Nigerian hostage rescue attempt - do the Italians have a point?

Moses said:
Well, we don't know, but they could have received x piece of intelligence, then acted on that immediately.

It's not as though Dave has a mobile with which to directly call each country's head of government - if an immediate decision had to be made, there wouldn't have been time to get through to the Italian ambassador, then to the decision makers re: this kind of issue, then get the message back again. Even if that conversation did happen - if the Italians said no, why would it stop us? Two hostages, one Brit, one Italian. One side wants to go in, the other doesn't. We're not going to abort because the other party says no, when we believe they're in immediate danger of death.
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I didn't mean to imply that we should wait for Italian consent, but it would be somewhat... err... polite to inform them to the best of our ability. You're right in that there might not have been any time and if so I'd expect us to say 'sorry, there was no time'.

I heard an ex-CIA guy on BBC news slamming the British on this... but I was thinking, ex-CIA, what does he know? :p
 
the 2 chaps probably would have ended up dead sooner or later - worth the attempt in my opinion. It didn't go to plan which is a shame but it was no doubt worth the risk.

the italian's might want to go their own house in order before kicking off about this
 
Moses said:
Well, we don't know, but they could have received x piece of intelligence, then acted on that immediately.

It's not as though Dave has a mobile with which to directly call each country's head of government - if an immediate decision had to be made, there wouldn't have been time to get through to the Italian ambassador, then to the decision makers re: this kind of issue, then get the message back again. Even if that conversation did happen - if the Italians said no, why would it stop us? Two hostages, one Brit, one Italian. One side wants to go in, the other doesn't. We're not going to abort because the other party says no, when we believe they're in immediate danger of death.
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Oh come on, like you wouldn't get Silvio's number on your mobile if you could? Home, mobile and office of course!
 
Without knowing the precise and exact operational issues it would be impossible to objectively comment.

All I will say is that sometimes these things do not go to plan, not everything can be planned for and there is always a high risk of partial or total failure, which is why these operations are not taken lightly or green lit without serious consideration of all the alternatives.....
 
I thought in situations like this other governments asked us to do the operation anyway ?
Does Italy even have the equivalent of whatever forces we just sent in ?
 
Fran said:
I thought in situations like this other governments asked us to do the operation anyway ?
Does Italy even have the equivalent of whatever forces we just sent in ?
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Haha, of course they do. I'm not sure if any modern, militaryily active armed forces wouldn't have a special forces divison. The Italian armed forces are of a compartive size to that of the UK.
 
Fran said:
I thought in situations like this other governments asked us to do the operation anyway ?
Does Italy even have the equivalent of whatever forces we just sent in ?
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They have the COMSUBIN, (Col Moschin are their equivalent to the SAS) but they are not in the same ballpark as the SBS...but then I am highly prejudiced so probably not an objective commentator in this regard.
 
ubersonic said:
According to the official reports they were dead before the troops hit the compound.
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I have a feeling it'll be some time before the full facts are known, after all, according to official reports at the time, Linda Norgrove was killed by her captors, it was only as time passed that that it became known that actually she was accidentally killed by her rescuers instead.
 
Castiel said:
Without knowing the precise and exact operational issues it would be impossible to objectively comment.

All I will say is that sometimes these things do not go to plan, not everything can be planned for and there is always a high risk of partial or total failure, which is why these operations are not taken lightly or green lit without serious consideration of all the alternatives.....
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And the fact said country leaks information like a sieve ...
 
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