DATE=5/16/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUNDER
TITLE=MCCAFFERY - GULF
NUMBER=5-46327
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: One of America's most highly-decorated
generals is disputing allegations that his soldiers
slaughtered retreating Iraqis who were no threat to U-
S forces during and after the Persian Gulf War. The
charges come in a magazine article by an award-winning
investigative journalist who says the U-S Army covered
up the incidents. General Barry McCaffrey calls the
charges "nonsense." V-O-A's Jim Randle reports.
TEXT: In an article in this week's New Yorker
Magazine, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says
two days after a cease-fire, a retreating Iraqi unit
ran into McCaffrey's 26-thousand troops.
Mr. Hersh says General McCaffrey -- eager for a fight
--- used a minor incident as an excuse to launch a
ferocious four-hour assault that mauled the hapless
Iraqis.
/// Hersh Act ///
He claimed the Iraqis were hostile, a lot of
fire directed at us, at the American troops, um,
um, (but) an investigation determined that there
was one grenade thrown, and perhaps one shell
fired.
/// End Act ///
Mr. Hersh says General McCaffrey's 24th Division
soldiers destroyed seven-hundred vehicles, including
tanks, killing an unknown number of Baghdad's
soldiers. He calls the large attack grossly out of
proportion to the danger.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey used interviews with
several major U-S television networks and newspapers
to strongly deny the charges.
He says the soldiers Mr. Hersh used as sources were
too far from the action to see what was going on. The
general says the large Iraqi army unit was well armed
and a real threat.
/// McCaffrey Act ///
Two company commanders say they are under fire.
We had to support our soldiers and Hersh cites a
scout platoon that was nine kilometers away from
this action as explaining that they didn't think
it was going on. It is nonsense, it is
revisionist history.
/// End Act ///
The Hersh article quotes other soldiers who said
before the cease-fire, the 24th Division shot at some
Iraqi civilians waving a white flag and a group of
several hundred disarmed Iraqi prisoners.
But General McCaffrey says Mr. Hersh's sources were
once again too far from the action to get the story
right.
He says "an exhaustive" 21-hundred page Army
investigation cleared him and his troops of any
misconduct in the cases.
/// McCaffrey Act ///
The allegations, the bottom line, are not true.
/// End Act ///
But Mr. Hersh, who won journalism's top honor (the
Pulitzer Prize) for uncovering a massacre by U-S Army
troops in Vietnam, says the Army does a poor job of
policing itself.
/// Hersh Act ///
It happened. It was not investigated properly.
I think the only fair word to use, would be it
was covered up inside the Army.
/// End Act ///
But Pentagon officials say there is no reason to
reopen the lengthy investigation of the alleged
incidents.
General McCaffrey served in Vietnam as well as the
Persian Gulf war and was wounded several times and
awarded a number of medals for valor.
He has retired from the Army and now holds a cabinet-
level post directing Washington's war against drugs.
(Signed)
NEB/JR/ENE/JP
16-May-2000 17:44 PM EDT (16-May-2000 2144 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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