flashback: US military kills another journalist in Iraq

[RBHam]

Only now does it appear obvious as to why a journalist snooping around a torture chamber was executed.

US military kills another journalist in Iraq
By Mick Ingram and Mike Head
21 August 2003

In the latest in a series of killings of media workers by the US military in Iraq, two US tanks opened fire at close range on a Palestinian-born Reuters cameraman outside a notorious US-run jail in Baghdad on August 17. Mazen Dana, 43, a highly respected and award-winning media representative, was fatally wounded in the chest and bled to death on the spot.

All the surrounding circumstances point to the killing resulting from a renewed campaign to intimidate journalists and suppress independent coverage of the ongoing war crimes and gross violations of democratic rights occurring under the US occupation of Iraq.

The videotape in Dana’s camera, retrieved after his death, showed two American tanks heading toward him. Six shots could be heard; the camera seemed to tilt and drop to the ground after the first shot. No hostilities were taking place in the vicinity, yet US troops opened fire on Dana without warning.

Dana was with a group of journalists in clearly marked vehicles. Colleagues who witnessed the killing immediately rejected US military command claims that its soldiers mistook the camera Dana was holding for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

“We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists,” Stephan Breitner of France 2 television said. “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.”

Dana’s colleagues said the tank was 30 metres from him when it opened fire. They said television cameras did not look like RPG launchers. In broad daylight at such close range, it would have been impossible to confuse the two.

more...if you can handle it, that is...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/kill-a21.shtml

on edit, bolding

[drfemoe]

1. I've been thinking about this story .

thanks for posting.

[izzie]

2. They do seem to be after them.

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