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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Hunt who wrote (11907)	12/18/2001 2:19:12 PM
From: John Hunt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Liar, liar, pants on fire :-) [ Where's Geraldo? (CBS) Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, who couldn't bear being away from the action in Afghanistan, was hundreds of miles from the site of a friendly fire incident he reported on, the Baltimore Sun said in a Dec. 15 report. Rivera reported in a Dec. 6 piece that he became emotional and choked up while standing on the "hallowed ground" in Afghanistan where "friendly fire took so many of our, our men and the mujahedeen yesterday." Rivera said he had recited the Lord's Prayer. But, according to a report on the Baltimore Sun's Internet site, Rivera admitted that he was several hundred miles from the site - outside Kandahar - where three Americans were killed on Dec. 5 by an errant U.S. bomb. In an interview on Tuesday, Rivera said he had confused the Kandahar deaths with another "friendly fire" incident that cost several Afghan lives in Tora Bora. But, according to the Sun, Pentagon information shows the Tora Bora incident occurred at least three days after Rivera's Dec. 6 report. Rivera quit his talk show on CNBC to become a war correspondent for the Fox News Channel in November. He said at the time he couldn’t bear to stay on the sidelines during a big story. He generated some controversy among fellow correspondents for boasting of carrying a gun while on the news beat in the war-torn country. One Associated Press correspondent said in a letter to the Poynter Institute that it was dangerous for journalists to brag about being armed in a war zone. Three Army Green Berets were killed and 20 other Americans were wounded Wednesday, Dec. 5, when an Air Force B-52 dropped a one-ton bomb near them. The soldiers had called in the air strike to hit Taliban forces they were fighting near the militia's southern stronghold of Kandahar. Five anti-Taliban Afghan fighters also were killed and another 18 were wounded. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered an investigation into the mistaken bombing. The Pentagon identified those killed as Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Watauga, Tenn.; Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, of Cheshire, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of Fraizer Park, Calif. All were members of the Army's 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. A forward air controller among the U.S. troops involved in the incident called for close air support and an Air Force B-52 bomber responded by launching a bomb known as a Joint Direct Attack Munition. The bomb is guided by a satellite navigation system and is considered one of the most accurate weapons in the U.S. arsenal. It was used for the first time in combat in Kosovo in 1999. Pentagon officials said investigators will try to determine whether the bomb missed the intended target because of mechanical or human error. Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based, Poynter Institute, said: "I believe that Geraldo Rivera and Fox News owe their viewers a substantive explanation of what this means, journalistically and ethically. If he did this in a way that violates journalistic standards, he is disrespectful not only to his profession, but to the families of those Americans who died." Fox News has offered no explanation, the Sun reported. Fox News spokesman Rob Zimmerman said he had "no information" on whether the network was reviewing the incident. On Thursday, Zimmerman told the Sun it had a vendetta against the channel and hung up the phone. ] cbsnews.com

To: John Hunt who wrote (11907)	12/19/2001 7:19:46 AM
From: John Hunt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

India Government Discussing War [ NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India's prime minister said on Wednesday that the government is discussing war, as well as diplomacy, as a response to last week's suicide attack on Parliament that it blames on Pakistan-based militants. Atal Bihari Vajpayee told India's Parliament that Pakistani officials know there are forces within Pakistan that are taking part in terrorism. He repeated India's demand that it crack down on them. ``We are trying to address this diplomatically, but other options are also open, too,'' Vajpayee said during a debate over Thursday's assault on the legislative compound that left 13 people dead, including the attackers. India says all five attackers were Pakistanis and that the neighboring country's intelligence service sponsored the attack. Pakistan has denied the charge. The armies of both nuclear-armed nations' armies are reported to be on alert. The Indian army said it engaged in heavy firing on Pakistani border outposts and bunkers Wednesday and both sides were exchanging gunfire on the Jammu-Kashmir (news - web sites) frontier. An Indian army spokesman said soldiers had fired across the border on Tuesday night to retaliate against Pakistani firing, which was allegedly aimed at covering for Islamic militant infiltrators. Pakistan says it supports the cause of the militants - to separate Kashmir from India - but denies it gives them material aid. Border firing is common, with each side accusing the other of starting it. In response to a U.S. call for restraint from both sides as Washington seeks their help in the global war on terrorism, Vajpayee said, ``We have reached the pinnacle of restraint.'' When President Bush (news - web sites) telephoned to express condolences after the Parliament attack, Vajpayee said, ``I told him that the terrorists were linked to Pakistan, were under the control of Pakistan and working at the behest of Pakistan.'' India has demanded that Pakistan halt all activities by two Islamic militant groups, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, arrest their leaders and freeze their assets. New Delhi said the two groups, with the support of Pakistan's intelligence service, planned and carried out the assault on Parliament. ``The question is not whether there should be a war or not,'' Vajpayee said. ``The question to be debated is in what circumstances there could be a war.'' Pakistan has accused India of blaming it for the suicide assault as a way of avoiding talks over the disputed Kashmir region which has bedeviled relations between the South Asian neighbors for five decades. Pakistani officials have said they would participate in an impartial investigation, but would take no action without proof. Vajpayee called the demand for a joint investigation ``ridiculous.'' ``What proof do we need?'' Vajpayee said. ``The bullet marks on the Parliament walls, the bodies of the terrorists, who were Pakistani nationals, this is the proof by itself.'' Vajpayee has said all parties would be consulted about what action to take in response to the attack. ``When we have to decide about war or peace, we have to be patient,'' he said. ``We have to have all options and their pros and cons weighed before coming to any conclusion.'' Since their division into separate nations after British independence in 1947, Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars, two of them over their competing claims to the Himalayan region of mostly Muslim Kashmir. ] dailynews.yahoo.com