Fellow Journalists Accuse U.S. Soldiers of Negligence in Shooting of Camer

[Judi Lynn]

Fellow Journalists Accuse U.S. Soldiers of Negligence in Shooting of Cameraman
By Tarek Al-Issawi Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 18, 2003



BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Fellow journalists accused U.S. troops of negligence in the shooting death of a a Reuters cameraman, saying he was clearly identified as a newsman when a tank opened fire at him.
Mazen Dana, 41, was shot and killed by U.S. soldiers Sunday while videotaping near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. The U.S. Army said its soldiers mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The film Dana shot showed a tank driving toward him. Six shots were heard, and the camera appeared to tilt forward and drop to the ground after the first shot.

Dana was working outside the Abu Ghraib prison after a mortar attack there Sunday in which six prisoners were killed and about 60 wounded. Witnesses said Dana was dressed in civilian clothes.

"We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy," said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television. (snip/...)

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

[Divernan]

1. A mortar attack by Iraqis on prison full of Iraqis!?!?!?!

I hadn't heard of this underlying incident which drew the journalists to the location. What is this? The ultimate "friendly fire" incident? Unless it was an attempt to allow prisoners to escape.

[markses]

9. Or unless it was a black op by Chalabi's thugs

Which is a completely viable alternative.

[ewagner]

20. My first question

was exactly that.

I didn't hear about the journalist until about 12 hours later.

Why would "Saddam Loyalists" attack a prison where their supporters were being held?

It doesn't make any sense.

[stickdog]

61. Because "Saddam Loyalists" do everything bad in Iraq.

Haven't you heard?

[wildwww2]

2. The Bu$h Inc. CIA cover-up machine will sweep this away! They always do!

Putting men in situations like they have in Iraq. Creates vicious killers out of good servicemen. I`ve seen it happen before. Bring our troops home and put Bu$h Inc. on trial for the murderous war crime they have commited. Thats what I say.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[The_Casual_Observer]

73. At some point here somebodys going to start to notice

the lump that is gathering under that carpet.

[Cha]

3. Poor guy! And may Mazen Dana rest in Peace! And may

everybody else that doesn't belong over there come home!

Look what that bush wrought.

[dArKeR]

4. U.S. army kills journalist - TGM

http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030818.wiraq0818_2/BNStory/International/

[dArKeR]

5. Reporters: U.S. Troops Negligent - CBS

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/18/iraq/main568803.shtml

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QuietStorm]

7. I don't get it

Between the IDF and now U.S. troops it's open season on journalalists? What is going on?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Atlant]

27. Totalitarian regimes don't like the press. (NT)

[QuietStorm]

30. Which totalitarian regime are you refering to?

[NickB79]

35. Well

Take a wild guess.

[QuietStorm]

36. LOL

how wildly difficult!!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. that brings the number to 18 journalists killed in Iraq

:(

[NYC]

51. Do you have a breakdown on who killed the 18?

I hadn't realized it was as high as 18. If you know who killed them, please let me know. I haven't kept track.

[QuietStorm]

11. PBS Video Segment of Mazen Dana in the West Bank (Warning Graphic)

Mazan Dana is the Palestinian (he has been targeted before) Cameraman that use to cover the west bank. He is the subject matter of a number of PBS segments on the IDF's targeting of Journalists Dana was one night targeted miserably one evening with multiple shots to the head. Me thinks Dana may have been on a hit list.

video segment (w/focus on Dana and an interview with Israeli Danny Seaman who overseas the Foreign Press In the OT's)

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech1_hi.rm

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech2_hi.rm

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech3_hi.rm

NO ONE HAS BEEN LISTENING. THIS HAS BEEN A CONTRAVERCIAL TOPIC IN TERMS OF IDF TARGETTING FOREIGN JOURNALISTS COVERING THE WEST BANK (AND OT'S). PALESTINIAN, FRENCH, GERMAN). NO ONE HAS BEEN LISTENING. INVESTIGATIONS HAVE GONE NO WHERE. CLAIMS ARE ALWAYS THAT IT IS ACCIDENTAL.

Media Bodies Want U.S. Probe of Reuters Man's Death
Mon August 18, 2003 09:41 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International media rights bodies called on the United States on Monday to launch a full inquiry into the killing of award-winning Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, who was shot dead by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Soldiers on an American tank shot at Dana on Sunday while he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad which had earlier come under a mortar attack, witnesses said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, RSF) in Paris urged the U.S. authorities to conduct a full inquiry.

Dana, a 43-year-old Palestinian, had worked for Reuters mostly in the West Bank city of Hebron. The CPJ honored him with its International Press Freedom Award in 2001 for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3294242&src=eDialog/GetContent§ion=news

[Resistance]

12. WOW!!

I think you are right about this, QS. Looks like there is a joint US/Israeli hit-list against certain journalists. Of course, there will be no investigation and the truth will never be known.

[QuietStorm]

13. I must make a correction

the journalist that was shot mercilessly in the head on one of the PBS video's was not Dana, but his partner. However, I have no problem believing there is a hit list on Palestinian Journalists or foreign journalists. This is out of control. Since none of this has been covered in the US press, my guess would be that NO no real investigation or probe will be forthcoming. Americans don't care the violence is too far away for many of us to really get it.

These PBS video segments were taken in 2001. It is now 2003. That Mazen Dana was shot point blank, clearly visible as a journalist. Accidental? That is what will be reported in any mock investigation they conduct. I have no doubt.

[Resistance]

14. Iraq is America's West Bank and Gaza

We're murdering journalists now, just like the Israelis have been doing. I just hope we don't take to murdering peace activists like Israel did to Rachel Corrie.

[QuietStorm]

17. One thing: US mainstream press outlets have always called it what it is.

A U.S. Occupation of Iraq. The word occupation has been used quite liberally in the times. In that regard they have not minced words. But this is... deeply disturbing. Not surprising, but to see it so blatantly... is disturbing.

[tinnypriv]

49. That is not correct

When did the mainstream media start to refer to the occupation of Iraq? The BBC used to say "what Iraq's call an 'occupation'", Murdoch outlets rejected the word occupation out of hand etc.

They started using the word occupation after the United States used it in the UN-SC resolution passed after the war. Not before.

When they were told it was okay to use, they used it. That makes the mainstream media cowards, and whores to power.

If the US and UK governments were denying it was an occupation, trust me, Reuters and AP would not go within ten miles of using the term. They would 'attribute' it instead.

[QuietStorm]

53. Thanks for the correction

I feel they are whores you have no argument with me there. I just happened to notice in a Times article I read recently that the world occupation was used. I wasn't aware of the back ground . I misspoke. Thanks for the correction.

[tinnypriv]

54. :)

:thumbsup:

[rman]

86. whores; "intellectual prostitutes" as one journalist once put it:

~1880 - Journalist John Swinton
One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press.
We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
http://www.rense.com/general20/yes.htm

(i'd say things haven't exactly improved since 1880)

[Fair and Balanced]

85. What say?

"Looks like there is a joint US/Israeli hit-list against certain journalists."

Have even a smidge of evidence for that?

[renegade000]

15. that was moving...considering the circumstance

Dana was talking about how he loved filming and didn't want to give it up...he was killed doing what he loved in life. :-(

[QuietStorm]

16. Very moving. I agree. For many reasons.

If investigations were really conducted back then and our press was not such WHORES and America was the true overseer of democracy. Dana might be alive. If you view the third segment. Nigel, Dana's partner who was shot repeatedly in the head with rubber bullets, whom Danny Seaman thought should receive an apology, just took their press cards away. I guess Seaman knew something about GOI, that they intended to go on targeting journalists, and in lieu of an apology Seaman figured the next best thing was trying to save their lives by taking away their press cards to work in the OT's.

If you watch the Seaman interview closely when he speaks off record he swallows back a sentence that ends with the word government. Watch closely you will see his pain. His hands were tied. In that one moment (and perhaps I am projecting), Seamans swallowing back of that sentence speaks volumes regarding current Israeli Government. He was not at liberty to continue his sentence, even off record.

To think the DoD is following suit, is very moving.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Just finished your first link, Quiet Storm

It's important for people to learn that even the Israeli journalists were aware of this ongoing program to harm these journalists, and that they protested it, themselves.

How can the people who abuse these brave people ever live with the knowledge of their filthy behavior.

Thank you for posting these illuminating links.

[QuietStorm]

19. you know

when I first viewed these segments of course I was struck literally by the visuals. In viewing them again today, I draw your attention to the Seaman segment when he goes off record. His inability to expound I feel represents the heart of the pain for what probably is a great number of Israel's. I was not struck by this segment the first time I viewed these PBS videos, in that one moment when danny seaman pauses just after the word government speaks for a very specific internal struggle that is very moving to me. Loyalty to the government he represents as well as angst with his own morality. This did not strike me until I viewed that segment again today.

[Judi Lynn]

21. You're right, Danny Seaman was caught off guard, and he struggled

He looked very conflicted. What a shame he had simply cast it off, finally, in the later clip, deciding it was a neccessary evil, a side effect of the struggle for their own security.

The clip showing Mazan Dana, the award given him for the "power" of his work he kept in front of the public eye, was affirming of his courage and his talent.

It's so sad knowing that they tried to get him to become an editor, in an effort to keep him safe, and that he ultimately believed he was more valuable out on the line.

Just like our own media personnel. Oh, my god! What a shame, what a deep shame to see our own people fawning, gibbering, and turning themselves into grotesque clowns to win the protection and approval of the Bush clusterbleep.

Hope everyone will put aside a few minutes to look at those clips. Thank you for making it possible. It adds real depth to this story.

[QuietStorm]

22. So the Question is

now that it seems the DoD may be picking up where the IDF left off with their stand on Journalists. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE FROM OUR MEDIA???

You can clearly see it was an issue that did not go unnoticed. Even our press corps were aware of it SO WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE??

It will be interesting if the our media even picks the story up here int here in the states in a big way. I haven't googled it yet.

[grasswire]

23. why do these guys...

......who go into such dangerous combat areas have so many children? Dana had four children, David Bloom had three young daughters.

[QuietStorm]

25. I don't understand the question

why do US soldiers have wives and children? I don't understand the question or its relevance.

[theHandpuppet]

48. Where indeed is the outrage...

Earlier today I saw Wolf Bluster on CNN acutally defending the murder of this photojournalist. Wolfgang (aka "I am loyal to Der Bushreich!") offered his own commentary by showing a pic of a photojournalist holding a shoulder camera with a telephoto lens and then observing (slight paraphrasing here, as I don't recall his babble in its exact wording), "You can see how easy it would be to confuse one of these cameras for an RPG".

Pretty darn sad when even a fellow journalist continues to make excuses for the mounting death toll of journalists in Iraq!

[QuietStorm]

50. well that about sums up the memorial the US press corp will honor him with

interesting, considering it was the US press corp that gave Mazen Dana his award. It is documented in the Patricia Naylor PBS segments I placed in post #11.

[stickdog]

62. You can see how easy it would be to confuse Wolf with an actual journalist

NOT

[theHandpuppet]

80. Yep, my partner calls them...

My partner maintains that virtually all of the so-called journalists on television today are little more than emcees for "news entertainment". I believe hers to be an apt description. Perhaps we could suggest they all outfit themselves in ringmasters' costumes since they've so successfully mutated what was once a respectable arena for professional journalists into little more than a three ring circus.

[CornFused]

79. I think...

when barbra walter gets shot at by US troops, they might just start think that there is something wrong going on.

[QuietStorm]

28. JudiLyn, any US media outlets on the list?...

here is the googles on the murder of Mazen Dana. Note the publications.

http://news.google.com/news?q=mazen+dana&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

It is disgusting.

[berry]

37. This headline from your google search popped out as bizarre--

and I was right. It's from a webpage called "Washington Dispatch" that links off of townhall.com (RW site). This is apparently ONE of the lines of defense that will be taken. They're very fast getting this out--apparently they want to get the blame out there early. But calling the business of taking a photo "simulating another shoulder fired missile attack" is SICK. "Another"?? (see the article, mentioning the Palestine Hotel killings as the same kind of "accident" that needs to be blamed on the victims). AUGH! He actually seems to be claiming that they were not photographing, but "simulating an attack"!! But why would *anyone* do such a thing? It's crazy on the face of it. Well--in any case, this is not the mainstream media. More like a slightly slicker version of FR (but a column, not a forum).

I am more sickened by the shooting of this good man, but this PR campaign is bad enough. I wonder what else Jack Burns has written about journalists?

Reuters Defends Another Simulated Missile Attack

Exclusive commentary by Jack Burns
Aug 18, 2003

Award winning Reuters Cameraman Mazen Dana was killed by US troops on while simulating another shoulder fired missile attack. The American troops did not know that this act was only a simulation and tragically killed Mr. Dana. This is the second simulated attack on American troops, which resulted in a fatality. The first, on April 8th, involving a tripod mounted simulator on a balcony of the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, in Baghdad, which killed Taras Protsyuk.

The Palestine Hotel incident took place at about one thousand meters; this incident seems to have taken place at less than three hundred. But, this simulation confirmed what Reuters did not learn after the first incident: “Point a shoulder fired simulator at American troops in combat and you could die.”

Reuters, instead of accepting any responsibility for endangering their reporters, has demanded International media rights bodies call on the United States to launch a full inquiry into the killing of the award-winning Reuters cameraman. They have already distorted the inquiry by publishing on Monday August 18 at 12:09 PM a photograph, which intimates that the shoulder fired simulator operator, was wearing other then normal street clothing to differentiate him from real shoulder fired missile operators.

According to Reuters; Severine Cazes of Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, RSF) told CNN television. "There have been many mistakes...by the U.S. military during the war." And "We are shocked and extremely disturbed by this new death," This appears to be a misleading statement. The data shows that if one points a shoulder missile simulator at American Troops in Combat; the chances of dying are equal to that of one who points an actual shoulder fired weapon. The only mistake involved seems to be conducting the simulation.

more> http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_6398.shtml

You are right, QuietStorm--where is the outrage?! Where are the investigations of ALL the cases of journalists killed?

[QuietStorm]

38. thanks for pointing that one out for me.

you are right that will be the RW spin on it to vilify Reuters as defending the enemy. How original.

As to all the journalists they can probably be followed by activiting the websites of the groups mentioned in the PBS segments.

[QuietStorm]

39. Palestinian Hotel bombing

was yet another outright targeting of Journalists. the main reports said the troops saw sniper fire coming from the hotel. other reports and journalists that survived contradicted that as false. this is what we have come to. and yet so many people hardly take notice, let alone question.

[Resistance]

40. Remember when the Israeli Army murdered Rachel Corrie?

The first thing out was a photo of Rachel burning a flag, and all attempts were made by the RW hatemongers to vilify HER instead of going after her killers. It is a sick game, and this killing of Dana sounds more and more to me like an outright assassination.

[QuietStorm]

42. you know we will never know

even American Journalists hold their tongue.

let us see how many US journalists will speak up for Dana

let us see if kopel does a segment honoring him on nightline tonight.

Really what is another arab (palestinian) to US journalists. The target would have to be American Journalists for US Press corp to make a stink about this. It doesn't hit close enough to home. The journalists that do their whoring are embedded remember?

All those journalists on the ground and it is Dana that doesn't make it home. Accident? Coincidence? And what flimsy accusation. They thought his camera was a missile simulator?

[Yentatelaventa]

59. Was it murder?

I don't recall a guilty verdict of murder in that accident. What court of law determined it was murder?

[stickdog]

63. I do not recall an accidental verdict in this homicide.

What court of law determined it was accidental?

[RapidCreek]

46. This has to be a parody!

No one could possibly be this stupid!!! Why would anyone waste the time to write something so obviousely idiotic if not attempting humor?

RC

[kimchi]

47. How can Jackoff Burns in Hell live with himself?

That isn't spinning, that is complete fabricated bullshit. NOWHERE in the news does it say anything about the cameraman holding a "shoulder fired simulator". Unless he is changing the definition of a camera.

This sickens me. I keep reading the news thinking it can't get any worse and every day it gets worse. I would be inclined to believe he was murdered due to his record, but for my sanity I must believe that the soldiers are just tired and on edge, and totally careless.

Please, let it be an accident. I can't bear the thought that one of our soldiers would do something so heinous. West Bank, indeed.

[berry]

66. I know--the lies are so bald they invite disbelief (as well as disgust).

I do think the site is real, however--it is linked to the rabid RW townhall.com site where Coulter et al. hang out.

And I think this assertion about "simulators" (I kind of doubt there even ARE such things--what would they be FOR?) is a continuation of an argument that they started after the Palestine Hotel killings of journalists. Maybe they thought the argument worked once, hey use it again. I've never heard of this creep--never lurk on RW sites. Maybe this sort of garbage only gets to the hard-core types, I don't know. I guess the test would be if this is a talking point for talk radio as well. It only matters if the lies are believed, I guess. Maybe I shouldn't have posted it--it was just that it was so shocking.

[QuietStorm]

67. Yes it is a trick they have learned from Rummy the Rebuffer

or vica versa:shrug:

[stickdog]

81. He's Frank Burns' brother. (NT)

[rman]

84. "simulator"? WTF? they mean "camera" right?

what the hell.

so other war time camera men are alive only because soldiers recognized them as 'simulating' a shoulder fired missile attack. lucky them.

i'm taking the next flight to the other end of the galaxy.

[psychopomp]

24. Journalists have been targeted

In the occupied territories as well as in the current Iraq war. I find it doubtful, however, that there was an IDF insider in the tank who told that soldier to fire on Mr. Dana. I have never been inside an M-1, or an armed forces uniform, for that matter, but I suppose that the decision to fire on Mr. Dana was made by somebody in that tank.

I am with the "soldiers going crazy and shooting anything that moves" POV on this one. But, obviously, I really don't know.

R.I.P. all who have fallen in this human tragedy.

[QuietStorm]

26. That isn't what I was implying.

[TeeYiYi]

31. Wow. Thank you for the links to that documentary . . .

. . . (although now I feel even more empty and depressed than usual). But still I'm glad I saw it.
I don't see how the American press can gloss over this death now, after seeing that they gave an
award to Mazan Dana for bravery. This subject has got to surface and be addressed.

Personally, I believe that the Israeli soldiers are fighting with our soldiers in Iraq. I don't have
proof of that but if I find something I will post it. I have no doubt that the killing of Mazan Dana
has Israel's fingerprints all over it.

TYY

[QuietStorm]

33. the story is still breaking

I am trying to clip articles as they come up on googles. Reuters is pissed. So far only a few US outlets have picked up the story in comparison to all other news outlets.

latest googles:

http://news.google.com/news?q=mazen+dana&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

[QuietStorm]

34. here is another googles link key words were...

mazen dana AND accident. On googles this is what has come up.

http://www.google.com/search?q=mazen+dana+AND+accident&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0

[QuietStorm]

29. Witnesses: Killing of cameraman was not an accident (12 minutes ago)

I am not advocating, but could not help but notice this article when I pulled up the stories on googles to see if any US media outlets had picked it up yet.

snip
Monday, August 18 2003 @ 01:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 25

InternationalForeign journalists in Iraq Monday accused American soldiers of negligence in the shooting death of a Reuters cameraman, saying it was clear the victim was a newsman when soldiers on two tanks opened fire.
Mazen Dana, a Reuters cameraman was shot dead Sunday while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad that earlier was hit by a mortar attack, the AP said.

Dana, 41, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad when he was shot, Reuters added. A U.S. military official said Dana was shot by US troops.

Witnesses said Dana was dressed in civilian clothes. "We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy," said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television.

Dana's driver, Munzer Abbas, said Dana had got out of the car when he saw the tanks approaching.

"We saw a tank, 50 meters away. I heard six shots and Mazen fell to the ground. One of the soldiers started shouting at us, but when he knew we were journalists, he softened. One of the soldiers told us they thought Mazen carrying a rocket-propelled grenade," said Abbas.

"There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident," he said.

Reuters quoted soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was with Dana, as saying that the U.S. soldiers "saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.

Dana's driver, Munzer Abbas, said Dana had got out of the car when he saw the tanks approaching. "There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident," he said.

Reuters quoted soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was with Dana, as saying that the U.S. soldiers "saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission."

more...
http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20030818133210903

[Turley]

52. Missing the forest for the trees

I keep seeing this same article in different places. Amazing that no one here seems to be able to recognize its major failing. The article repeatedly says "the soldiers (note "the soldiers") knew who we were and what we were doing". They are, of course, talking about the soldiers actually on the scene at the time.

Then tanks arrived which needed to be filmed. Anyone paying a lick of attention will noticed that the tanks "arrived" i.e. they weren't freaking there before, i.e. the soldiers in them probably didn't have the first freaking clue what they were coming up on and, since they weren't there before, didn't know who the hell was milling about.

Of course whomever wrote this article didn't want to make this distinction for obvious reasons. Astounding that you guys couldn't figure it out. Then again I guess you'd rather believe the ghost of Moshe Dayan was sending the tankers telepathic e-mails telling them which guy to shoot.

[RainDog]

58. I don't know what happened

and neither does anyone else on this board.

however, I wonder...do tanks live in a world of their own when they move into an area?

does anyone communicate with them while they are inside the tanks?

I agree with your point that the tanks seem to have arrived after other soldiers, who saw the journalists and knew the situation, were on the scene.

I can see that it could have been a gross misjudgement on the part of the soldiers in the tank. but wouldn't they have asked what sort of situation they were coming into?

Various journalists, including and especially Amanpour, noted that the attack on the jouranalists at the Palestine hotel was not the situation which the army claimed.

since this is part of the background of the situation, it's hard to know whether this was an accident or an intentional murder of a journalist.

[stickdog]

64. Well, thank God that tank arrived just in the nick-o-time to save the day!

Otherwise, some video footage might have been shot!

[QuietStorm]

32. Cameraman shooting 'no accident'

FELLOW journalists today accused US troops of negligence in the shooting death of a Reuters cameraman, saying it was clear the victim was a newsman when soldiers on two tanks opened fire.

Mazen Dana, 41, was shot and killed by US soldiers yesterday while videotaping near a US-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. The US Army said its soldiers mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

But journalists who witnessed the incident said the shooting was result of tension affecting US troops in Iran.

"We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy," said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television.

more..

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6996821%255E1702,00.html


Here is my question. There were all those Journalists there. Why Mazen Dana. How is they he is the one dead. I ask this only because of the history with Dana going back to 2001 as documented by those PBS segments. All those Journalists on the scene there. Why is Dana the only one dead. There may be a perfectly good explanation for this.

[Turley]

78. Uh......

Because he jumped out of a car and hoisted something quickly on his shoulder and pointed it at the tank. Pretty much a no-brainer. Do you really think some E-4 from Peoria has the slightest clue who this guy was? Come on.

[stickdog]

82. Some E-4 from Peoria?

Are you writing this script or just reading from it?

[Turley]

83. Hey Stickdog

Let me know when you have anything relevant or enlightening to say on the topic.

Cheers

[ping_PONG]

41. There is more to this story than meets the eye.

'm deeply concerned about the multiple incidents in Iraq of news agency cameramen being shot and killed.

We all know that these people are taking some serious chances when they go into occupied territories to film the news as it happens. This has gone beyond chances to calculated murder, I fear.

The Reuters cameraman that was shot yesterday happened to be a man that was featured in a episode of Frontline/WORLD a few month's ago, I suggest to people that they go to the pbs.org website and look it up and watch it.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/about/episodes/201.html

He had received death threats, for filming the news. That was when he was filming the rather brutal (justified or not, who is right in the conflict is not the issue.) Israeli incursions into the West Bank. In this segment they clearly show that the Israeli Defense Force, and the Sharon government have a PR policy in effect that involves shooting journalists. They're using rubber-coated bullets though.

Back to Iraq.

Clearly the Bush administration is walking a tightrope in public opinion here (The U.S.) and abroad in regards to all foreign affairs, but especially in regards to Iraq, it's motivations to go to war, the occupation, and the reconstruction. They have great reason to want to control the media, especially the international media that has proven itself particularly stubborn in it's endeavor to report the news accurately. So it seems that the Bush administration has adopted a similar, but perhaps more deadly PR policy to the one that the Israelis have adopted.

These policies do not run parallel to the values of the United States and are more consistent with those of Saddam Hussein himself. The men that have implemented them must be exposed and prosecuted if, as it appears, this is a PR policy of murder.

[QuietStorm]

44. the Patricia Naylor segments are in POST #11

THIS ONE



images from the episode

Episode Guide
EPISODE 201
Airdate: March 20, 2003

• Overview
• TV and Web Credits

>>Transcript

OVERVIEW

Israel/Palestinian territories, IN THE LINE OF FIRE
When journalists become targets
As the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians worsens, FRONTLINE/World investigates the dilemmas and dangers faced by reporters covering the violence. In the West Bank, Canadian TV producer Patricia Naylor interviews Palestinian cameramen and other journalists who say they have been shot by Israeli soldiers. read more

_____

I am not sure if they are the full segment or just snatches from her documentary, but if you haven't seen them, three segments can be accessed in Post #11

[ping_PONG]

45. Yeah you beat me to it

Just saw that sorry.

[samsingh]

43. everything we hear in the administration's favor

is now extremely suspect.

[IndianaGreen]

55. It wasn't negligence, it was racism!

Our white troops are having a field day killing brown people in Iraq, just as our glorious Marines did in 1899-1902 during the Philippines Rebellion.

[Yentatelaventa]

60. Oh please!

Do you have any evidence to back up such an outragous accusation against the brave young soldiers in harms way over their? Our soldiers don't deserve that kind of crap talk against them.

[IndianaGreen]

68. Your "brave young soldiers' are nothing but common war criminals

and are part of a foreign occupation force. They are no different from Hitler's armies that occupied Europe!

[Yentatelaventa]

69. That's your opinion

We'll just have to wallow in disagreement.

[IndianaGreen]

70. That's also the opinion of the Iraqi people

a view they share with millions of people from around the world. The jingoist America-is-always-right has no traction outside US borders.

[The_Casual_Observer]

71. As the months drag on it will probably become the Majority

Opinon in the US. This is what the Vietnam Vets faced in the 70's.

[QuietStorm]

72. This not the soldiers fault directly

those tanks swooped in on order. My guess is Dana was tagged.

[The_Casual_Observer]

74. This is what they faced in Vietnam, the germans in poland ....

I was only following orders.

[QuietStorm]

75. then it is those giving the orders

that must be questioned. Are the soldiers asked who's orders they were following if brought before a tribunal. Not that this hit would get that far. I doubt it will.

On edit: of course I speculate. we don't know how exactly this error of judgement came about.

[IndianaGreen]

76. No one is giving the orders, there is no command and control!

We have a bunch of brainwashed Freepers acting out their deep seated racism and shooting at anyone that looks non-Western to them. This is one of several recent incidents in which US troops have killed innocent civilians under rather questionable circumstances.

We are digging our own grave in Iraq, as the British did before us!

US admits cameraman was shot dead at close range
By Justin Huggle in Baghdad
19 August 2003

The Americans claimed that the soldiers mistook the camera Mr Dana was holding for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher - a claim that was immediately rejected by journalists who witnessed the killing.

"We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists," said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television. "After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was an accident. They are very tense. They are crazy. They are young soldiers and they don't understand what is happening."

Mr Dana's driver, Munzer Abbas, said: "There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident."

Mr Dana's colleagues said the tank was 30 metres from him when it opened fire. Television cameras do not look like RPG launchers: at such close range it should have been impossible to confuse the two.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=435156

[QuietStorm]

77. oh you mean the soldiers

are freepers. I got confused in the other thread you are calling the soldiers freepers. Really I don't know. I just look at a number of videos and articles over a period of time, and it strikes me odd this shooting is all. I play with a number of scenarios in my head. Like with so many other happenings that go through my mind. We can only speculate. Journalists are embedded. Our media is useless overall. Eventually, the need to speculate passes, and we are on to the next incident that might strike us odd. We will never know.

[QuietStorm]

56. FROM TRANSCRIPT OF NIGHTLINE INTERVIEW WITH MAZEN DANA

INTERVIEWER
Were any of you wounded or injured?

MAZEN DANA
Yeah, Micholeb Al-He-Lohai he sits in the back he have some pieces from the bullet injured, one his leg and one on his arm.

INTERVIEWER
So the shooting was on purpose, they knew it was you.

MAZEN DANA
Yeah, yeah, on purpose after we said to them, "We are journalists," they said, "OK, go back!" So we came into our car and went back, then after that they shoot us. You can't see them because succeeds falling out, it is from a magazine 250. And they both are some danger. And this has been treated in the camp from here. After the authority forbid us to enter Hebrom means it's to, it's not under Israeli control and this is not politics, again, this is the freedom of journalists. So, for a few days in this kind of this month, I've got injury in my leg too, but it's like bullets from candles, boom, boom. And I still now, I'm not ready to go to work. And this is the democracy which Israelis said about the freedom of journalists.

INTERVIEWER
Are we to understand that Palestinian journalists are not allowed to move into an area under Israeli control.

MAZEN DANA
Yeah, yeah, they book many, many of them in Palestinian, they said clearly, "You are not allowed if we saw anybody, if anybody's seen a journalist in this Israeli area, you will be arrested and your life will be in danger."

more...
http://www.cpj.org/awards01/dana.html

[symbolman]

57. I've reposted a link to a commentary I made

months ago on Take Back the Media regarding the targeting of Journalists and how the people working in the media lower echalon should take action and delay limos, lose video and cost the big media moguls some of their blood money..

and that's what it is if they don't all start screaming about this loud and clear..

here's our link: http://www.takebackthemedia.com/mediarevolution.html

[dudeness]

65. I hope john pilger and robert fisk

stay out of Iraq...they would most likely have a bullseye on them...lets face it , if you were not an embedded journalist (government propagandist) you could be telling the truth and the last thing anyone wants to hear is the truth...