From: Ali Abunimah
To: atc@npr.org
Subject: Helicopter Cover-Up?

October 22, 2001

Dear NPR News,

Your reporter Eric Weiner missed important information and misled listeners when he stated the following on All Things Considered today:

WEINER: "Taliban officials say they've found pieces from what they claim is a US helicopter shot down near the southern city of Kandahar. The Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera showed close-up footage of aircraft wheels and a piece of metal stencilled with a few English words. But its not clear where the aircraft parts came from. Afghanistan is littered with rusting helicopters and tanks, artifacts from the wars of years past. The Pentagon insists that no US helicopters have been shot down. It is impossible to independently verify these claims. With the exception of the Al-Jazeera network the Taliban is not allowing foreign journalists to enter the ninety percent of Afghanistan under its control. Nor is the Pentagon allowing reporters access to its operations inside Afghanistan."

In fact the origin of the aircraft parts can be determined and I have done so. The parts shown on Al-Jazeera had clearly visible markings on them which read among other things "Loud Engineering, Boeing" and "Boeing, Philadelphia, Pennsyvannia."

Click Here to see pictures of the parts

The parts appeared to be relatively new, and certainly not old or rusted. I checked with LOUD Engineering and Manufacturing, Inc of Ontario, California, who manufacture parts for two types of Boeing helicopter used by the United States military; the CH-46E Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook.

Philadelphia is the home of Boeing Rotorcraft, the helicopter division of Boeing.

In addition, the parts appeared to be in relatively good shape, the labels were clearly legible and looked quite new.

I think you will agree that it is quite unlikely that these parts were from "rusting helicopters and tanks, artifacts from the wars of years past."

We may never learn precisely by what order of events the Taliban came into possession of these components, but one thing is for sure: the parts were there, near Kandahar, more than one hundred miles from where the US acknowledges a helicopter crashed in Pakistan, and the Pentagon has so far not provided any explanation and simply continues to deny the plainly visible facts.

It is most irresponsible for NPR to fail to report on and investigate the markings (something you could surely do better than me with your vast resources). If the United States goverment is able to simply deny plainly visible facts how can we believe anything about things we can't see?

Finally, Weiner declares that it is "impossible to independently verify these claims" and hence dimisses completely the facts that Al-Jazeera has brought to light. On what grounds are we to believe that NPR would be any more independent than Al-Jazeera?

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org