PM under fire over 'shocking' remarks

National Post ^ | 2002-09-13 | Sheldon Alberts, Bill Curry and Steve Edwards

[AppyPappy]

Somebody needs to tell this loudmouth French-mumbling halfwit to ladle some extra shutup gravy on his crow.

[ValerieUSA]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1573224

Sept. 12, 2002, 11:20PM

2 pilots face charges in mistaken bombing
Four Canadian soldiers killed in attack

By ROBERT BURNS ... Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Air Force is recommending criminal charges against two Air National Guard pilots for their role in the fatal bombing of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, a senior defense official said Thursday.

The charges were to be announced today at the Pentagon after the U.S. Central Command and the Canadian government released additional details from a joint investigation of the April 17 tragedy.

The senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Air Force would recommend that F-16 pilot Maj. Harry Schmidt be charged with involuntary manslaughter. He dropped a 500-pound bomb on a group of Canadian soldiers, mistaking them for enemy forces. Four Canadians were killed and eight were wounded.

The Air Force also is recommending Schmidt be charged with failure to exercise appropriate flight discipline.

Maj. William Umbach, the lead pilot, would face charges of aiding and abetting Schmidt in the involuntary manslaughter, the official said. As lead pilot, he should have more forcefully intervened to stop Schmidt from dropping the bomb until confirmation of the target was received, the Air Force says.

The charges were first reported Thursday night by NBC News.

Because Schmidt and Umbach are members of the Illinois Air National Guard and are no longer mobilized under federal authority, they would have to be recalled to active duty to face the charges.

It was unclear Thursday whether the recommended charges against them will be considered under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- essentially like a grand jury proceeding in the civilian judicial system -- or will be taken directly to a court martial.

The inadvertent killings caused a public uproar in Canada. The joint U.S.-Canadian investigation faulted both pilots for failure to follow established procedures to ensure that they attacked a legitimate target.

Central Command publicly released the basic findings of the investigation in June but did not release details. It said it needed more time to remove classified information from the report.

[Grampa Dave]

Cretian (spelled the way I wanted to) is no better than the Islamakazis who poured into the streets to cheer about 9/11.

We have his ilk here in America. Before the dust had settled and few bodies had been removed from the WTC and the Pentagon, we had the elite leftists in this country blaming the innocent and us for what happened.

Cretian is a typical French Canadian Socialist/Watermelon POS!

There are many wonderful Canadians, few if any are French Canadaian Socialist Watermelons.

[ValerieUSA]

ping

[KansasConservative1]

From USA to Canadian PM... Shut the Fu@k Up!

I actually have many friends from Canada and I know they would be very disappointed.

[BenLurkin]

Let ALL of our enemies be exposed, and let ALL of our enemies be destroyed.

[Great Dane]

This man should be removed from power...... he is dangerous.

[Great Dane]

I don't agree with the pilots being charged, these horrible things happen in war, but I can see them not being allowed to fly sorties again.

[Great Dane]

#4.........Thank you, talk radio is all over it again this morning, and Canadians are apalled, if anyone tells you that Canadian at large agree's with our idiot, they are lying.

[Moosefart]

PM Chretien positions himself to make another statement.

[Great Dane]

I actually have many friends from Canada and I know they would be very disappointed.

Not just disappointed....... raging mad.

[Michael Barnes]

...halfwit to ladle some extra shutup gravy on his crow

Excellent...I find I must swipe this and use it at work.

[Peter Libra]

I would like to use this comparision in order to place Prime Minister Chretien's statement in proper context. As in most North American cities, Canadian cities too, have pockets of absolute poverty.

Yes, there are anti-social acts, when these poor people- egged on by leftist agitators, take action. Tent cities have been set up. Squatters have occupied vacant and crumbling dwellings.

What was the reaction of the authorities? First, politicians, appearing decent souls, remonstrate and make promises. Next, a sympathetic press- especially the leftist Toronto Star, put a human face on the whole business.

Then what happens when things get a little rough? Yes, the unfortunate boys in blue are called in,obviously they would rather not have to clear the area.

Moral: Even in tolerant Canada- even the slightest bit of anarchy, is eventually clamped down on- cracked heads and all.

What price 3000 innocent souls, Prime Minister? You and your people do not tolerate minor protests too long. Yet, it must be the poor against the rich in these cases. What is their excuse?

[RightOnline]

Talk about yer basic convoluted logic...............

[Grampa Dave]

I don't know if you read my reply last year after 9/11 thanking a Canadian man and his wife for the comfort that they gave us and others.

This happened on the evening of 9/11 in a gift shop in Brookings, Oregon. We had been on vacation on the Oregon coast North of Brookings when the mass murder of our innocents happened. We cancelled our vacation, packed up and headed home to Kali land on 101 south.

At about 5 pm, we decided to call it a day and checked in at the motel in Brookings on the Ocean. The motel filled up with people like us heading back to Kali or from Kali. Brookings, Or. is right on the Oregon side of the border.

We went to dinner and my wife wanted to visit the gift shop at the restaurant after dinner. The tv was on in the gift shop, recapping the event, the young clerk was about 9 months pregnant and she had tears in her eyes. We watched the planes crash again, and my wife was hugging the young clerk, trying consol her.

Then, one of the men in the shop put his arms around us, and told us that we weren't alone. That millions of Canadians like he and his wife were behind us 100%. The tv then showed a picture of President Bush, this wonderful Candadian said "Pray for your President and the job that he has to do!"

He and his wife were from BC and lived north of Vancover. He assured me that once you got out of the French areas of Canada, we had friends all over Canada.

He was correct! We Americans need to realize that. Cretian and his voters are miserable POSes, but the rest of you are great people!

[Great Dane]

#16....... Thank you, this post made me feel a little better, but i just read in the paper, that a french-canadian author has released a book saying the same as Chretien, even goes as far as to say Us military was responsible and the buildings were brought down by a missile, the planes didn't do the trick..........
I am fuming and shaking with anger.

[Squawk 8888]

That author was a Frenchman, not a Canadian. The Euros are eating it up be we've been ignoring it. Also, us French Canadians aren't the problem- it's the French Canadian politicians, academics and journalists. I'm pretty certain that Montréalers are just as PO'd as the yanks over what Chrétien said.

[Great Dane]

Thanks for the correction, but have you ever heard anything so idiotic.