Linda Norgrove: What Really Happened To The Killed British Aid Worker

LINDA Norgrove: the 36-year-old British aid worker captured by the Taliban died in failed rescue attempt. She was being held in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley when US special forces launched their raid. She had been held for 13 days. She was working for a US aid agency called Development Alternatives. Over 150 US Navy Seals went in. Linda Norgrove was an important figure.

And then..? The story goes that she was either killed by a grenade thrown into the compound by the US forces or a kidnapper detonating a suicide vest.

What happened?

Says David Cameron

“It’s a judgment, it’s a balance. I will go over in my own mind 100 times whether it was the right decision, but I believe it was.”

The Tabloid Agenda

Says the Mirror:

“We do not for a second doubt the anguish of the Prime Minister, who supported a rescue attempt because he was told the British aid worker’s life was in serious danger.”

Well, only a nutter with an agenda would call Cameron a liar. But good of the anti-Cameron Mirror to suggest Cameron is a liar and then dismiss the claim. Nice.

And further to the Left on the pages of the World Socialist Worker:

Cameron’s statement points to a deliberate cover-up by the Pentagon, with the aid of the US puppet regime in Afghanistan. The only question unanswered is whether the British government was also in the know from the start, or was, in the words of the Telegraph, treated “like an ill-informed and gullible patsy by our chief allies in the world”. The first scenario is the more likely.

The Soldier: Colonel Richard Kemp

* Whether she was killed by a Taliban suicide vest or a US grenade, Linda Norgrove died because extremist killers seized her with the intention of exploiting her for propaganda then butchering her.

Or as he said one day earlier:

* The outcome of Linda Norgrove’s kidnapping has been a tragedy. The heartless killing of this defenceless aid-worker is entirely in keeping with the Taliban’s normal callous brutality.

Shoot first. Questions later.

Who Took Linda Norgrove?

* There are directly contradictory accounts of what, in the meantime, was going on behind the scenes. The Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday that “from the start” the British government was gravely concerned that Ms Norgrove had been taken by a vicious Salafist group who would pass her on up the terrorist chain of command. But Afghan officials claimed that they were in the process of obtaining her release through a group of local elders when the raid took place. Others maintained that the abductors were not hardcore Taliban but a criminal gang which was seeking a substantial ransom and had let this be known to British diplomats.

Why They Went In

* It was decided, finally, that the threat to Linda’s life from her captors was at least equal to the threat to her life if highly-trained soldiers, armed with the element of surprise, attempted to free her by force. Had the attempt succeeded, we would all be marvelling at the skill and courage of the liberating forces. It failed and we are now asking questions about the wisdom of the rescue attempt.

The Raid

* The Seals then sprinted to the building where Miss Norgrove was being held, as 150 other U.S. troops surrounded the compound.
Overhead, Predator drones and Apache attack helicopters hovered, ready to provide air support. But the Taliban were not prepared to give up their prize lightly.

Using Colt M4A1 automatic rifles and grenades, five Navy Seals were engaged in a vicious fire-fight as they attempted to get to the hostage. She was being guarded by at least eight terrorists.
Despite the fierce Taliban resistance, the Seals managed to fight their way towards the Miss Norgrove’s building. And then, with six Taliban gunmen already dead, one of the Seals threw a grenade through the door.

The First Statement

The UN statements said Miss Norgrove died “seconds before rescuers arrived. [US Forces] had entered the compound … [but] an insurgent detonated an explosive device that was attached to his person. He was in close enough proximity to Miss Norgrove. She was wounded.”

Simon Hoggart

The prime minister didn’t want to blame anybody. He praised the Americans for their courage. They had, he said, “treated her as if she were a US citizen”, which perhaps sounded more ironic than he intended. The inquiry would be conducted jointly by the US and the UK, which we took as code for saying “we’ll make sure that there isn’t an American cover-up”.

The Nobel American

Last night, US Navy Captain Gary Kirchner – a Nato spokesman in Kabul – said the commander of the Special Operations troops involved in the rescue attempt had reviewed video footage from a helmet camera on Monday morning.

He said the commander had “discovered what appeared to be, looked to him, like someone throwing a hand grenade into the area where Miss Norgrove was being held”.

He then called the American commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.

Kirchner added: “The bottom line here is that when the commander saw that, he knew that there were some discrepancies and immediately wanted to make sure that we did the right thing.”

The inquiry to come…

Anorak

Posted: 12th, October 2010 | In: Key Posts, News Comments (15) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink