SIGHTINGS


 
German Paper Says Lost
US Apache Was Actually
Shot Down
From Bob Djurdjevic <bobdj@djurdjevic.com>
FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA
 
The Special Truth in Media Global Watch Bulletins on NATO's war on Serbia,
such as the one enclosed below, can also be accessed at our Web site:
www.truthinmedia.org which is being updated throughout the day.
 
Issue S99-88, Day 62
May 24, 1999
 
 
 
HAMBURG, May 24 - Remember the ill-fated Apache helicopter which crashed in Albania on May 5, killing two American pilots, and casting a pall on Bill Clinton's and Madeleine Albright's visit to the NATO headquarters in Brussels? The U.S. military spokesperson in Germany told Reuters at the time that the aircraft was on a training mission when it crashed. He speculated the Apache may have hit a power line.
 
Commander Tom van Leunen, spokesman for the U.S. European command in Stuttgart, Germany, said the crash occurred in darkness some 50 miles north of Tirana. Two pilots became the first admitted casualties suffered by NATO. Later on, the official line from the "lie and deny" Washington-Brussels crowd was that the Apache helicopter crashed due to either mechanical or human errors.
 
It didn't. It was probably shot down by the Yugoslav anti-aircraft defenses, according to a May 23 report in Germany's "Welt am Sonntag" ("World on Sunday") alleged. Citing a "secret report" issued by NATO experts, the German paper said the Apache exploded in the air and went down in a ball of fire. Which is the main reason the NATO experts had eliminated the mechanical or human errors as the cause. --- TiM Ed.: The above "Welt am Sonntag" story rounds out our reports about the Apaches being the "Flying Coffins" (S99-81, Day 55, Item 1, May 17) and being grounded by mountains (S99-86, Day 60, Item 4, May 22).
 
Now we know why the Washington brass got cold feet about using the Pentagon's "fearsome," "pride and joy" high-tech weapon against the Serbs in Kosovo. "Whew... thank God," must have been the response by the Apaches' pilots and crews, used to turkey shoots in Iraq.
 
The timing of this shoot-down, if that's what it was, was also conspicuous. Did the Yugoslav military want to deliver a message to Bill Clinton and his Halfbright armchair bomber, as they landed for a round of NATO briefings in Brussels on May 5?
 
If so, it appears the message was heard. And heeded. The Apaches are now grounded. Not by mountains, as the British media tried to spin the story. ---------------





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