had his first interview with the IGADF Inquiry. He could not rule out the possibility that prior to 2018, he may have told others about the conversation.
708 The only evidence of the conversation came from Person 18 himself and there was no evidence of the conversation from any other witness. Nevertheless, I find that Person 18 was an honest and reliable witness and I accept his evidence. I reject Person 5's denials.
709 The conversation expresses a concern that the applicant's act of shooting EKIA57 outside the compound may have been recorded. That concern is consistent with the fact that Person 5 was aware that "Troops in Contact" (TIC) was open and one reason to leave TIC open was to get assets above you. Person 5 said that, as far as he aware, when the troop was clearing W108, the Force Element had ISR on W109. Person 5 gave evidence that he did not expect ScanEagle would be above the compound during the mission because ISR does not stay above the compound during missions. He said it gets pushed off and it goes defensive and starts looking for potential threats coming in towards the compound. He said that ScanEagle would not have been above the compound; it would be out in a defensive mode looking at potential avenues of approach for enemies and "stuff like that". Person 5 said that once the troop makes entry, then they control the space and ScanEagle can move out and look at roads, routes and anything where a potential Taliban or anything can come in and attack. It is where JTAC pushes the ScanEagle to.
710 Person 5 agreed with the proposition that ScanEagle would definitely be in the general area looking around generally for threats. Person 5 agreed that ScanEagle was operating throughout the day of the W108 mission. Person 5 knew it was somewhere up above flying in circles. He had no precise knowledge of where it was that it was looking and he said that one would have to ask the JTAC who was in control on that day. He said that they get updates and get told on the radio where the sensors are. He said they always get updates and in the case of every target they hit, there are constant updates on ISR and what it is looking at and where it is. It was put to Person 5 that he did not get any updates during the SSE process at W108. He said that he could not be exact on the updates they got, but there is constant updates coming over the radio on where the ISR is and what it is looking at. It was put to Person 5 that he thought ScanEagle was up there somewhere and he responded by saying that he knew that ScanEagle was up there. It was put to him that he was not exactly sure what it was looking at at any given point in time and he responded by saying that he would put his money on it looking at W109. When it was finally put to him that he was not sure where ScanEagle was, he said that he could not answer
