US military 'brutalised' journalists

[pinto]

News agency demands inquiry after American forces in Iraq allegedly treated camera crew as enemy personnel

Luke Harding in Baghdad
Tuesday January 13, 2004
The Guardian


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.

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1121981,00.html

[Ferretherder]

1. PUT HIS SHOE IN HIS MOUTH?

What the FUCK? I mean, WHAT THE FUCK?

I am slowly becoming numb. Really.

[pinto]

3. some allegations in the article are worse, and some, to be fair are w/out

attribution. I assume Reuters will follow up w/more info since they filed a formal complaint.

[Voltaire99]

16. Disgusting, yet pales next to other atrocities being reported weekly.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest US and British atrocities are ongoing.

That acquiescence to the war among their respective populations remains high is both testimony to the propaganda and, shamefully, the public's willingness to have savagery committed in its name.

One ray of light is a story I spotted on ABC News the other day noting a growing trend for young Americans to turn away from mainstream corporate news and seek out alternatives. That's a hopeful sign, suggesting that mass brainwashing of the coming generation might be harder than it was for mine.

[uhhuh]

17. To be fair

Maybe he was ordered to do his best chimpy impression, and so he removed his clothes(emperor with no clothes), and put his shoe in his mouth, to symbolize the chimp's most common state while speaking.

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is similar to other reports we have heard, since Afghanistan, too

There definitely is a pattern!

(snip) Journalists based in Baghdad have expressed concern that the US military is likely to treat other media employees in Iraq as targets. (snip)

What a shame, intimidating, damaging, torturing, even KILLING journalists, wouldn't you say?

[pinto]

10. I wonder what the "word" is among rank and file on the ground?

[RUexperienced]

4. Are you sure a journalist simply did not put his foot in his mouth?

It wouldn't be the first time, you know.

[Don Claybrook]

6. I think the journalists are pretty goddamned sure

Do you doubt their veracity?

[pinto]

8. in this case you'd need to ask Maj Gen Swannack ("snap judgements") or

Brig Gen Kimmitt, who has recieved the formal complaint from Reuters.

[madrchsod]

5. those are the men of the year????

remember boys and girls ,those guys are coming back to the USA.isn`t that a pleasant thought?

[Ferretherder]

9. Yeah, I have a 'tingly' feeling all over....

...or, is that just the feeling of buckshot peppering my skin?

[kalian]

7. And what's the big surprise....?

I mean really? :shrug:
Israel has been behaving this way with international reporters
and journalists for several years now...even outright killing them.
What did you guys expect when Israel has been "consulting" with
the US military...?

[number6]

11. I'm not surprised...

..

[FreakinDJ]

12. Did you guys really buy

The story the journalist were firing on them.

didn't they play that card already when they shot 3 journalist in the Baghdad hotel last year. If I remember right they played the footage on air. A tank unloading a 20 mil into the side of the hotel

[pinto]

13. remember that? it was the Palestine Hotel, now acknowledged as the home

of the press corps...... Tank round killed a reporter staying there, while he was filming from his room.

[grasswire]

14. that sounds like a cultural insult...

....considering how MEasterners feel about the soles of one's feet. They throw their shoes to show disgust and anger. So I guess putting a shoe in someone's mouth would be quite an insult.

[AndyTiedye]

15. They Just Heard that the Pen is Mightier than the Sword

and felt threatened by all those journalists armed with pens, don't ya know.

[Algorem]

18. No way.We're the good guys.Oh yeah.We're not.

[lumpy]

19. And we are supposed to revere our brave 'boys'

in uniform. GDSOBs.