TA soldier who shot suspected Taliban bomber in murder investigation

[stabtoreg]

Why is this news, War is war. Trust me the good guys in Helmand know not to dig holes in view of the sangers.

.

Really?

 

[WhiteHorse]

Really?

They did when I was there.

 

[AIRBORNEJOCK]

To be fair, we (on H10) were always told that IED layers were to be reported up so that ISTAR assets could be brought in to track them to their bomb making chain and attendant bomb making workshops and CofC. The logic that one dead IED layer has just stopped one IED being laid (and then probably only temporarily) whilst a live one who is identified can lead to the elimination of an entire operation, is a sound one, but no-one at grunt level put too much faith in it. Truth also be told, we did have one or two blokes in our platoon who just wanted an excuse to kill someone and I doubt they were the only ones in the Army.

Fair one and I agree but he didnt have comms to the ops room what happened to "it was my honest belief?"

 

[stabtoreg]

J7 Training
J9 Legal etc

I'd like to see ALS do a month of patrolling/ sanger/ compound clearing.

That's not really their job is it though. It's like saying I'd like to see a gunner do a month of legal work.

Having seen the ALS working as part of a targeting process they are not necesserially the bad guys. Some of them work to allow us the legal justification to strike, I.e. the maximum latitude within the law.

 

[stabtoreg]

Fair one and I agree but he didnt have comms to the ops room what happened to "it was my honest belief?"

Only if there is an imminent threat to human life. A potential IED, in full view of a sangar with no one on the ground is not an imminent threat.

 

[stabtoreg]

So no one did any digging at all anywhere near any CP/ PB? In my experience the IED layers were adept at placing them exactly where we could not see, in a tiny bend on a route or in a blind spot between two sangars. The guys digging in full view were not generally suspicious.

 

[WhiteHorse]

That's not really their job is it though. It's like saying I'd like to see a gunner do a month of legal work.

Having seen the ALS working as part of a targeting process they are not necesserially the bad guys. Some of them work to allow us the legal justification to strike, I.e. the maximum latitude within the law.

Understood, I'm not reallyhaving a pop at the individuals, more the system. Though in answer to Airbornejock above, I worked with them too. You must have had a better bunch than we did.

 

[stabtoreg]

Understood, I'm not reallyhaving a pop at the individuals, more the system. Though in answer to Airbornejock above, I worked with them too. You must have had a better bunch than we did.

Yeah, they do manage to be the least soldierly people imaginable, and some of them are the smuggest people who feel the need to lecture anyone as if they are an imbecile. Because in their eyes soldier= stupid

 

[Alan Partridge]

Yeah, they do manage to be the least soldierly people imaginable, and some of them are the smuggest people who feel the need to lecture anyone as if they are an imbecile. Because in their eyes soldier= stupid

Sadly in this case, I fear their attitude was justified.

 

[17THSEPTEMBER1944]

So he says:



Then goes on to say:



On another note; this is just another reason why we'll never achieve anything out there. We're too busy making sure we are whiter than white rather than actually trying to defeat the taliban.

Here , Here.

They don't worry about killing a few of their own.

 

[RP578]

Trust me the good guys in Helmand know not to dig holes in view of the sangers.

Really? Most PBs that my platoon were in, were in the midst of active farm land. Guys were always digging, especially in low light times of day when it was cooler. It was the rhythm of life and you soon learned was was routine and what looked odd. If the chap in question suspected anything out of the ordinary then fair enough, but as Dollsteeth said, the phrase, "It was my honest belief" is an umbrella that shields all manner of sins. Added to the fact that, if we're absolutely honest, the reflex of every sub-unit is to protect its own, if his CSM thought he was bullshitting it doesn't bode well.

Edited to add: Been beaten to it on both counts.

 

[WhiteHorse]

Guys digging in full view were farmers, people digging for earth to make repairs to compounds etc. I don't recall single time that a hole was dug just for the sake of it. Sorry, it just doesn't happen. I take your point over the IED seeding out of view, but they weren't always that smart.

If someone like a farmer is digging and gets shot, he was found with spade, seed etc. When it was a bad guy, someone would always run off with the weapon, IED etc

 

[WhiteHorse]

You've hit the nail on the head. Lawyers all a bunch of C***s

 

[762baynet]

I find it odd that the canvas bag wasn't recovered. If the farmers buddies got to him first, why would they remove his canvas bag? If the QRF or whoever got to the casualty first, how was such a cruxial piece of evidence missed? It may be that someone looked in the bag but there was nothing in there but seeds or some such, but in the article he says that it wasn't recovered.
Without knowing the contents of said bag- how can anyone say what the farmer was doing?

 

[spaz]

Who says the bag existed?

Ah, the bloke under investigation.

 

[Zero_Over]

I just got this footage through of his preliminary hearing: (c) Crown Copyright

 

[Zarathustra]

Who says the bag existed?

Ah, the bloke under investigation.

And here is the main issue, this is only his side of the story, he obviously thinks if he gets it out there first then not only will he make a couple of quid but will get public support. Sadly for him his story has more holes than an Afghan farmer.

 

[762baynet]

Who says the bag existed?

Ah, the bloke under investigation.

Good point! In order for anyone to form any meaningful opinion we would need to see all the facts, but that is not likely on here.

 

[Mr_Snakey]

I don´t see any drama at all,an oppo tells him there´s a guy who may be planting a bomb,he gets exicited and is probably tired due to patrolling in a hostile area,sweating his nuts off all day and and watching a mate get killed.Throws a wobbler after the suspected bomber starts doing what appears to him to be arming the bomb, presses the wrong button and fails to get comms,at the time he didn´t realise that he was pushing the wrong button,takes the decision to stop the threat.6 rounds was a bit OTT but if he was still a threat in his opinion then why not,those guys in Gibralter didn´t exactly spare the ammo and the ASU they slotted weren´t armed either.Shit Happens.
The monkey´s should crawl back into their holes and It´s this sort of `Hug A Taliban´ attitude that got 6 of their mates killed.

If you wan´t to start a War and send soldier´s then people are going to die,the ultimate responsibility lies with the politicians that decided to send them,end of.

You never made it to Sandhurst did you feller?

So if I sent you to the shop and you murdered someone then that's clearly my fault for sending you. That's is what you're saying, isn't it?

 

[RP578]

And here is the main issue, this is only his side of the story, he obviously thinks if he gets it out there first then not only will he make a couple of quid but will get public support. Sadly for him his story has more holes than an Afghan farmer.

He indicates that he's still in the TA. This surely would mean that he requires Media Ops clearance to speak to the press concerning his military service, no?