Nato misled the world over pilot tape
By Ben Rooney
NATO was forced to admit yesterday that it had misled the world's media after it revealed that the audio tape it claimed described the bombing of a Kosovar refugee convoy was merely a "colour piece" showing what an attack by an F16 aircraft was like.
The alliance was forced to admit the deception after Pentagon officials, incensed that a US pilot was being accused of attacking civilian targets, contradicted Nato. Col Dick Bridges, a Pentagon spokesman said: "That particular incident [on the tape] had absolutely nothing to do with convoy attacks reported by the Serbs that are now under review by Nato."
Up to 64 refugees were killed and 20 injured in two attacks on refugee convoys near the town of Djakovica on Wednesday. Brig Gen Guiseppe Marani, Nato's military spokesman, admitted yesterday that the tape, which he had played with great flourish on Thursday, was merely something to illustrate to journalists what it was like for an F16 pilot to attack a target.
He said: "The pilot tape was brought here to show the procedure of what was involved in actions of that type. I brought that tape here to show what was the process. There are many pilots flying over Kosovo, that was an example. The alliance had not meant to imply there was "a relationship between that pilot and the narrative on the tape and specific events on the ground".
On Saturday, Washington, stung by the accusations of killing civilians and failing to properly identify a target, stepped outside the collective responsibility of Nato command and undermined the story that the incident was "under investigation", when it denied its F16 pilot was to blame. Capt Steve Pietropaoli, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "I'd just like to make it clear now that the F16 pilot on the audio tape is not thought to be responsible for anything other than the attack he described on a military vehicle." When asked if the F16 pilot had mistakenly hit a civilian tractor, as Brig Gen Marani had said on Friday, Capt Pietropaoli said: "If General Marani made that statement in connection with the audio tape, it is not accurate."
Until yesterday, Brig Gen Marani had done nothing to dissuade journalists from believing that the tape was a debriefing of the pilot of Wednesday's attack on the convoy north of the Kosovan town of Djakovica. On that day, it appears two convoys were attacked, one to the north and one to the south of the town.
By producing confused and contradictory accounts of what happened on Wednesday, Nato is widely seen as having given credence to Serb claims that it bombed refugee convoys. By Thursday morning Nato appeared to admit its forces had attacked two convoys, "one civilian, one mixed military-civilian". It withdrew the statement within hours, saying it had dropped only one bomb.
The tape was played at that day's press conference, when Nato gave details of the attack to the north of Djakovica, but denied any involvement with the attack to the south. On Friday, Jamie Shea, Nato's chief spokesman, stonewalled requests for more information in an ill-tempered press conference in Brussels.
On Thursday, Brig Gen Marani had said footage taken by the attacking plane would be made available. Twenty-four hours later he said it would not be available. A senior Nato official said Mr Shea was going to release the film on Friday, but was ordered not to by US military officials.
[end of text]
Carl Remick