Journalists tortured by US troops

"The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to the Pentagon following the 'wrongful' arrest and apparent 'brutalisation' of three of its staff this month by US troops in Iraq. The complaint followed an incident in the town of Falluja when American soldiers fired at two Iraqi cameramen and a driver from the agency while they were filming the scene of a helicopter crash. The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were 'enemy personnel' who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them for 72 hours... 'They were brutalised, terrified and humiliated for three days,' one source said. 'It was pretty grim stuff. There was mental and physical abuse.' ... The US military has so far refused to apologise and has bluntly told Reuters to 'drop' its complaint."


www.guardian.co.uk...

Of course the rest of the story is that there have been several occassions where US personnel have been fired at by Iraqi resistance or Al Queida under the guise of video camera carrying press...

I can understand detaining these guys, brutalization on the otherhand is unacceptable~



[Edited on 14-1-2004 by intelgurl]

Having been there, I can attest that the military holds a very dim view of journalists covering them. Command fosters that.

During Operations Desert Shield and Storm we were warned not to speak to any of them at any time - until it was over and we were home.

Well, it does make sense...

Bottom line, covering a war is dangerous...and a camera and a rocket launcher can look very similar in the smoke and sand...

As for brutalizing, I'm sure that's likely exaggerated, both for publicity, and for settlement...

Another bottom line, is that if you fail to identify yourself, and coordinate coverage with the forces present, then you can't expect them to be able to tell you from them...period.

What do you expect from soldiers, who are trianed to kill?!.

"Oh hello there, would you like some tea, and crumpets?"

Bull Crap!

Those reporters, if they really were reporters, are damn lucky they still are able to draw breath. I'm still surpised to see the media in a conflict zone, seriously. They are willingly take those risks, just as the soldiers. One does NOT go into a war zone and expect every thing to be rose and honky #in dorey!

Excuse my language, but this BS is, no has been pushing my nerves. People need to realize the seriousness of the situation. Those soldiers didn't have to take anyone alive, they could have just blew the hell out of those people and no questions would have arose.

Remember that, next time the media opens their big, fat, hypocritic, paid off mouths. Don't take me wrong, I don't feel this way about all journalists, just the stupid ones who whine about something they knew was possible.

If you don't like the heat, get the F out of the kitchen!

Well I guess the good news is the people defending this type of thing will totally understand when this type of thing starts happening in the US. Patriot Act III coming at ya!

"Although Reuters has not commented publicly, it is understood that the journalists were "brutalised and intimidated" by US soldiers, who put bags over their heads, told them they would be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and whispered: "Let's have sex." "

Bah, what's the big deal, right? Maybe they were nice fancy bags.

"At one point during the interrogation, according to the family of one of the staff members, a US soldier shoved a shoe into the mouth one of the Iraqis.

The US troops, from the 82nd Airborne Division, based in Falluja, also made the blindfolded journalists stand for hours with their arms raised and their palms pressed against the cell wall. "

Pfft. Complainers. Whiners. It's like calisthenics.


"On January 2 Reuters' Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja stringer Ahmed Mohammed Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani turned up at the crash site where a US Kiowa Warrior helicopter had just been shot down, killing one soldier.

The journalists were all wearing bulletproof jackets clearly marked "press". They drove off after US soldiers who were securing the scene opened fire on their Mercedes, but were arrested shortly afterwards."

So maybe these US soldiers were illiterate. No biggie, right? Besides, they were Eye-Rackis, weren't they? You just can't trust those people. Better to brutalize and torture them than risk a possible future attack, right? Let's call it pre-emptive tough love.

"Last night the nephew of veteran Reuters driver and latterly cameraman Mr Ureibi said that US troops had forced his uncle to strip naked and had ordered him to put his shoe in his mouth.

"He protested that he was a journalist but they stuck a shoe in his mouth anyway. They also hurt his leg. One of the soldiers told him: 'If you don't shut up we'll # you.'""

Just a couple of good ole boys having some harmless fun, and need I remind you again that these victims weren't American. So they can take it up with Allah, because Almighty God is on the US's side.

"Last night Simon Walker, a spokesman at Reuters head office in London, confirmed that the agency had made a formal complaint to the Pentagon last Friday.

He said: "We have also complained to the US military. We have complained about the detention [of our staff] and their treatment in detention. We hope it will be dealt with expeditiously."

A spokeswoman for the US military's coalition press and information centre in Baghdad hung up when the Guardian asked her to comment."

Hung up, damn right! What does the US military care about allegations like this? They're THE GOOD GUYS! Always. Without fail.


Sarcasm rocks.

j

Originally posted by ADVISOR
What do you expect from soldiers, who are trianed to kill?!.

"Oh hello there, would you like some tea, and crumpets?"

Bull Crap!

Those reporters, if they really were reporters, are damn lucky they still are able to draw breath. I'm still surpised to see the media in a conflict zone, seriously. They are willingly take those risks, just as the soldiers. One does NOT go into a war zone and expect every thing to be rose and honky #in dorey!

Excuse my language, but this BS is, no has been pushing my nerves. People need to realize the seriousness of the situation. Those soldiers didn't have to take anyone alive, they could have just blew the hell out of those people and no questions would have arose.

Remember that, next time the media opens their big, fat, hypocritic, paid off mouths. Don't take me wrong, I don't feel this way about all journalists, just the stupid ones who whine about something they knew was possible.

If you don't like the heat, get the F out of the kitchen!

This is the point..not the risk of being in a live fire combat situation...

The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were 'enemy personnel' who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them for 72 hours... 'They were brutalised, terrified and humiliated for three days,'

it took them three days to notice that they had no ak-47s and only cameras?

[Edited on 14-1-2004 by McGotti]

the international news agencies hire spies.

too bad if they get hurt.

funny how doing the foreign correspondent route is often a ticket to the big time for tv journalists too.

Originally posted by THENEO
the international news agencies hire spies.

It ain't just the foreign press!

This is not acceptable treatment for POW's so it certainly is not acceptable treatment for the press. If this were American POW's recieving this treatment folks would be screaming bloody murder. Let's get real here. Nobody wants to be in Iraq and they are taking it out on civillians who do not deserve the shoddy treatment.

[Edited on 1-14-2004 by groingrinder]

Some of the journalists who refused to embed and tow the Pentagon's line have been or were targeted for assassination. In war, killing is so very easy to get away with. Ya gotta love it when the DoD says they will "be looking into the allegations." Right.

I don't know if anyone saw the footage of when that tank lobbed a shell into the Palestine Hotel, killing those journalists in the first few days of the Invasion.

You can clearly see the tank turret pause and aim, and there is NO gunfire audible on the tape.

Bloody murder is what it is.

War and the press never get along. Embedded journalists was a sham. It was a way for the military to TOTALLY control what the average American saw on their TV screen each night.

No pictures of the EFFECTS of war, no pictures of ACTUAL war, but more "technology" shots. APC's racing across the desert, tracer bullets firing into the night sky, etc.

You never saw what they hit.

I don't believe that it's actual POLICY for the US Army to kill journalists, but I'm sure it's not 100% enforced.


Remember that picture of that naked Vietnamese girl fleeing her village, her skin sloughing off, burned by napalm, her eyes and face imploring any kind of relief from all that pain?

That one single picture was a MAJOR contributing factor to the US having to pull out of Vietnam due to overwhelming public protest (Mai Lai being another).

If I know it, so does the US military. Control of the press in war is crucial, because war is disgusting and horrible, with NO exceptions.

Jakomo: I don't believe that it's actual POLICY for the US Army to kill journalists, but I'm sure it's not 100% enforced.



Jak -
Under normal circumstances, of course its not! During the Gulf war they were just disdained and shunned and shuffled off somewhere (like the crazy storyline in "Three Kings" - anyone seen that? Hilarious! There's a character that was sposed to be a Christiane Amenpour type). Gotta understand, though, the NEO CONS are running the show and it's Rummy's Pentagon. He might as well be Dr. Strangelove, himself.

Originally posted by ADVISOR
What do you expect from soldiers, who are trianed to kill?!.

"Oh hello there, would you like some tea, and crumpets?"

Bull Crap!

Those reporters, if they really were reporters, are damn lucky they still are able to draw breath. I'm still surpised to see the media in a conflict zone, seriously. They are willingly take those risks, just as the soldiers. One does NOT go into a war zone and expect every thing to be rose and honky #in dorey!

Excuse my language, but this BS is, no has been pushing my nerves. People need to realize the seriousness of the situation. Those soldiers didn't have to take anyone alive, they could have just blew the hell out of those people and no questions would have arose.

Remember that, next time the media opens their big, fat, hypocritic, paid off mouths. Don't take me wrong, I don't feel this way about all journalists, just the stupid ones who whine about something they knew was possible.

If you don't like the heat, get the F out of the kitchen!

That is now my favorite post of all time!

Okay, since the war, by which American government standards has ended, Iraq is not a military protected zone as far as the press is concerned. Which means the area is open to any Journalist who is willing to take the risk. It is bull # if you think that journalists can't be identified from 'enemy combatants' I mean for #s sake, how long do you think the profession of Journalism has existed? Journalism is as much about taking risks as any profession. Do you think they are all naive #s that don't know their arse from their elbow? A lot of the Journalists in a war zone will have experienced that kind of circumstance than many of the soldiers in the same circumstance.