gee, maybe they read this before the game,
from the globeandmail.com,
By COLIN FREEZE
From Friday's Globe and Mail
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* Timing of report raises brows
Two U.S. pilots who accidentally bombed and killed Canadian soldiers last year should no longer face criminal charges, according to a U.S. Air Force investigator whose findings were released yesterday.
The non-binding report, which is already being hailed as a relief to thousands of U.S. soldiers who have begun fighting in a war against Iraq, argues that Major Harry Schmidt and Major William Umbach should no longer face the prospect of being jailed for dropping a 225-kilogram bomb on their allies in Afghanistan last April.
Relatives of the soldiers who were killed or injured in the attack expressed disappointment at the outcome.
"I want to see some punishment," said Agatha Dyer, whose 25-year-old son, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, was killed in the bombing.
"This is just a charade," Ms. Dyer said from her home in Montreal. "They just get away with murder."
Ron Link, whose son, Private Norman Link, survived the friendly-fire attack, wondered whether the U.S.-led attack on Iraq -- and Canada's refusal to take part -- might explain why the pilots likely will not face criminal sanctions.
"Their guys are probably saying, 'Well, these guys aren't even onside with us any more, they're not fighting with us, so why . . .?' " Mr. Link said.
According to a statement summarizing the still unreleased report by Colonel Patrick Rosenow, there is "sufficient evidence" to charge and try the two pilots under a court-martial proceeding.
But the colonel -- who spent months probing the attack that killed four Canadians and wounded eight others -- concluded that "the interests of good order and discipline" would be adequately served by the pilots appearing instead before a "non-judicial or administrative forum," according to the U.S. Air Force statement.
That means that should a more senior U.S. Air Force officer agree with that finding -- and that is the most likely scenario -- the pilots could, at most, be dismissed, get letters of reprimand, or be docked a few weeks pay.
Supporters of the pilots have complained that the two Illinois National Guardsmen could face up to 64 years in prison if convicted of criminal manslaughter charges -- a possibility that now seems very remote. The pilots were also charged with dereliction of duty and aggravated assault.
The pilots' friends and family say Major Schmidt and Major Umbach have become cautiously optimistic about their futures, but will be anxious as a lieutenant-general takes a up to a month to review the recommendations.
But the findings should immediately bolster the spirits of U.S. soldiers now in Iraq, Major Schmidt's defence lawyer, Charles Gittens, said yesterday.
"The pilots will have the confidence that if they make a mistake in combat under the intensity of the moment, they won't have to worry that they're going to be second-guessed in a court-martial," Mr. Gittens told The Globe and Mail in a telephone interview.
The charges were laid after Canadians expressed outrage over the deaths of the soliders.
Defence Minister John McCallum wouldn't comment on the report yesterday beyond saying that he hoped that the slain soldiers' families would soon get closure.
But opposition MPs expressed disappointment. "I was really calling for justice, I was really calling for them to really look for some kind of a penalty. They didn't go that far," Conservative MP Elsie Wayne said.
Canadian Alliance MP Leon Benoit argued the timing of the announcement is curious, given that the war will likely bury U.S. accounts of the accident.
"I don't think there's any doubt that they want to hide it," he said.
A U.S. Air Force spokeswoman said Col. Rosenow finished his 33-page finding on March 18, but it has taken days to photocopy volumes of supporting documents that were based on evidence from a preliminary hearing in January.
The accident occurred as the pilots flew over a nighttime live-fire training exercise involving Canadian infantrymen in Afghanistan last April. While being supervised by Major Umbach, Major Schmidt did not heed an order to hold his fire and instead dropped a 225-kilogram bomb on the Canadians, whom he mistook for al-Qaeda fighters.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Bruce Carlson will now go through the 33-page report and its accompanying volumes of evidence. He may decide to proceed with manslaughter charges or even drop all proceedings entirely -- but experts say it is "very likely" he'll go along with the report.
The report recommends that Major Umbach's case go to an "administrative forum" -- which would, at worst, result in a letter of reprimand, according to a U.S. Air Force spokeswoman. Such letters are a black mark that would make any military promotion difficult, if not impossible.
