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OTTAWA (CP) - The commander of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan says there was no massing of 2,000 Taliban fighters anywhere near Kandahar, as a U.S. pilot says he was told before he mistakenly bombed Canadian troops last April. Canadian mechanized troops conducted regular patrols around the Kandahar airfield throughout their six-month deployment there. The Tarnac Puhl training ground, three kilometres southwest of the base, was well within their area of operations, said Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran. "If there were 2,000 al-Qaida or Taliban in our area of operations, we would not have hesitated to close with them," Stogran told The Canadian...

NEW ORLEANS (CP) - A lawyer for one of two U.S. pilots who dropped a bomb killing four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last April says the U.S. air force had pressured the pilots to take amphetamines that may have impaired their judgment during the mission. Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach face a possible court-martial for dropping the laser-guided bomb near Kandahar on April 18. A U.S. air force investigation determined the pilots "demonstrated poor airmanship" and ignored standard procedure by not making sure there were no allied troops in the area. But Umbach's lawyer, David Beck, said he will...

OTTAWA -- An ABC News 20/20 report says amphetamines given to two U.S. fighter pilots may have contributed to a friendly-fire incident last April 18 that killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight more in Afghanistan. But reports by both Canadian and U.S. investigators said the Dexedrine pills, known on the street as speed or uppers, were not a factor in the attack on troops involved in a live-fire exercise near the Canadians' Kandahar base. And the Canadian commander in Afghanistan, Lt.- Col. Pat Stogran, said it's "beyond comprehension" how the Americans could have mistaken a night-time exercise for an...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois state Senate approved a resolution Thursday supporting two National Guard pilots facing criminal charges for dropping bombs on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. On a voice vote, the Senate approved the resolution that said the pilots, who were in Afghanistan with a Springfield, Ill.-based National Guard unit, thought they were under attack and 'friendly fire" accidents are an unavoidable part of war. "Of course, if you're up in the air and someone fires at you, you fire back. It's a terrible, terrible accident," said the sponsor, Senate President James (Pate) Philip, a former U.S. marine...

The Canadian soldiers involved in a fatal training exercise in Afghanistan had been ordered to stop firing at least five minutes before they were bombed by U.S. F16 pilots who mistook them for the enemy. A range sentry posted in the Kandahar airport control tower gave a "check-fire" order to the Canadians conducting a live-fire exercise nearby. The order was either lost or scrambled, however, as members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry continued to fire anti- tank weapons on the Tarnak Farms range. One of the F16 pilots, Maj. Harry Schmidt, believed he was taking "tally" -- anti-...

Filed at 7:19 p.m. ET MIAMI (AP) -- Eleven other Florida counties had the same kind of touch-screen voting machines used in Miami-Dade County, where voting irregularities have tied up another major election. They were operated by similar crews of mainly elderly volunteers who had worked low-tech elections for years. So why did Tuesday's primary go so well in those places and so miserably here? For starters, those other counties trained their poll workers up to three times longer than Miami-Dade. Some made sure volunteers could read the English instructions. Most had their machines longer then Miami-Dade did, and they...

Only God should judge the fate of two U.S. pilots charged in the "reckless" bombing deaths of four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, says the father of one victim. "Let God judge them. Nothing can bring back my son," said Torontonian Paul Dyer, father of Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, who was killed along with three fellow members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. "I wish no harm to those pilots because they have families. Look at me. I am left here behind in pain. Those families will go through the same thing as me," Dyer said. U.S. Air Force Maj. Harry...

AN APOLOGY TO THE PSYCHO-AMERICAN COMMUNITY On behalf of the entire Canadian media, I would like to apologize to members of the Psycho-American community for our coverage of the Kandahar "friendly fire" incident ("Harry Schmidt Was Called Psycho Long Before His Bomb Killed Four Canadians," etc., etc.). You may recall that a month ago, following a fortuitous leak to The New York Times, the very name of Major Harry "Psycho" Schmidt triggered a wild stampede by the Dominion's commentariat to blame the deaths of four Canadian soldiers on one mean trigger-happy nutcake sonofabitch Yank flyboy who happened to satisfy all...

The U.S. fighter pilot who dropped a bomb on Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan was granted permission to attack just seconds after the explosion, according to a cockpit transcript that seems to contradict the official story that pilot error triggered the disaster. The top-secret correspondence reveals that moments after Major Harry Schmidt announced he was "rolling in" toward the Canadian troops, the commander of a nearby radar plane authorized him to fire. "You're cleared," the commander said after the bomb exploded. "Self- defence." The previously unreleased discourse adds yet another level of confusion to what actually went wrong on the morning...

TORONTO and OTTAWA - Four Canadian paratroopers were killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan because of a catastrophic communications breakdown that stretches to the highest levels of the United States command structure, a U.S. military official said last night. The F-16 pilot who dropped the bomb, the official said, should not have been flying anywhere near the Canadian troops, but U.S. Central Command failed to tell his superiors that allied forces were training in the area. "There should have been an invisible wall in the sky that all command control structures knew about," said the official, who spoke to the...

OTTAWA (CP) -- Two American fighter pilots were "the direct cause" of a bombing tragedy that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in April, say Canadian and U.S. reports released Friday. "Canadian troops conducting the live-fire exercise followed all appropriate procedures and regulations," Defence Minister John McCallum told a news conference. Investigators also determined that "the two American pilots contravened established procedures and were the direct cause of the incident." Two U.S. fighter planes were returning to base after what was described as a long patrol in the wee hours of April 18 when they saw what looked like fireworks...

A Canadian report on the bombing tragedy which killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in April will be released Friday, and will say that the American pilot who dropped the fatal bomb rushed his attack, defence officials say. The report will closely mirror the leaked findings of a parallel American inquiry, which blamed an American pilot for turning to the attack without properly assessing the situation. The findings of the American investigation are to be released in tandem with the Canadian report. Maurice Baril, the retired general who led the Canadian inquiry, delivered the report to Gen. Ray Henault, the...

Albanian Blood Feuds Incite Frequent Murders in Kosovo Barry FLETCHER, Spokesperson UNMIK Police Briefing Notes [excerpt] 3 June, 2002 Arrest For Attempted Murder On May 29th in Shalic Village (Mitrovica Region), a K-Albanian man was found inside a vehicle, suffering from a gunshot wound to the knee. Police arrested the suspect, another K-Albanian male, and recovered the AK-47 rifle used in the crime. Investigators have confirmed the motive for the shooting was a blood feud and the suspect shot the victim in retaliation for a killing that occurred on May 29th 14 years ago. Arrest For Grenade Attack On...

EDMONTON (CP) - The most badly wounded survivor of the bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan says he can't understand how an American pilot mistook them for the enemy. Sgt. Lorne Ford said his soldiers were well marked as "friendlies" during an April 18 live-fire training exercise near Kandahar. He said members of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry wore infrared tape on their helmets and left shoulders and some wore flashing infrared strobe lights on their helmets. "To be fired upon and to have a bomb dropped on us when we were marked as "friendlies" . . . is something...