Was "shooting at rescue helicopters" actually CONFIRMED?

[Beam Me Up]

I know it was "reported" but all kinds of crazy shit gets "reported." What I want to know is, was this information actually CONFIRMED by a helicopter pilot or some other credible witness? Not that they "heard gun shots" which could have been signaling from desperate people in need of rescue help.

The question is there in fact CONFIRMED reports that helicopter(s) were SHOT AT by armed survivors?

This is important BECAUSE the HSD and FEMA and the media have USED this as A REASON WHY, for example, the Red Cross was not allowed to directly help the surviving citizens of New Orleans.

Does anyone here know the answer to this question?

TIA

edit: changed 'their' to there

[mzmolly]

1. I know eye witnesses say so, but I think it's possible they heard a pop

and assumed? Perhaps people shot flares and lit fire works to be noticed?

[JuniperLea]

5. Or they heard shots fired AT looters...

Who knows. Just like 9/11... we may never have the truth. There is no truth in government, period.

[Beam Me Up]

6. That's what I'm trying to find out.

Does anyone know for a FACT that helicopters were fired upon.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, why shoot at the people who are trying to rescue you or others?

WE ARE LIED TO SO MANY TIMES by this administration and the media about so many things. I don't believe anything, especially something like this that is being used as an excuse for letting thousands of people sit in abject agony for DAYS AND DAYS.

[mzmolly]

13. It makes ZERO sense. But some who were waiting to be rescued

claim that shots were fired? I think it's likely that a similar sound was heard and people were jittery.

One possibility is that people snapped and suffered from severe PTSD? They say it was like a war zone, so I could see that happening.

[JuniperLea]

2. I've seen no proof nor have I heard the source of the rumor

I call bullshit. Why would people hold up signs asking for help with one hand and shoot the arriving help out of the sky with another?

I call bullshit! It's an excuse for the lack of response! Just another story made up to cover the government's ass!!!

[doublethink]

3. Haven't heard any confirmation ....

However with the Military there, the military helicopters should just shoot back, and not let it impede any rescue effort to get to the people still trapped in their homes. For Gods sake, they are Military, that's what they do, fight to rescue if needed. It should not be used as an excuse to stand down any rescue efforts at this time. Peace.

[wli]

4. The snipers were shooting at disaster victims, not helicopters.

The article is here. They SWAT teams were "defending" Uptown against commandeering of property.

[Beam Me Up]

12. Thanks. That link is a help n/t

[Horse with no Name]

7. The FAA reported

that there were no incidents of any firing upon planes or helicopters in that airspace.
The pilots are obligated to report it and nobody did.

[Beam Me Up]

9. Does anyone have a link to this FAA report?

I remember seeing a thread on it yesterday but things move so fast it is difficult to keep track of them. (I'm saving as archives as fast as I can but some still disappear!) :)

[geomon666]

16. Here

http://watchingthewatchers.org/story/2005/9/2/9350/92642

[Scout1071]

18. Thank you.

[Beam Me Up]

21. Thank you. READ THIS QUOTE, PEOPLE!

I don't doubt that looting has occurred, nor that some of it is for "luxury" goods not just necessities. But I do have a lot of skepticism about the type and degree of lawlessness being portrayed.

Now it turns out that Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, has cast doubt on the report of the firing on the helicopter. She said she had no such report.

"We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft.

from http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205

The quote is from the article linked in post #16.

[Horse with no Name]

24. Here is one

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205

[Beam Me Up]

26. Thank you! From ABC news.

[Scout1071]

8. I don't know. I started a thread on this the other night and I can't

find it now so I'm assuming it was eventually locked.

[Secular Agent Man]

10. There has been no FAA reports of aircraft

being fired on. There was a thread (or a post) on this at DU recently (regarding the FAA).

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Why are so many DUers skeptical about this? The mayor himself

said that there are "knuckleheads" and crack users who can't get their drugs and are desperate. I believe it is quite possible that shots have been fired at choppers. One DUer posted that her husband returned to Texas flying relief missions and they found 2 bullet holes in the tail boom.

[Beam Me Up]

14. "Quite possible." I'm asking for direct CONFIRMATION of this story that

has been used AS AN EXCUSE for why more was not done sooner.

[mzmolly]

15. I think people are sceptical that those who rely on rescue missions to

save their lives would shoot the rescuers? But, under that stress/duress I am certain people lose their minds.

[Scout1071]

17. I thought that DU'er was posting a 2nd hand account of

a nurse or someone she had seen on the news who's husband was a pilot.

[Liberal In Texas]

20. You could be right, I was relying on my bad memory. n/t

[rucky]

22. Doesn't seem like it justifies abandoning the convention cntr. n/t

[Inland]

19. If you wanted to get the attention of a helicopter as if flew PAST you

and you had a loaded weapon, you'd fire it. NOT AT the helicopters. So unless there's a bullet hole in a chopper, I would think they were desparately trying to flag one down.

[rustydad]

23. Possibly

There is a lot of substance abuse in NO just like in many cites with a high unemployment population. Couple druged out or drunk folks taking advantage of the free booze, free drugs, and free guns and you have a formula for civil disorder to some degree. Seal the city and all hell is likely to break out. Once even one shot ias fired they pull out all the rescue and aid workers until they can *secure* the situation. That of course take much time, block by block searching for the gunmen. This in water sometimes head high and filthy. In essence this could turn into a wet version of Watts. Bob

[Beam Me Up]

25. "Could turn into" BUT DID *NOT* TURN INTO

Where did this PERCEPTION that this situation was MILITARILY out of control come from?

We see HOW IT WAS USED.

[rustydad]

27. Perhaps

But I tend to think that there is paralysis at the top levels of decision making. When the generals or whoever is making decisions get out of there league they tend to freez up and nothing gtes done. I think this is one huge clusterf*ck not a conspiracy. bob

[Beam Me Up]

28. Preventing the Red Cross from entering NO was POLICY at the Federal

level. Nothing "incompetent" about it.

STOP DEFENDING THEIR RACIST POLICIES.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4598834&mesg_id=4598834

[rustydad]

29. Defending?

I am not defending the racist policies of bush and Congress. All I am saying is that the clusterf*uck situation is typical of the federal authorities. The Army, the Guard, FEMA, the Corps, they all suck. I do agree that if this was a major earthquake under Beverly Hills likely a different reaction would have occurred. To that degree there is racism. But I seriously doubt that authorities are deliberately trying to starve and kill blacks in NO. I hear that many or most of the people in the outlying coastal towns are also crying for help and non is there. The folks in charge are just manifestly inept. And bush turns everything he touches into shit. Bob