U.S. Army Report Clears Soldier Who Killed Reuters Cameraman

[rodbarnett]

LONDON (AP) - The U.S. Army said Monday that a soldier who fatally shot a Reuters cameraman in Iraq acted according to the rules because he feared the man's camera was a rocket launcher.
An Army summary of its report called the August death of 41-year-old cameraman Mazen Dana "tragic and regrettable."

It said, however, the unidentified soldier who killed Dana had "reasonable certainty" that he was about to fire on a U.S. patrol and acted properly based on the information available at the time.

Reuters disputed that conclusion, saying better communication among soldiers could have prevented Dana's death and that of the news agency's cameraman Taras Protsyuk. He was killed April 8 after a U.S. tank fired at a hotel housing journalists in Baghdad as American forces took the city.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJ9OR05SD.html

[Tracer]

1. This is not the first journalist ...

... whose camera was "mistaken" for a rocket launcher.

[UpInArms]

2. this is not right

I am so very tired of these "investigations" into the killing of civilians and journalists being whitewashed and no one is ever found to have acted "outside the rules of engagement".

I guess the "rules of engagement" mean that it's just dandy to kill anything that lives.

:cry:

[Amich]

3. it is hard to put yourself in someones shoes

Who know what the shoulder was facing. Maybe he is a jerk and killed the person with no regards to life, but if you are in a war situation i would think you are just trying to survive. and that you are going to fire and ask question later. I don't know luckily I wasn't in during a war time period and didn't have to do more then question myself.

[newyawker99]

6. Hi Amich!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[atreides1]

4. Well This Shows....

...the lousy training that the army has been giving personnel, the inability to identify the difference between a rocket launcher and a camera, considering that your standard rocket launcher is about 3 feet long to start with, and shaped like a long cylidrical tube.

And the camera was approximately 2ft and boxed shape.

Yeah, I know the "heat of battle excuse" is going to appear, this
justifies killing anything that might be considered a threat. Based
on this a soldier could shoot a child throwing a rock, because the rock might be mistaken for a hand grenade.

Then again maybe it wasn't the training, maybe the soldier just needed better glasses!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Here's a longer version of the Reuters story.

The Army report said the soldier, who shot from a tank, had a "reasonable certainty" that Dana was about to fire a rocket- propelled grenade (RPG), having mistaken his camera for a launcher. But it said the tank commander recognised Dana was holding a camera immediately after the fatal shots were fired.
(snip)

Dana had made his presence known to U.S. troops at the prison and the Palestine was widely known to be a media hotel. But this information was not passed the units that fired.

Dana's widow Suzan said in the Palestinian city of Ramallah: "I am not satisfied with the investigation at all.They said that Mazen did not do anything wrong, but at the same time they did not criticize
the soldier who killed him. They are only trying to justify their actions."
(snip)

Schlesinger said in his statement: "The Pentagon must now accept that independent journalists will always operate in the field outside the embedding process and there need to be sensible and prudent measures to avoid them being killed."
(snip)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Sagan]

7. but of course...

Bomb a wedding? No problem. Shoot children? No problem. Bomb allied troops? No problem. Shoot a cameraman? No problem.

At this point, I'm genuinely curious as to what the military WOULD hold someone responsible for.

The "blue wall of silence" ain't got nothing on the olive drab one.

[Sandpiper]

8. Yeah, the military "mistakes" these cameras for rocket launchers

Just like inner city cops "mistake" a black man's wallet for a 9 mm

[Nihil]

10. Hmmm

I wonder if the soldier would have "suspected" a rocket launcher
if the cameraman had been white?

[w4rma]

9. I do not blame the soldier. I blame the leadership. Precautions could have

prevented this needless death. The leadership seems disinterested in preventing the deaths of journalists in Iraq any farther than they are forced to.