Yesterday FOX news Jennifer Griffin reported (see thread below) that a British Tornado GR4 fighter jet bombing mission was called off at the last minute because CNN and Reuters reporters were on the ground in the area about to be attacked. Fox News reported the close call incident as an example of Ghadaffi using human shields because the reporters were driven to the target by Ghadaffi officials. CNN went ‘ballistic’ (pun intended) at the report the mission was called off because of their participation and their Chief Foreign coorespondant Nic Robertson went on various CNN shows including, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, and called the Fox report “outrageous”.
Well, it looks like FOX was right. Absolutely right; and Nic Robertson/CNN were wrong. Absolutely wrong. Check out this report from the British Newspaper Daily Mail: Mission aborted on orders of SAS: RAF attack is halted after troops spot human shields.
The RAF was just moments away from obliterating civilians being used as unwitting human shields by Colonel Gaddafi when SAS ‘spotters’ aborted the mission. Tornado GR4 fighter jets were closing in on Gaddafi’s presidential compound when the covert troops saw a group of people, including journalists reported to be from CNN and Reuters. The air raid was following up a Tomahawk cruise missile strike launched against the compound by a British submarine. But Gaddafi’s henchmen had driven foreign journalists to see the damage and would have been fully aware that the area was still under threat. Had the warplanes launched their fearsome barrage of 1.3-ton Storm Shadow missiles, many could have died. The potential catastrophe demonstrates the critical role being played by the SAS. Defence sources last night confirmed that the presence of the civilians was the reason the strike was called off.
A Special Forces insider said the aborted mission was being carried out at ‘a location we would not have expected a build-up of people at that time’. At least four potential targets identified by elite forces have been guarded by potential human shields, the Daily Mail understands, but this is the first indication Gaddafi may be willing to endanger reporters to gain a propaganda victory. The Tornado GR4s were about to blast targets inside Gaddafi’s sprawling presidential compound in downtown Tripoli as the follow-up mission to earlier in the evening when a command centre in the complex was destroyed by two warheads fired by a British submarine.
The three-storey administrative building was flattened by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from HMS Triumph beneath the surface of the Mediterranean. As well as the journalists, some 300 Gaddafi supporters were reported to have been in the compound, about 150 yards away from the tents which the Libyan leader uses as his official residence. The Tornados were on a marathon 3,000-mile trip from their base at RAF Marham in Norfolk to demolish Gaddafi’s air defences. This would have helped international forces impose a no-fly zone over Libya and prevent the dictator from wreaking havoc on rebel forces in Libya’s civil war.
The pilots have been instructed to target command-and-control centres, airfields, supply routes, radar stations and Libya’s anti-aircraft defence batteries which have often been identified by SAS forces operating deep behind enemy lines. But as the Tornados prepared to launch the Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of 150 miles, they were instructed not to fire because there were civilians at the target. If Allied forces accidentally killed innocent people, it would be a huge propaganda coup for Gaddafi. (read more)
Wonder if CNN will be as quick to apologize to FOX as they were to show such righteous indignation at what turns out to be a completely accurate report. Will they admit they were manipulated as human shields? Will they admit that they interferred with the mission objective by being in the wrong place during a time of warfare? Will they admit that they were wrong and FOX was right? Your thoughts? ……. /SD
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Quackdaffy always uses the media, it is how he manipulates his messaging. But this time he REALLY used the media. Like physically used the media…….. Fox is reporting… (Fox News)- An attack on the compound of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi on Sunday had to be curtailed because of journalists nearby, Fox News has learned. British sources confirmed that seven Storm Shadow missiles were ready to be fired from a British aircraft, but the strikes had to be curtailed due to crews from CNN, Reuters and other organizations nearby.
Officials from Libya’s Ministry of Information brought those journalists to the area to show them damage from the initial attack and to effectively use them as human shields.
The curtailment of this mission led to a great deal of consternation by coalition commanders, sources told Fox News, but they opted to call off the mission to avoid civilian casualties. During a Pentagon briefing on Monday, coalition commanders said the huge compound was targeted due to its air defense systems on the perimeter and a military command and control center. It was not targeted to kill Qaddafi, commanders said. (read article)
