We covered up Iraqi bomb attack which destroyed a £30million Hercules, admits MoD

The Ministry of Defence covered up the fact that Iraqi insurgents destroyed a £30million RAF Hercules transport aircraft by planting bombs next to a runway.

Military spokesmen claimed publicly that the C-130J aircraft, with 64 people on board, had been accidentally damaged on landing - and that there was no evidence of enemy action.

The cover-up was an attempt to deny the Iraqis a further propaganda coup following the earlier loss of another Hercules.

and

The Board's findings congratulate RAF officials on their "well-reasoned" cover-up of the incident last February, lying to the media and the public to minimise interest and 'denying the enemy the opportunity to exploit the situation' for propaganda purposes

Sources.
www.thisislondon.co.uk...
www.dailymail.co.uk...

What is everyones take on this. I don't believe a damn thing the MOD tells us. They claim they lied to stop the Iraqi's having a propaganda field day? Surley if the Iraqis did use it as propaganda we, in the UK, would not hear about it. So why lie in the 1st place and then come out later and say, Hey guys we lied, its fishy as hell to me. The MOD, in my experience rarely admit to mistakes.

At least they did admit they made a mistake.

I don't really see a problem with this, losing a Hercules is a big deal and I don't blame them one bit for wanting to put a spin on the incident.

The 'enemy' (personally I don't consider them an enemy, they've never done anything to me) would definately have used it as propaganda. Taking out a top spec military plane is something to be proud of and I'm sure they'd have milked it in some way or another.

reply to post by Zanzibar


I understand what your saying, but due to the nature of the uk and us press i very much doubt they would show support for the iraqis by running a story on how they shot down a plane. So claiming it was to stop this propaganda, i think, is a load of bull. Moreover the MOD could of admited the truth in the first place instead of spining it into an accident as it would of helped them justify their illegal war.

For me something just doesent quite add up.........