Eleven minutes into the airstrike, Doctors Without Borders succeeded in reaching several United States government officials to alert them of the attack. But the strike was not called off until 19 minutes later, the military report said.
The top officer of the military’s Central Command, General Votel, said Friday that the notification had to pass through “a series of layers” to get to military officials on the ground and that when it did reach the Special Forces commander, he did not immediately stop the airstrike. “The ground force commander was not tracking a medical facility, so when he first heard it, it didn’t register,” Mr. Votel said.
The timeline given by American officials does not agree with accounts by Doctors Without Borders and other witnesses, who said the strike went on for more than an hour. ...NYT
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... It has become clear that the victims and their families have neither the option to pursue legal action against the U.S. military, either in Afghanistan or in the U.S., nor to claim compensation for loss of life and livelihood. This has only compounded the devastation of the attack.
Full report here. ...MSF/The Atlantic
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A few years ago, high tech junkies were carrying a cell phone, a digital camera, a portable music player, and a personal digital assistant (PDA). Now all of those gadgets have been combined into one device. We call it a smart phone, and it can perform a myriad of different functions. In fact, today's smart phones are almost mind-boggling in their capabilities. Just in case you are still using a regular cell phone, let me tell you about a few things that these smart phones can do.
Certainly you can use a smart phone to make and receive telephone calls. These phones will even allow you to make conference calls and use them as speakerphones. But smart phones like the iPhone or a BlackBerry can do much more. They let you surf the web, send and receive email, play music, and take pictures. There is no longer a need to carry four different devices. One smart phone can do it all. ...CompuKissWithSandyBerger