This video is called US War Crimes In Mazar (Afghanistan) – Documentary by Jamie Doran.
Ytanslated from Dutch NOS TV:
The trade union for military people, AFMP, wants to know from the Department of Defence why the helicopter which crashed in Afghanistan yesterday, was owned by a private German corporation [called <a href="Tryco].
The crash killed two Dutch soldiers.
"[The Department of Defense] gives its responsibility away and they need a good explanation for that", AFMP chair Van den Burg says.
He says that he never heard before that the DoD uses private companies in dangeous areas.
The US armed forces, however, regularly use private businesses in war zones.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Afghanistan. 16 NATO-Led Soldiers, Personnel Killed in Helicopter Downed By
Taliban Fire…
16 NATO-Led Soldiers, Personnel Killed in Helicopter Downed By Taliban
Fire, the Dutch Insist it’s an Accident
AP Headline: 2 Americans Among Dead in Afghan Crash
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press Writer
Jul 27, 2006, 7:18 AM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —
A helicopter crashed in bad weather in the mountains of eastern
Afghanistan, killing all 16 people on board, including at least two
American civilians, officials said Thursday.
Afghan army and U.S.-led coalition troops have recovered 12 bodies and
were searching for four more in the difficult, mountainous terrain
where the civilian Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Wednesday, Col. Tom
Collins, a coalition spokesman, told reporters.
Collins said there were Afghans and foreigners on board, including at
least two Americans. The Dutch military has said two of its personnel
were also on board – the first fatalities among Dutch forces in
Afghanistan.
“There are no survivors,” Collins said. “The terrain in this area is
extremely difficult and we are now working hard to recover the
remaining crew and passengers.”
The Russian-made civilian helicopter crashed about 25 miles northeast
of Khost city in a region where al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are
believed to be active.
Collins said there was no indication yet of what caused the crash. A
purported Taliban spokesman claimed the Taliban fighters were
responsible, but a Dutch military official said the crash appeared to
have been an accident.
Dutch Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Nico van der Zee said bad
weather may have been a factor in the crash, though he said the
military had not ruled out the helicopter being shot down.
“It was in a mountainous region in very bad weather – rain and mist
which reduced visibility,” van der Zee said in The Hague. “That points
toward it being an accident such as flying into a mountain or something
like that.”
In an e-mail to an Associated Press reporter in Pakistan, Muhammad
Hanif, who claimed to speak for the Taliban, said its fighters had shot
down the helicopter on Wednesday afternoon with an unspecified “new
weapon.”
The helicopter was operated by a logistics firm, Tryco. A Tryco
official in Kabul said the helicopter was rented by Fluor, a U.S.-based
company doing construction work in Khost province, about 90 miles south
of the capital, Kabul.
The 16 people on board reportedly included at least three crew.
The Dutch military said two of its personnel, a lieutenant colonel
from the air force and an army sergeant, were on the helicopter.
Officials in Kabul declined to provide information about the other
passengers.
Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for a NATO-led security force in
Afghanistan, said the helicopter had been flying to a so-called
provincial reconstruction team base in Khost. The Dutch were studying
security arrangements at the U.S.-run base to help them as they
establish their own camps in restive Uruzgan province where hundreds of
their troops are deploying as part of a NATO-led security force.
The Netherlands has more than 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, most of
them in Uruzgan.
There have been a series of deadly helicopter crashes in Afghanistan
over the past year from accidents or hostile fire.
In January, an Mi-8 transport helicopter chartered by the Red Cross
crashed high in snowy mountains in Kapisa province north of Kabul,
killing all seven on board. The bodies were retrieved in June.
In May, 10 U.S. soldiers died when their CH-47 Chinook crashed in the
mountains of eastern Kunar province during combat operations against
militants near the Pakistan border. There was no sign the crash was
caused by hostile fire.
In June 2005, a rocket-propelled grenade hit a Chinook in Kunar,
killing 16 U.S. troops.
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NATO to lease commercial helicopters in Afghan operations 23/10/2007 10:00
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is to lease around 20 commercial helicopters for its operations in Afghanistan so that the alliance’s own aircraft can focus on combat, NATO officials said yesterday.
“We need to do more in relation to the in-theater lift — helicopters and tactical transport aircraft which can help to give mobility to our forces,” a NATO official said on condition of anonymity Monday.
The helicopters would be used to transport supplies, such as equipment and ammunition, so that NATO’s own helicopters can be relieved for the transportation of personnel, a senior U.S. official said.
Both officials said the deal is in the final stages of approval by NATO allies.
Although the leasing of helicopters has been a practice of the United States, it is exceptional for NATO, said the U.S. official.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to push allies for additional troops and equipment for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan at this week’s informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
A global force generation conference for Afghanistan has also been scheduled for November at NATO’s military headquarters in Mons, Belgium, said the NATO official.
NATO allies are finding themselves increasingly overstretched with troop deploymnts in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and Lebanon.
Xinhua
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