US at war with Press Corps in Iraq

[Ivo Skoric]

Just as they exonerated the crew that killed journalists in the 
Palestine Hotel, Americans killed a Reuters cameraman and wounded an 
Al Jazeera one - again. Reuters and Al Jazeera seem to be 
particularly targeted, and maybe it is a time for an independent 
inquiry whether there is a pattern behind this madness.
ivo


U.S. TROOPS SHOOT DEAD REUTERS CAMERAMAN. U.S. troops shot dead
Reuters cameraman Mazan Dana as he filmed outside the Abu Ghraib
prison in western Baghdad, Reuters reported on 17 August. The prison
had earlier been under mortar attack. Dana's last footage shows a
U.S. tank driving toward him outside the prison. Soldiers evidently
mistook the camera he had shouldered for a rocket-propelled grenade
launcher, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
told Reuters yesterday. Reuters soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi said that
before the shooting, the crew had requested and then been denied
permission to speak to an officer, indicating that U.S. troops knew
of the crew's presence. Since war began in March, 17 media
workers have died in Iraq and two are missing. A seasoned war
reporter, Dana, 43, was awarded an International Press Freedom Award
in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in
Hebron where he was repeatedly wounded and beaten. He is the second
Reuters employee to die since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. CAF

U.S. MILITARY EXONERATES TANK CREW IN DEATH OF UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST
IN IRAQ. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a news release on its
website (http://www.centcom.mil) on 12 August that the U.S. tank that
fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April -- resulting in
the deaths of Ukrainian Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish
Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso -- was deemed to have acted
appropriately under the circumstances. Kyiv had officially requested
that Washington probe circumstances surrounding Protsyuk's death
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 April 2003). The tank crew "properly fired
upon a suspected enemy hunter/killer team in a proportionate and
justifiably measured response," according to CENTCOM, which added,
"The action was fully in accordance with the Rules of Engagement."
The crew reportedly discovered only after it fired a single,
120-millimeter tank round at the building that the structure was the
Palestine Hotel. CENTCOM expressed regret over the deaths of the
journalists. "The journalists' death at the Palestine Hotel was a
tragedy and the United States has the deepest sympathies for the
families of those who were killed," CENTCOM said. ("RFE/RL Newsline,"
13 August 2003)

CPJ TROUBLED BY RESULTS OF PALESTINE HOTEL INQUIRY. In a 12 August
statement in response to the CENTCOM report, the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nongovernmental group
promoting media freedom around the world, says it continues to
question events surrounding the shelling of the Palestine Hotel in
Baghdad. CPJ has conducted its own investigation into the incident
and says CENTCOM has not yet fully addressed the issue of whether
U.S. troops were aware they were firing on journalists. The
organization is calling upon CENTCOM to make public its full report,
which has been classified. CPJ's study is based on interviews
with about a dozen reporters who were at the scene, including two
embedded journalists who monitored military radio traffic before and
after the shelling occurred. These accounts suggests that the attack
on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable. Pentagon
officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that
the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists and were
intent on not hitting it, the CPJ's report says. CPJ filed
requests for further information under the Freedom of Information Act
but the Defense Department did not supply any materials except public
transcripts already available. In a 14 April letter to the CPJ,
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said, "coalition forces were
fired upon and acted in self-defense by returning fire" and that news
organizations had been warned that Baghdad was "particularly
dangerous." The CPJ report can be viewed at
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/palestine_hotel/palestine_hotel.htm
l CAF

AL-JAZEERA CREW INJURED IN GRENADE ATTACK. A cameraman for the
Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera and his assistant were
injured on 10 August, during a grenade attack on U.S. troops in
Baghdad, CPJ reported on its website the same day
(http://www.cpj.org). Cameraman Hussein Ali Hassan and his assistant
Mustafa Hazem suffered shrapnel wounds to their legs after an
assailant (or assailants) dropped a grenade from a 10th-floor window
at Baghdad University, Al-Jazeera assistant producer Ziad Ajlouni
told CPJ. The blast reportedly also wounded two U.S. soldiers.
Ajlouni said that U.S. forces had invited the Al-Jazeera team to
cover troops distributing furniture to the university. Both Hassan
and Hazem were taken to a hospital for treatment and were later
released with minor injuries. CAF