BBC: US 'erased Afghan attack footage'

[jannyk]

>>The Associated Press is to complain to the US military after two journalists said US soldiers deleted footage of the aftermath of an attack in Afghanistan.
Eight civilians died and 35 people were hurt in the incident, which has been condemned by President Hamid Karzai.

snip....

A freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and a cameraman working for AP Television News say they arrived at the site about half an hour after the suicide bombing.
"When I went near the four-wheel drive, I saw the Americans taking pictures of the same car, so I started taking pictures," photographer Rahmat Gul said. "Two soldiers with a translator came and said, 'Why are you taking pictures? You don't have permission.'"

Mr Gul said troops took his camera, deleted his photos and returned it to him. Khanwali Kamran, a reporter for the Afghan channel Ariana Television, said the American soldiers also deleted his footage, AP reported.

"They warned me that if it is aired ... then, 'You will face problems,'" Mr Kamran was quoted by the news agency as saying.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the alleged actions of the US forces, saying they dealt with the media poorly......<<

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6418459.stm

[izzie]

1. Why am I not shocked.

As with Russians before it is getting really dirty. Seems these people do not want us West type people in their country. We sure do not want to face that. How many Russians were in the country? They had just as much trouble. Course I think we backed bin Larden then.

[ClintonTyree]

4. The Russians had approximately...

the same number of troops in Afghanistan that we now have in Iraq: 150,000 or thereabouts. I think we currently have about 30,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan. That means the Russians had 5 times as many troops in Afghanistan and they still got their asses kicked. That doesn't bode well for American forces, does it? And yes, Bin Laden was the United States' horse in that race. He's our creation and now he's turned against us. Go figure. I wish I could say that was an isolated case but the United States has a horrible record when creating adversaries against our adversaries. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", and all that. It's always come back to bite the U.S in the ass and now with Bush giving money to Jihadists to combat other terrorists it appears this amazing string of stupidity will continue.

[izzie]

12. We have lost our way. Funny how we keep doing things that do

not work and never learn. Only we would go to war to hand back a country to a dictator as father Bush did. I know Saddam was bad but we kissed up to their King so we could use his country and it paid him to do it. Fighting over this oil has been going on since pre-WW1 and I am willing to bet that the people of the Middle East are really sick of it. We sit on top of a ant hill and do not seem to understand it is going to be one hell of a day when they all come out to bite us.

[Vidar]

2. Destroying evidence is what we do best these days.

[ET Awful]

3. If they "deleted" photographs, as the article implies,

those are very easily recoverable with very little effort, so long as the photog didn't continue shooting on the same memory card (note to self, if photos are forcibly deleted, always immediately switch memory cards until recovery efforts can be made).

[rodeodance]

5. Condi has said several times that Afgan was the MODEL for Iraq----but

there are big problems there----we only see the tip of the iceberg.

[gratuitous]

6. Remind me again

What freedoms, exactly, are all these uniformed thugs defending for me and guaranteeing for me? Because I read stories like this, and I tend to forget that freedoms that can only be exercised at gunpoint aren't really freedoms at all. You'd think our faultless, star-spangled, freckle-faced boys in uniform would be proud of their handiwork, and anxious for it to be broadcast all over the world so they could enjoy the accolades sure to come their way. Besides, I seem to be paying a good chunk of money for the privilege of inflicting this freedom on the people of Afghanistan. I think I'm entitled to see what's being accomplished in my name and with my tax dollars.

[maxsolomon]

7. i don't exactly disagree with you

but so much of this incident is a result of panic. deleting the photos was pointless - its gravy for the muslim press, regardless.

[MGKrebs]

9. So you think you (and everyone else) should have the right

to visit and photograph a crime scene?
Then you go on to sort of attribute the exact opposite behavior to these guys than what the story describes.

We don't know if the soldiers knew who the photographers were.
We don't know what their orders were.
We don't know what the photographers intended to do with the pictures.
We don't know if similar pictures have caused problems before.
We don't know these soldiers.

We are slipping into a really ugly scenario where we assume the worst of our soldiers even when there is little or no reason to. These guys had been under attack. There are a lot of possibilities for their behavior. If they were trying to cover up some evil deeds, I will be outraged too, but in the meantime, all I would ask is that we speak in terms of "ifs" and possibilities. There is no cause to refer to these kids as armed thugs at this time. They are in a bad situation not of their own making, and it's possible thay are mostly just trying to stay alive so that they can come home.

[gratuitous]

10. Nope, sorry

When someone with a gun in a country not his own starts ordering other people around, then they've crossed the line. Yeah, these guys are in a tough position, but Afghanistan, last time I checked, is not American soil, and allegedly has its own government. By what authority are these troops ordering other people around to their satisfaction and granting or denying "permission" to photograph a public scene?

Criminals very often don't want photographic memorabilia (or as I call it, "evidence") of their crimes in the hands of other people. You'd better believe, particularly after "incidents" like Kama Aido and the prisoner transport trailer that I'm not willing to automatically assume the best and purest intentions on the part of our military. They've already compromised their credibility and good intentions, and that surely isn't my fault.

[MGKrebs]

11. There's a long way between SOME soldiers

"compromising their credibility" and assuming that all soldiers are always automatically guilty of something (who knows what, but there must be something, right?).

We serve no purpose carpet bombing teenaged soldiers with guilt. They are the symptom, not the problem... (usually).

[BuyingThyme]

8. The once best and brightest are now our enemies.

They fight against our freedoms of speech. They fight against our basic human rights. They recruit from among the dregs of society. They can no longer defend our country.

This is what the people in power wanted.

Impeach the motherfuckers who did this to us.

[dkofos]

13. The moral of the story is

Don't piss off the authorities unless you have a back up camera (at a safe distance of course).

[Judi Lynn]

14. US military defends erasing of Afghan ambush footage

VIA RAW STORY:

US military defends erasing of Afghan ambush footage
AFP
Published: Monday March 5, 2007

~snip~
The journalists had gone beyond a security perimeter and had been asked to remove their images to "protect the integrity of the investigation," he said, adding that the scene may have been altered before they arrived.

The concern had been that the "photographers would not accurately represent what the scene looked like immediately after the ambush," Mitchell said.

"In this case we give a lot of deference to the commanders at the site conducting the investigation," he said.

However, "we have reminded our forces in the area that only in extreme circumstances is this practice condoned," Mitchell added.

The United Nations said it was trying to verify what happened.

In "general nobody should be allowed to interfere in journalists carrying out their lawful work," spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
(snip/)

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_military_defends_erasing_of_Afgh_03052007.html

[daleo]

15. Photos deleted "to protect the integrity of the investigation"

Man, that's Orwellian.

[mtnester]

16. Yet another example of the Ministry of Truth

bleh

[JCMach1]

17. This was announced as a big push to get high-up al Qaeda and Taliban operatives

over the weekend...

Turns out... we were killing civilians!

Go figure...

[IndianaGreen]

18. It is a big push alright, to recruit more Taliban fighters!

US troops have always opened fire in every direction after an IED attack. They have done this in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. I cannot believe that these are the actions of crazy or blood thirsty troops, or of troops breaking down under combat stress. I also cannot believe that these incidents are a result of a command breakdown. I think that the troops fire in every direction because those are their rules of engagement, they are acting under orders. This is why this is such a common occurrence!

[Egalitarian]

19. See this post also...

Different incident in Afganistan yesterday, similar response from US military.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2756522

[EFerrari]

20. Kick

:(