before opening fire."

"The pilot chose to interpret the orange panels as rockets without taking
steps to identify the vehicles as friendly," Walker said, adding that the
pilots had no "lawful authority" to fire on the convoy and therefore had
committed a criminal act "outside the protection of the law of armed
conflict."

Walker also said that he believed "the full facts have not yet come to
light."

Johnson of the U.S. Embassy said that all relevant information had been
turned over by U.S. authorities.

He said Walker requested information about U.S. forces' rules of
engagement in combat. Johnson said that request was refused because "it
gives a paint-by-numbers kit to your current and potential adversaries."

Johnson said he believed Walker, "does not have a good grounding in the
law of armed conflict."

© 2007 The Washington Post Company


	"The only way out of our crisis (terrorism) is to reduce the anger of the
most rational, thus also reducing the constituency of the least rational."
 Sam Smith.

	"When they come for the innocent without crossing over
your body, cursed be your religion and your life."  Anon.  But often
quoted by Dorothy Day.
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Richard Walton" <richard at soup.org>
-----------------------------------------------------------