At 09:04 PM 9/1/96 -0400, Alan Horowitz wrote:

The Aegis ship in the Gulf wzs not in an exercise. It was in a war zone.

If my memory serves, the Iranian jetliner had its squawker turned off, or broken.

Your memory does not serve: The computers record of the events was: Computer tells crew: Civilian jetliner on radar. Crew expecting an attack by jetfighters, tell computer to shoot it down. Computer does not put up a bunch of dialogs saying: "Hey, I think this is a CIVILIAN airliner, did you get that CIVILIAN airliner, are you quite sure you want it shot down? Instead it just shoots it down. Human error by the American military. Possibly poor user interface on the computer. Possibly indifference to civilian lives by the American military. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com