Word: tailwind
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...document--military order, after-action report, briefing paper or official military history--mentions pursuit of U.S. defectors as Tailwind's mission," Cohen said at a Pentagon briefing. "While sarin was stored in Okinawa in 1970, we found no evidence that sarin nerve gas was ever sent to or used in Vietnam or Laos." The pilots who dropped the bombs, as well as those who loaded them into the planes, said the weapons contained tear gas, the Pentagon said. Two Tailwind veterans and a pair of their commanders looked on as Cohen praised their bravery and ordered a review to ensure...
Cohen declared the story "irresponsible" because it leveled such grave charges against the U.S. and its troops without the "overpowering evidence" such explosive allegations require. The Pentagon probe found that Robert Van Buskirk, a Tailwind platoon leader and a prime source for the original story, never mentioned sarin or defectors in an after-action briefing he gave. Retired Captain Michael Rose, the Tailwind medic, told Pentagon investigators that he had no doubt the fumes he inhaled were tear gas, just like the whiffs he got in basic training. "It's like skunk," he said. "Once you smell it, you never...
...Pentagon findings came three weeks after CNN and TIME, both owned by Time Warner, retracted the Tailwind story and apologized to the veterans involved. That action followed an internal investigation by TIME and a report by attorney Floyd Abrams, who was hired by CNN to investigate the broadcast. The inquiries concluded that the story was not supported by the facts and should not have run. CNN subsequently fired producers April Oliver and Jack Smith, who have publicly continued to stand by their story. Senior executive producer Pamela Hill resigned, and CNN reprimanded Peter Arnett, the on-air reporter...
...also agreed to pay Thomas Moorer, a retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a settlement reported to be $100,000. The original program and article stated that Moorer confirmed the use of sarin during Tailwind, which he has denied...
There are still unanswered questions about Tailwind. How could such vivid, seamless reportage, quoting a number of eyewitnesses and sources, be so totally reversed, supported by quotes from other "reliable" eyewitnesses and sources? And in your apology, some sources deny that anything in the CNN-TIME story was true. One person even says, "We did not use lethal gas, and we did not kill any defectors, men, women or children." So what was a sizable contingent of heavily armed, Special Forces soldiers doing on that secret mission in Laos? Selling Girl Scout cookies? BRUCE BRASHEAR Goteborg, Sweden...