WEBVTT

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how did you find these eight

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individuals again ? Well , the we were

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we became aware of the incident when an

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individual came to one of our entry

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control points and told us about a

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helicopter which had been shot down .

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He'd like to take us to the site . So

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we took us out there and uh we started

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a search of the area trying to find the

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people who were responsible . And uh

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Iraqi citizens told us that they saw

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certain individuals in a certain

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vehicle and they know where they live

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and they took us to them and identify

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them and we were able to attain them

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and we're questioning them as we speak .

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How confident are you that you think

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these people were involved ? Uh huh . I

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feel comfortable that they were

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involved and uh of course they're not

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offering up any information right now ,

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but I feel very very comfortable based

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on the fact that the different

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individuals who informed us about them ,

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um two of them were unrelated to each

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other and a lot of the information

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seems to match up how they were

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involved , I don't really know , but I

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don't think it was for a good cause

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this is a sort of another sign ,

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my sense of it . Anyway , it's another

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sign that a lot of the local Iraqi ,

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they're just getting set up with what's

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going on and are more than willing to

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come to you or to the Iraqi security

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forces and essentially point people in

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the right direction for people that are

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doing these kind of things . I agree .

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We we see that daily here in my area ,

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uh Iraqi citizens are tired of uh their

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family members getting killed by

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suicide bombers and uh people who fire

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artillery indiscriminately trying to

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kill Iraqi security forces . But in

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fact they're killing many of their own

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countrymen or innocent people . Um and

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so they're coming forward to the Iraqi

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army , the Iraqi police and coalition

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forces and offering us up information

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which were able to act on this

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happening more and more . And that's

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been a real valuable exchange . Not

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just this incident , other incidents ,

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I would imagine as well . Yeah . Last

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week we had an old gentleman pulled

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over one of our patrols and told us

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where an I . E . D . Was an improvised

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explosive device and he took us to and

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he placed the market right in the

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middle . You couldn't see it except for

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his marking and when we found it , it

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was huge and it would have killed the

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tank group . And so we were very

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thankful to him . Can you talk about

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where these eight individuals were ,

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where they were close to the crash site

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itself ? Yeah , relatively close . They

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weren't on site , but they were well

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within driving distance in the general

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area . Yeah . Can you say anything

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about the one Bulgarian pilot that

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appears in the video that appears to

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have been uh survived the crash and

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then was shot when you got on site .

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Did you see any evidence of that ? Yeah ,

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no sir , but there was evidence

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that there was a wounded crew member

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when we first got the first report from

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an Iraqi citizen and so that just helps

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corroborate a lot of our information .

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However , by the time we got there ,

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all that had already occurred and uh we

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went into our consequence management in

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our search . Yeah , a pretty good

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house as swift as this was uh a pretty

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good message you think insurgent ? Mm .

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Yeah , I think this particular group of

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insurgents was thinking that they could

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operate with impunity . But uh some

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american soldiers show them that they

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can't and they're still out there

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conducting operations , getting

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intelligence from people out there and

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they're gonna keep going until uh we

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run this well dry . You've been working

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really full time on this for the last

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year , but it's been two days now since

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he's back there . Right , that's

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correct . Soldiers from the 17th

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Engineer Battalion first quarter in

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11th a Cr and uh the brigade first

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armored division have been going full

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full speed ahead on this . We want to

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find those guys . Okay , I

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think that's great . Is there anything

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I left out that you want to talk about

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Colonel now ? Just the fact that the

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Iraqi security forces are doing a great

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job and uh we we increasingly hand over

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more and more trained to them every day .

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The Iraqi people are really excited

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about that . And so we're starting to

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see a lot of positive energy from that

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as well . So the future looks bright .

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All right , well , thanks a lot . I

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really appreciate taking the time

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tonight . No problem . Thank you .