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<a href= http://www.nationalpost.com/features/siege/story.html?f=/stories/20011017/740129.html
>U.S. Admits Bombs Hit Red Cross
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Jan Cienski / National Post
with files from news services

The Pentagon unleashed two AC-130 Spectre flying gunships in its air campaign. The slow plane uses flares to defend itself from heat-seeking missiles.
Photo Credit: Federation of American Scientists.

Pentagon sources would not confirm that ground troops will be going into Afghanistan by week's end. But privately they acknowledged that ground troops are indeed in the works.

WASHINGTON
The Pentagon has admitted that two U.S. bombs went astray yesterday, destroying an International Red Cross warehouse in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Enraged Red Cross officials complained that their building, located about two kilometres from the city's airport, was obviously civilian and had been plainly marked on the roof with a red cross. One local worker was injured.

"There are huge needs for the civilian population, and definitely it will hamper our operations," said Robert Monin, head of the International Red Cross's Afghanistan delegation.

Ironically, the incident coincided with a campaign by George Bush, the U.S. President, to raise money for humanitarian work in Afghanistan by urging school children to send $1 each to the Red Cross.

Earlier in the air campaign, a U.S. cruise missile killed four United Nations workers in Kabul. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia claims hundreds of civilians have been killed, a charge that Washington has dismissed as ridiculous.

The bombing error occurred as the Pentagon unleashed low-flying AC-130 Spectre gunships, which poured a hail of fire and destruction on Afghanistan yesterday, supported by almost 60 bombers and other planes as the United States ramped up its air strikes for a second day.
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2001 © National Post.

I’ve got a feeling the mouths at the Pentagon are going to learn really quick that there is no such thing as a “private media clearance” to Top Secret information, no matter how vague,
Dan