Reuters Cameraman Killed For Filming U.S. Graves: Brother

[plurality]

http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=2003081918513248

The brother of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana said he was deliberately murdered for discovering mass graves of U.S. troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks.

"The U.S. troops killed my brother in cold blood," Nazmi Dana told IslamOnline.net in exclusive statements.

"The U.S. occupation troops shot dead my brother on purpose, although he was wearing his press badge, which was also emblazoned on the car he was driving," he said.

He also recalled that his brother had obtained a prior permit from the U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq to film in the site.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Cocoa]

1. chill just ran down my spine

if this is true, I don't know what to think.

I have to ask, however, without saying I don't believe this, where is the film?

[mjb4]

5. so you believe the "Official count"

so Iraqis attack a jeep and NOONE gets hurt is the official line from the US, and you believe it....I believe everyone but the US.

[Cocoa]

14. my doubts are about whether they could get away with it

I don't have much doubt that the military would do this, but could they?

Just thinking about what that would mean gives me the creeps, so I'm going to wait for something more solid before going to much further.

[qanda]

2. This would explain why

There was an attack on the prison. They knew Mazen would come there to film and then they killed him in cold blood. I'm crazy enough to believe anything now...:tinfoilhat:

[denverbill]

3. OK, I'm a conspiracy nut, but this is too much even for me.

#1, the US brings it's dead home.
#2, if anyone dies, the family gets notified.
#3, lists are published. If someone wasn't listed, you can be sure the family would make quite a stink about it.

If he found any mass graves and body bags, it's a lot more likely it's Iraqi's in them.

[arcane1]

6. 1-3 are only assumtions in Bush's Merika

since I'm already a LIHOP believer, this doesn't take too much stretching to believe, and you KNOW that if there was a mass death like that, they would hush it. They are already hushing the deaths we've confirmed, by using the "holstile" and "combat" clarifications...

I'll take this with a pinch of salt for now, but not because I doubt that BushCo would do it. Just need to hear it from more sources first..

[kixot]

7. I'm with you on that one.

I don't know about this story. I would think the administration couldn't hide a large body count, people would just know. They also couldn't think they'd get away with burying them there. That's just atrocious.

[arcane1]

9. the Pentagon already had mass grave plans in place

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/012603A.mass.graves.htm

Pentagon Eyes Mass Graves Option Would Fight Contamination After Bioterror Deaths
By Greg Seigle
The Denver Post

January 24, 2003

The bodies of U.S. soldiers killed by chemical or biological weapons in Iraq or future wars may be bulldozed into mass graves and burned to save the lives of surviving troops, under an option being considered by the Pentagon.

Since the Korean War, the U.S. military has taken great pride in bringing home its war dead, returning bodies to next of kin for flag-draped, taps-sounding funerals complete with 21-gun salutes.

But the 53-year-old tradition could come to an abrupt halt if large numbers of soldiers are killed by chemical or biological agents, according to a proposal quietly circulating through Pentagon corridors.

-snip-

"The bulldozers were all lined up and ready to go," to deposit contaminated bodies in "mass graves," Pagonis said.

[Flubadubya]

30. If masses of American soldiers were killed by WMD...

the administration/pentagon certainly wouldn't hide it. They would shout it to the roof... thus exonerating their heretofore fallacious claims of WMD in Iraq.

[TahitiNut]

70. What if they were provably US WMD?

... and things went wrong? FUBAR?

[dflprincess]

31. They could get away with it for a while

and these thugs are so arrogant they'd probably think they could get away with it forever.

Besides, what consititues a "mass grave" 10 bodies, 20, a hundred? We're hearing about one or two casualties a day. Even 10 at once would sound like a lot now and make the resistance sound more serious. The numbers might be "small" enough that they think they can come up with other stories about their deaths. - A tragic airline crash when they're on their way home perhaps?

I not saying I entirely believe this story but can't say I don't either.

[TankLV]

44. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! for god's sake!

How many time will you be lied-to and still believe the crap that spews from this bunch of criminals?

[DuctapeFatwa]

10. No conspiracy about it.. I think you are underestimating military families

If they are asked to keep their grief private in order to avoid danger for the comrades at arms of their lost loved one, do you think that they would be unwilling to make that sacrifice to protect the American way of life? Would they feel that was asking too much after their loved one had sacrificed his life for that same noble cause and those same brave comrades? Even if the bereaved family is asked to wait for the mortal remains of their deceased, only a short time, until the mission is accomplished, do you think there are military families who despise the homeland so much that they would defy such a request?

[dflprincess]

34. It might take the familes time to put it all together

If they're being lied to about their loved one they sure aren't being given information on where to contact support groups of people in the same situation. We don't know what might be being said to them to keep them quiet.

Anyone here ever read "Friendly Fire" by C.D.B. Bryan. It's the true story of a family in Iowa (Gene and Peg Mullen) that went from being members of the "silent majority" (even though Peg was active in the Democratic party) to antiwar activists after their son, Michael, was killed in Vietnam.

They learned their son was not considered a battle casualty because he was killed by friendly fire and they began paying more attention to the number of Iowans the local papers were reporting as having been killed and realized that the official KIA counts were completely out of whack. They used some of their son's death benefit to take out an antiwar ad in the paper (I think the Des Moines Register).

They went through a lot of hassles for their activism, including losing friends and having their phone tapped.

[cybildisobedience]

35. did it occur to anyone...

..that not all soldiers come from intact families where they are even missed? And given the depth of evil of Bush & Co., does anyone think they are beyond perpetrating this horrendous lunacy?
I put nothing past them.

[Sick of Bullshit]

52. I didn't read the book but I saw the movie

which starred Carol Burnett. Quite a disturbing film.

[Voltaire99]

36. "Noble cause of the American way of life"

That a few families might be cowed into keeping their mouths shut is a possibility, I guess.

But I do have to agree: there is something intrinsic about the American way of life that leads to our illegally invading, looting, and indiscriminately killing civilians in foreign countries.

Let's try to find out what it is--and cure ourselves.

[atreides1]

12. Rebuttals

#1 This is a new regime made up of political Neocons who
have never done anything for their country, without making a profit

#2 The family is only notified when it suits the government

#3 It is the chain of command that creates these lists not the
troops.

#4 Even the Generals are Bush loyalists, so most of them can't
be trusted either.

#5 And last but not least the military chain of command has done
very little to get our troops the supplies that they need. And
in my humble opinion they are as corrupt as the Bush regime.

But without solid evidence to back up this story, even I can't
accept it. And if it's ever proven to be true, nothing in heaven
or hell will protect Bush, his Cabinet, the Generals, or Congress
from the wrath of the American people.

Maybe a "Mussolini" pinata party

[saskatoon]

15. Coffins

When a dead GI comes home in a coffin, is it sealed?

[atreides1]

19. This is What I Remember

The body is placed in a "body bag" which is then placed in a silver
casket that can be sealed. The seal is broken when the body is taken to the funeral home for preparation. The body is removed and made ready.

If the body was badly damaged, then there would be a seal on the body bag, with a form that said the body was not suitable for viewing.

How do I know this, one of my additional duties in the Army was as the
unit Graves Registration NCO, with a Foward Support Unit.

[diamond14]

16. when my cousin was brought home in a box from Vietnam....

nobody in my family knew exactly what was in the box...and after he died, some reports came out the caskets were being shipped back to the states with HEROIN in them, and no bodies at all (remember, that's when bush* went AWOL, because he didn't want to have to take a physical which included drug testing)....seriously, how many military families actually want to look at their child's rotten battered body...after you step on landmines or get RPG'd, there's just little pieces of bloodied mess...and there are many young people who joined the military because they are estranged from their families or have no families to notify...here at DU, some are sending care packages to soldiers who have recieved nothing in months from anybody, not even a note...those people have no relatives...Denverbill, you are simply assuming that all OUR soldiers have little Ozzie and Harriet families anxious for their return...when in reality, many soliders have NO family...

it took years after Vietnam to figure out who died there, and even today, there are still many people missing in action...sorry to tell you, Denverbill, but there are Vietnam Veterans keeping a daily vigil at the Wall in DC, trying to get the pentagoon to BRING THE SOLDIERS BODIES HOME FROM VIETNAM...and that was a long time ago...and rumsfeld doesn't want to try to find our soldiers bodies...most have been found with private funding...

when they built the Vietnam Wall, the numbers of dead began to be counted, and only got bigger and bigger...some families had to fight the pentagoon to get their dead child's name recognized on the Wall...

please spare this military family from anymore of your detached-from-reality crap...it torments me to think that some actually might believe your crap....

bring our soliders HOME NOW ! BOOT bush* in 2004

[TankLV]

43. 1) This corrupt misadministration is batting a thousand -

EVERYTHING they have claimed has PROOVEN TO BE WRONG.

2) Rummy & co. announced plans to keep any US dead in Iraq "just in case they're contaminated from Saddam's massive pile of WMD". This is a fact. They said they retracted the policy. Sure. Just like they stopped "TIPS" & that off-track terrorist betting gang.

3) "Friendly fire" deaths aren't counted in official total. Isn't it amazing how many "accidental deaths" have been occasionally reported beneath all the "all Koby, all the time" news?

4) Bunkerboy & co. flatly stated before this mess started, that NO lists will be permitted or published. Not even the families may know of the current status of loved ones. That is another FACT.

5) Just another amazing cooincidence! of yet ANOTHER journalist being "accidentally" killed by this bunch of criminals. The list gets longer.

6) Bunkerboy, rummy, asscrap, gorgonzola rice, putrid bowels, et all, are PROOVEN liars.

I rest my case.

[Ouabache]

49. MERCENARIES, can you say that word.

Deaths of mercenaries could be covered up. Mercenaries taken into the US Army from Phillipines, and Central America.

I knew a guy (Phillipino) who, with his family, got US citizenship after he served a hitch in the US Army precisely for that purpose.

The mass graves could well be mercenaries hired out of the 3rd world.

[dArKeR]

4. I've never read the Palestine Chronicle. What kind of stories do they

usually run? I don't want to use the word 'reputable' because I've found the 'freepers' always say a source is not reputable if it's against their thinking. I've seen people say CBS, Mirror, The Globe and Mail, UK Guardian... weren't reputable which is really getting goofy.

Any, this U.S. mass grave story seems hard to believe but I'll believe anything if you show me the facts detailed in an objective manner. I don't care the source.

[QuietStorm]

61. you should just access the site

with all you read you will be able to judge for yourself. the same goes for electronic intifada. sometimes all it takes to dismiss a site is that it has the word palestinian in it. You know probably the reason why people can do this is because on american boards there are so few palestinians. I have only met one on a forum in the whole time I have been on forums. If there were Palestinian amerians on this forum perhaps sites like this and palistinansolidarity or electronic intifada would not get trashed as often as they do. who knows. there are rw sites that get trashed with regularity as well.

Access the sites I mentioned you be the judge. All news has its bias and slant of course we know this even CNN has to some times be read with a fine tooth comb to decipher what is really happening even if that is possible. one has to read from all different outlets to get a sense of things.

[w4rma]

8. Pentagon Threatens to Kill Independent Reporters in Iraq

The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."
…
Another guest on the show, war author Phillip Knightley, reported that the Pentagon has also threatened they: "may find it necessary to bomb areas in which war correspondents are attempting to report from the Iraqi side."
…
http://www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm
http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID66/3466.html

…
The move followed a day in which three journalists were killed by US fire in separate attacks in Baghdad, leading to accusations that US forces were targeting the news media.

Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, was killed when an American tank fired a shell directly at the Reuters suite on the 15th floor at the Palestine hotel, where many journalists are staying.

Jose Couso, 37, a cameraman for the Spanish television channel Tele 5, was wounded in the same attack and died later in hospital. Samia Nakhoul, the Gulf bureau chief of Reuters, was also injured, along with a British technician, Paul Pasquale, and an Iraqi photographer, Faleh Kheiber.

Earlier, al-Jazeera cameraman Tarek Ayyoub, a 35-year-old Palestinian who lived in Jordan, was killed when two bombs dropped during a US air raid hit the satellite station's office in the Iraqi capital.

American forces also opened fire on the offices of Abu Dhabi television, whose identity is spelled out in large blue letters on the roof.

All the journalists were killed and injured in daylight at locations known to the Pentagon as media sites. The tank shell that hit the Palestine hotel slammed into the 18-storey building at noon, shaking the tower and spewing rubble and dirt into hotel rooms at least six floors below.
…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,932800,00.html

I was actually between the tank and the hotel, when the round was fired. I was trying to get back from a story, an assignment I'd been on, what I'd put myself on. And the shell with an extraordinary noise swooshed over my head and hit the hotel...bang! Tremendous concussion. White Smoke. And when I got there, two of my colleagues, one from Reuters and one from Spanish Television, both of whom were to die within a few hours, the first one within half an hour, were being brought out in blood-soaked bed-sheeting. And a Lebanese colleague, a woman, Samia, with a piece of metal in her brain. She recovered. She had brain surgery. She's married to the London Financial Times correspondent here in Beirut. She survived. The initial reaction was very interesting because the BBC went on air saying it was an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade. Someone wanted to frighten the press. Then it emerged, thanks be to God for the attempt to get the truth, that TV3, a French channel, had recorded the tanks' movements and I actually rushed to their Bureau and they showed me the videotape and you saw the American tanks for five minutes beforehand, in complete silence - there was nothing happening - going onto the bridge, moving its turret, and then firing at the hotel. The camera shakes and pieces of plaster and paint fall in front of the camera. Clearly, it's the same shot. Four or five minutes in which nothing is happening. Now I was in between the tank and the hotel and there was complete silence. And when initially the Americans said they knew nothing about it, when it became clear the French had a film, before the Americans realized how long the film was running for prior to the attack, they said that the tank was under persistent sniper and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire which is not true. I would have heard it because I was close to the tank and the hotel and it would have been picked up on the soundtrack, which it wasn't. This statement was made by General Buford Blount, the same 3rd Infantry Division commander who boasted that he'd be using depleted uranium munitions during the war in an interview with Le Monde in March, a month ago. And he then said that there had been sniper fire and after the round was fired by the American tank, the sniper fire had ceased. In other words, the clear implication was that the gunfire had come from the Reuters office, which was a most mendacious, vicious lie by General Blount. General Blount lied in order to cover up the death of journalists. It was interesting that when indeed the Americans actually arrived in central Baghdad within a day, no journalists were raising these issues with the Americans who'd just arrived. They should have done...I did actually. And in fact two days later, I was on the Jumeirah bridge, and climbed onto the second tank and asked the tank commander whether he fired at the journalists and he said "I don't know anything about that, sir. I'm new here." Which he may well have been. How do I know if he was there before or not? But that tank round was fired deliberately at the hotel and General Blount's counterfeit - the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division - was a lie. A total lie. And it was a grotesque lie against my colleagues. Samia Mahul had a piece of metal in her brain, A young woman who's most bravely reported the Lebanese civil war. And against the Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters and against the Spanish cameraman in the room upstairs. It was a most disgusting lie. And as a journalist, I have to say that. And General Blount has not apologized for it. So far he has gotten away with his lie. I'm sorry to say.
http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20030422.html

The White House is vowing a strong retaliatory response after the BBC aired live video of President Bush getting his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his chair and practiced on the teleprompter minutes before Wednesday night's speech announcing the launch of military operations against Saddam Hussein.
…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1027-2003Mar20.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=8426&forum=DCForumID66

Peter Jennings: Franks has stopped giving info to media.
Said Gen. Tommy Franks is upset with some of the reporting and there has been a dispute for a few hours. (paraphrased)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&forum=DCForumID61&om=19438&omm=0

[ima_sinnic]

11. well, in other words there's SOMEthing being covered up there

at expense of people's lives.
I am forwarding the link to this whole discussion to my Senator, Bob Graham. These people MUST be stopped, they are mad.

[AP]

13. I guess that's why you'd want an International Criminal Court

which has jurisdiction over Americans. I guess this is why the Bush administration fought so hard against an ICC with jurisdiction over American soldiers. The only way America can perpetuate its hateful, shameful foreign policy (in an America where public opinion and votes kinda matter, even a little) is by committing crimes like this to cover up the lies upon lies upon lies.

[Racenut20]

17. Not possible

American GI's honor their dead brouthers too much. This is just someones fantasy, and things like this detract from the real problems by making the messangers unbelievable. Like crying wolf too many times, ie... terrorist alerts from Homeland Security.

[arcane1]

20. didn'e we just recently hear about the bodies in France?

from WW2? And we have some in Vietnam too, IIRC

si it's not without precedent


maybe this was a WMD attack, and they want to keep quiet about it until September, when it's a better time for a new "product"?

[bearded_cat]

21. The BFEE has a way of making people come around

if not to their way of thinking, then to shut up. GI's complaining were punished. How, we don't know. Top scientists are found suicided. CIA agents are outed as a warning. The top brass, 20% or more, who disagreed with the administration are gone. Remember how the democratic leaders started to toe the line when anthrax was mailed to their offices? The head of every cabinet department is an individual who wants to destroy it. Cheney still doesn't have to release his energy documents even though he has been court ordered to do so. The administration can black out important information regarding 911 with no further investigation for the facts. A blackout happens across the northeast, but they immediately know it's not terrorism. So much more, but I can't go on without getting just a little bit upset.

[DuctapeFatwa]

22. Do they honor them enough to follow orders regarding National Security?

There may be times when orders are hard to follow, but American GI's follow them.

They honor their dead comrades enough not to reveal information that could aid the enemy in any way, or put their living comrades or American civilians in jeopardy.

It is not up to the GI to decide whether the order is valid, whether those civilians are a threat, whether a morale boost or propaganda victory for the enemy would erode support for the War on Terror, or if knowing what happened at one place could put American lives in danger somewhere else.

That is up to their commanders. It is up to the GI to obey the order, whatever it is.

[Roon]

24. Plus..

we don't bury our troops overseas anymore. Not sure, but I don't think we have done that since WW2.

I don't believe this report.

[karlschneider]

18. Several other journalists who were there said he (and they) had been on

the scene for half an hour and there was no way the troops couldn't know who they were and what they were doing. I'm almost to the point of believing they were ordered to assassinate the guy. Few things would I put past the murderous bastards running this clusterfuck.

[Yentatelaventa]

23. Complete and total hogwash

The palestinechronicle.com should have been a dead giveaway. Were they not the same tinfoilers that said there was a Jenin massacre?

[DuctapeFatwa]

25. They even say that Israel violates UN resolutions and International laws!

Can you imagine! They will be Left Behind when the Rapture comes for sure!

[stickdog]

38. Yeah.

How in the world did they mistake a bunch of Israelis and Palestinians holding hands and making s'mores around a bonfire for a massacre?

[Zhade]

55. You want to see the pictures?

Because I've got them on my hard drive.

There was a massacre. Don't you DARE dishonor the dead by stating otherwise.

[QuietStorm]

59. it gets tiresome

any site with the name palestinian in it is dismissed sometimes. same thing with the electronic intifada. Having followed this story with Dana it is very easy to believe his Brother. This site deserveds more credence than it is given sometimes . Like US media is credible.:eyes:

[Zhade]

69. Exactly!

The main point is that we must always be careful to weight the evidence. But for someone to just blindly accept what anyone says, friend or foe, is dangerous.

That's why I'm for a more "open-source" society.

[genius]

26. The government is hiding the number of Americans killed

I spoke with someone who who told this by one of the Americans in Iraq who was supposed to pretend his best friend was still alive.

[indepat]

27. Some civility, some civilized

behavior.

[fizzana]

28. If U.S. troops had been buried en masse in Iraq it would not have

taken their families too long to figure out something was amiss. The troops are able to communicate with their families and any lengthy silence won't go unnoticed.

There are times when I find stuff this administration does is almost unbelievable but this one just doesn't pass the smell test.

[Skittles]

29. UM

Lengthy silences right now are very common.

[TankLV]

45. You got that right!

We just heard from a family member (inlaw's son) who hasn't been heard from for over 6 months!

Lengthy silences are the norm.

[diamond14]

48. especially since some soldiers spoke up against bushco...

you won't hear anymore complaining from soldiers about lack of water, food, and medical care..

rumsfeld decided that OUR soldiers will DIE without complaining any longer...orders have been given: shut up and DIE, your commander-in-chief is busy playing golf, and the rest of the pentagoons are on vacation...so shut up and DIE...

[Junkdrawer]

33. How many "volunteer" soldiers come from broken homes? n/t

[diamond14]

47. broken homes are one of the biggest causes of poverty in USA

and it does seem that many young soldiers are from lower economic levels, even from foreign countries (and granted citizenship posthumously...and that's real poor and real sad)....

[diamond14]

39. I haven't heard from my nephew since he left for Iraq in January

and neither has my brother, his dad....

some DU people live in a pollyanna world about this war... soldiers wheo have no water and inadequate food are not at all near internet and phone connections for family calls...they are dead tired (both figuratively and actually) and in intense heat in a third world country...NO, the troops are NOT able to communicate with their families...and any little communication has now been totally stiffled, since word got out a couple weeks ago about the horrible lack of water and food.....the pentagoon is DELIBERATELY keeping families from talking to their relatives...that's what the Veterans against the war briefing at the Press Club was talking about last week....wake up, little pollyanna's...this is WAR...perpetual WAR...in Iraq, in Afganistan, in Liberia...rummy doesn't want any families to hear about conditions in Iraq, because it could turn America against the war, and the families started to publish soldiers letters on the web...now it's been stopped...

Will you come and protest this weekend in DC...YOU could save YOUR OWN life...???? or will you just dream on like sheep, waiting for the government to come and get YOU to the front lines of any three wars SOON...come to DC on August 23rd...FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE OR THE LIVES OF YOU FRIENDS AND YOUR CHILDREN...STAND UP NOW !!!!

http://www.kwru.org/march/index.html

[0rganism]

32. Those would be some nasty-ass chickens coming home to roost

Was Mr. Dana taken out intentionally? I don't see why it couldn't be so. I dunno if I can believe that it was for filming mass graves of American troops, though. If casualty counts were significantly higher than what we've been spoonfed, it will eventually spell disaster for bushco.

That said, I have not seen anything that indicated the military confiscated his film. If he were recording anything they were reluctant to have aired, it would be easy enough to take the film, wouldn't it? Nazmi's story, as presented, just doesn't seem plausible.

[diamond14]

40. sounds like colin powell's explanation for the mai lai massacre...

gosh, American soldiers wouldn't do that...even with photos...and an eye witness..just keep it up...total lack of support for BRAVE people who are telling the truth about WAR...soon, there will be NO MORE REPORTERS to tell the story...and the WHOLE story will be manufactured by Press Releases only from the pentagoon...

[veganwitch]

37. To the people who think this is impossible because of the families

The families can be notified of individual soldiers lost without the real total being made public. Let's not forget that these families are spread out throughout the country and have no way of comparing totals with each other to find out if the media reported totals are right or not. Most of the time a soldier dies they just report the death not the name. There could easily be 50 soldiers dying that day with all of the families of those soldiers thinking the one reported death was their son/daughter/brother/sister/husband. The Soviet Union was able to keep the true casualties in Afganistan hidden for years without their public knowing.

[Rex]

41. If this is true, then the BFEE will be caught

families WILL come forward and start to question where their sons are (since, if people start to go missing, the families won't stay silent).

[Q]

42. Completely believable story...

...and it fits the SOP of the Bush* administration.

- The Bushies can't afford to have lots of bodies show up at the same time in the media. It's more than likely that the war dead are being held back and released a few at a time.

- Keep in mind that the Bush Family learned from the Vietnam police action and invented the 'bloodless' war where the media is under orders not to show the blood and guts of American soldiers.

- If the cameraman was killed on purpose...God help us all.

[QuietStorm]

60. he was killed on purpose

and it is not the first the dod targeted journalist. now it seems there will be an inquiry into war crimes in nov and Palestine Hotel is one on the list for discussion.

[diamond14]

50. even today, Rex, families are still trying to find their sons from

Vietnam...all these years...there are still many of OUR soldiers Missing-in-Action in Vietnam...rumsfeld refuses to fund efforts to find them....it's really sad...but it is the reality of our pentagoon...you simply have a pollyanna view of what's happening...

it's all been done before...those of us old people have been through all this before...it's Vietnam redux, same players too, barfed up from an earlier era...colin powell (the purveyor of the may lai massacre cover-up)...how do these slimes keep popping up to ruin America, and why do you think the SAME people are going to act differently than they did in the past???

[Rex]

53. LOL, no pollyanna here.

I've been labeled one of the DU "crackpots" for some of the evil shit I believe the BFEE is guilty of. Is this instance any different? Hell no. You have evil men trying their best to get away with murder, literally. I was just a kid when Vietnam was in full swing but I have no doubt that there are still MIA there, as well as Korea. Iraq will probably see its share of MIA.

In this instance, I'm not talking about POWs here - I'm talking about knowingly covering up mass graves of GIs (by our own governement) in order to keep John Q Public from realizing that alot more people are dead than FoxNews tells him. If Powell did something similar to this in Vietnam then he deserves to be drawn and quartered.

People won't act differently, but I still expect to see some outrage from military families. Sooner or later, someone will break ranks and tell all. It won't change the status quo, and it won't be any different than when the BFEE gets caught red handed for other crimes against humanity. The longer the American Press works for the BFEE, the bolder these criminals will get.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

46. One point everyone seems to have missed...

Of course it won't be possible to hide deaths like this forever, but here is a totally plausible way they can be disguised. Consider the fact that these soldiers have been told that they will now be serving for at least a YEAR in Iraq. That means that the absolute earliest time this could be discovered is some time early next year.

In the meantime, the intelligence people begin writing home on a random basis on behalf of the soldiers. An email here, a hurried letter there. Any discrepancies in the letters would be rationalised by the families as "he's under stress" or "the war has changed her".

Next year, when these soldiers are due to return home, they will be reassigned to somewhere like Germany or to training facilities in the US to train new soldiers. All the while the letters continue on a random basis - possibly even containing criticisms of the Army for not letting them go home to see their families. Then, over a period of time, these soldiers will be killed in "training accidents" that result in bodies being lost at sea, or rendered unviewable due to severe injuries.

Who is going to notice that sort of thing?

Another possibility: Assume that the families of these soldiers have been told that their son/daughter died in a secret mission that must be kept classified and their families are told that if they breach the classification by talking to the media they will be prosecuted. Most would never dream of breaching the classification and endangering other soldiers lives - one or two will talk to local media, who likewise will refrain from endangering other soldiers lives.

Either way, with the current nationalism surging through the American people, and the control of the media, it is highly unlikely that a story such as this would break.

I'm not saying I believe this report, just that given the resources at their command, and given the conditions extant in Iraq, it is definately NOT beyond the realms of possibility.

[arikara]

54. And one more thing...

The families may think they are getting them home. I had a friend who was in Vietnam and he said that they used to make up weight in the body bags with rocks in some cases. If the coffins are sealed, who's to know what's inside?

[QuietStorm]

62. this is very possible

I know a woman her step son is in iraq waiting to move into bagdad. To this day she hasn't heard from him. but at one point his troop commander called her. to tell her he was alright. It would be hideous if this report is true but as each day goes by the stuff gets more and more startling. All I know is without this article DANA was targeted on purpose. It was no accident. He was targeted in Hebron when filming there more than once. His partner was shot repeatedly with target to his head one night by the IDF. Dana caught it on film. It is well documented. In the OT's journalists are targeted. See Naylor's PBS segements. The US clearly has taken a stance against journalists. case in point Palestine Hotel -- it will be on a list of topics discussed in Nov to ascertain if targeting this hotel falls in the category of war crime. The hotel housed journalists.

[moondust]

51. Ask Stan Goff or Col. Hackworth.

These guys would probably hear about it and wouldn't hesitate to make it public. There are plenty of other such contacts readily available by e-mail and phone from Iraq.

[QuietStorm]

56. Mazen Dana was clearly targeted he was on a hit list

More than the US wanted him out of the picture. You can not take this as an isolated incident. He lost his press card in Hebron after being targeted several times. That was obvious yesterday. This was no accident . The shooter did not mistake his camera for a launching device. That was a set in place story. Reuters crew had clearly identified themselves.

THIS WILL NOT BE INVESTIGATED FURTHER. Between Israel and the US Dana was on a list.

[Zhade]

57. Correct me if I'm wrong...

Wasn't he shot something like three times in 2000 while covering the West Bank?

[QuietStorm]

58. several I put the PBS segments in the first article on this

did you view those: Israel had been targeting journalists for quite some time in 2001 I believe. Naylor's documentary covered the whole thing in those segments. Original I had thought like those playing cards the US had on the ba'ath people Saddams people that perhaps Israel has given the US a list of people. The suggestion always was Dana was affiliated with terrorists. of course this is bogus. IDF just does not want to be filmed, just like the US.

I was convinced Dana was on a hit list yesterday. this nails it for me. You have to go back through his history. Israel and the US are fighting the same war with some room for veering at one point (but that is a whole other thing).

If you haven't viewed the PBS segments you should. let me know I will place them again.

[Zhade]

68. That'd be great

If you can link them, I'll check them out.

It's pretty clear to me, too, that the Israeli and US governments are working hand-in-hand. I mean, that's too obvious for anyone to deny anymore.

As for being targeted, I have no doubt on this. Our government targets its own people, for crying out loud - of course they'd have no problem having a Palestinian killed "in the crossfire" or "by accident".

It's way past time for people in this country to wake up and realize that our government is, by and large, evil. I say this based on its actions. There are good people inside, but the rot at the heart festers more every day.

[QuietStorm]

71. Naylor PBS Segments (a must view for background on this)

(be warned - parts are graphic)

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech1_hi.rm

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech2_hi.rm

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/frontlineworld/lineoffirech3_hi.rm

[QuietStorm]

63. this should be easy to cross reference

this interesting statement

"At the very beginning, the Americans refused to transfer his body outside Iraq. After Reuters intervened they offered to allow us to take the body to Jordan by road but we refused because of the state of insecurity in Iraq," he said.

"Thanks to Reuters international and diplomatic contacts, the U.S. troops reluctantly agreed to transfer the body on an army plane to Kuwait. From there, the body will be flown to Jordan and finally Palestine to be laid to rest," added the grieved brother.


WHO ENDED UP WITH DANA'S CAMERA?

[ErasureAcer]

64. Why the pentagon sucks...

truly, there are some good soldiers out there...those with a conscience and whatnot...but if these guys actually shot this cameraman on purpose because they were digging graves for their unreported comrades deaths...well then...these guys suck...I wouldn't be surprised to see this whole thing fall apart in a year...some soldiers won't put up with dishonesty...even if it does mean a bullet in the back from one of their own comrades...truly now...if this is true...mutiny/deserters are just a step away.

Of course we will never know about them...heck, maybe these graves of these soldiers were actually people questioning the authority and killed for "an example of what happens when you question authority."

Truly now, if these troops have any balls and guts...they'd turn on their commanders and say this fucking war sucks...and if we have to fucking walk back to America being chased down by the pentagon...we're going back home to our families. I'm sure once their word and story hit american shores...the people would demand they be set free...but then they have to get to a reliable media source first.

Truly, this is why war is bad...the soldiers out there aren't in control of their own destiny...they're guinea pigs.

Vote Kucinich in 04 and get our troops the hell out of there...let the Iraqi people control their own lives...they will fight to the death for their independence from the USA...America will never win...you all must understand this.

[alaine]

65. Did anyone see the Asian-American journalists

convention on C-span. One of the journalists said that they were told that if they walked 20 feet beyond where they were embedded, to just keep walking and not come back, that this was how they were censored. She seemed pretty disillusioned.

[lumpy]

66. Yes I saw the Asian-Am journalists

and got the distinct impression that they would have plenty more to say if they were not handcuffed by censorship and fear of losing their press passes.

[newyawker99]

67. plurality

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


NYer99
DU Moderator