All Bill Clinton could do was apologize, "The U.S.," he declared, "is responsible for this terrible tragedy." But his guest was implacable. "We shall say we are satisfied when whoever is responsible for what happened is found guilty and punished," said Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema. The day before, a military jury in Camp Lejeune, N.C., had acquitted Captain Richard Ashby, a U.S. Marine pilot whose EA-6B warplane severed a ski gondola in the Italian Alps on Feb. 3, 1998, sending 20 Europeans to their death.
While military prosecutors alleged that Ashby had been "flat-hatting"--flying recklessly--his lawyers revealed widespread training deficiencies....
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