U.S. Probe: Iraq Hotel Shooting Justified (Killed Reporters)

[DUreader]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3019054,00.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. military investigation
has concluded that U.S. soldiers who fired on a
Baghdad hotel April 8, killing two journalists, had
strong reason to believe that hostile forces were
using the building to direct fire on the Americans,
according to a U.S. defense official.

The official, who had been briefed on the
investigation's findings and discussed them on
condition of anonymity, said members of the 3rd
Infantry Division fired on what they believed to be
an enemy spotter on a balcony of the Palestine
Hotel, which was the main hotel used by war
correspondents.

The soldiers apparently did not know that the
building housed international journalists. At the
time, the U.S. forces were advancing on a bridge
over the Tigris River under heavy resistance.

Journalists in the building said they saw a tank aim
at the building just before it was hit by a shell.

[tom_paine]

1. Wermacht exonerates Officers for Participation in Babi Yar massacre

Yep, just as believable.

[grytpype]

2. The military cleared itself of any wrongdoing.

Nice.

[J B]

3. So they just assumed guys with cameras were enemy spotters.

There goes journalistic safety worldwide.

[StandWatie]

4. noticed that..

sets one hell of a precedence doesn't it?

[Emboldened Chimp]

5. How 'bout somebody ELSE to investigate?

Nah, on second thought, the military wouldn't get the answer they want. An independent investigation might actually find the TRUTH.

[underpants]

7. WE have investigated what WE did and WE concluded WE were right

It goes something like that.

[meegbear]

6. Hostile forces indeed ....

reporting what was really going on.

[Rose Siding]

8. This Guardian piece could be on CNN or FAUX

Why not some of the journalist quotes about NOT hearing any fire on the troops or the quote from one soldier that said they KNEW where the journalist were? (just spacey recall from previous stories about this situation)

This reads like a Pentagon press release.

[0007]

9. The French have it on film

.....other people in the world know the truth.

[termo]

10. any news about the suit in Spain ?

http://in.news.yahoo.com/030527/137/24mr4.html

I didn't find any info after May.

[indepat]

11. Is everything done to further the agenda of those who control our

government justified?

[underpants]

12. Picture (no warning needed)

[DisgustipatedinCA]

19. I saw that on a photography forum after it happened

To me, it was a powerful picture. This is very expensive Canon "L" glass. I'd love to have a lens like that for my camera, but I cannot afford it. When I saw this picture the first time around, I remember being struck by how insignificant material things really are (i.e., no matter how expensive, no matter how nice, it's nothing at all compared to the sanctity of human life).

[gratuitous]

13. Well, I'm glad that's cleared up!

You know, investigations go so much faster and smoother when the accused conducts them!

[lebkuchen]

14. To quote Donald "Asshole" Rumsfeld:

"shit happens."

[Cocoa]

15. two other attacks on journalists that same day

Al Jazeera's office was attacked, supposedly by mistake. The same kind of mistake had happened to them in the Afghanistan war, so they were sure to make their location clear to our military. They gave them coordinates for GPS for their Baghdad office, unfortunately they still got attacked.

Then there was the crew from another Arabic service, two dead I believe.

At the time, it really seemed like an attack on journalists.

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. Thought it was known

that the Palestine Hotel was housing journalists. Would like to to find the report on that...anyone? Thought it was one of the designated hotels for embedded journalists, and the US military DID know that.
(looking for articles that support my memory...)

[Whoa_Nelly]

17. Memory search, found article

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/08/iraq/main548262.shtml

<snip>
"Clearly the war, and all its confusion, has come to the heart of Baghdad," said Reuters Editor in Chief Geert Linnebank. "But the incident nonetheless raises questions about the judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad."

In a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it believed the attacks violated the Geneva Conventions concerning likely harm to civilians.

[harper]

18. Now there's a suprise

Imagine, the military clears itself of wrongdoing. Kind of like the police investigating themselves.

[Zan_of_Texas]

20. yeah sure

One of the things about the liars -- it takes 'em two, three, four stories to try before they get something that might work.

Throw a bunch of stories against the wall and see if something will stick.

Remember, one of the first stories was that the military on the ground was fired at first.

Right, except that the videotape running at the time disproves that -- absolutely no sound until the military shot.

Now, they trot out another story.

Pul-lease.

[Bozola]

21. "General Blount lied about the journalists. He lied."

Good Ol' Robert Fisk

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15729

I was actually between the tank and the hotel, when the round was fired. I was trying to get back from a story, an assignment I'd been on, what I'd put myself on. And the shell with an extraordinary noise swooshed over my head and hit the hotel...bang! Tremendous concussion. White Smoke. And when I got there, two of my colleagues, one from Reuters and one from Spanish Television, both of whom were to die within a few hours, the first one within half an hour, were being brought out in blood-soaked bed-sheeting. And a Lebanese colleague, a woman, Samia, with a piece of metal in her brain. She recovered. She had brain surgery. She's married to the London Financial Times correspondent here in Beirut. She survived. The initial reaction was very interesting because the BBC went on air saying it was an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade. Someone wanted to frighten the press. Then it emerged, thanks be to God for the attempt to get the truth, that TV3, a French channel, had recorded the tanks' movements and I actually rushed to their Bureau and they showed me the videotape and you saw the American tanks for five minutes beforehand, in complete silence - there was nothing happening - going onto the bridge, moving its turret, and then firing at the hotel. The camera shakes and pieces of plaster and paint fall in front of the camera. Clearly, it's the same shot. Four or five minutes in which nothing is happening. Now I was in between the tank and the hotel and there was complete silence. And when initially the Americans said they knew nothing about it, when it became clear the French had a film, before the Americans realized how long the film was running for prior to the attack, they said that the tank was under persistent sniper and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire which is not true. I would have heard it because I was close to the tank and the hotel and it would have been picked up on the soundtrack, which it wasn't.