oh my God...that Reuters cameraman that was killed...

[MaverickX]

Mazen Dana was a Palestinian man who was famous for his documentaries of Israeli IDF treatment of Palestinian media.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/18/iraq/main568803.shtml?cmp=EM8705

[AP]

1. You think he was on a hit list?

?

[KoKo]

23. I think he was on a "hit list" if he was a cameraman for "PBC Frontline"

he was on a "list." Gotta assume with the BFEE it was a "hit" one.....A terrible story....a senseless death......we should keep the "outrage" about this going......He died for what????

[ScotTissue]

2. What about the 17 other killed journalists?

What about the other 17 journalists killed since the war began? Were they also on a list? Or is war reportage merely the most dangerous job next to soldier? For what it is worth, Mazen Dana had been shot several times covering other stories. He was one brave, tough hombre. RIP.

[AP]

3. In Afghanistan I remember keeping track of reported deaths

and my informal rough count was that roughly 17 journalists died before the first American war casualty was reported.

And, behold, the war coverage was total crap. Goal achieved, perhaps.

[Jacobin]

6. You mean like the al Jazeera reporters that were

purposefully hit with a smart bomb in their office building in Baghdad? Or the al Jazeera reporters killed by americans in Afghanistan?

[MaverickX]

4. I doubt he was on a hit list..

I just doubt our soldiers are exactly careful to avoid hitting Arab journalists.

[mjb4]

5. no different than your typical black

man killed by --It was self defense...that wallet was a gun..it seems police and army are free to kill. You just don't ask questions.

[roberthall10]

7. All Part of the Tragedy

Probably looking like an Iraqi and holding a camera is dangerous these days, with the jumpy American troops. All part of the tragedy of our being there.

[ScotTissue]

8. To be fair

A video camera hoisted on the shoulder probably looks a lot like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher hoisted on the shoulder at any distance beyond twenty-five yards. Journalists know that there is danger in being confused with the enemy by any and all sides in a conflict.

[Solomon]

9. To be fair?

What's so damn fair about that!? I could understand your point if we had a right to be there, but we shouldn't be there in the first place. I guess it would be fair to blast every Arab you see since "they all look alike".

[Sirius_on]

11. You are going overboard

Think about it for a second. A camera needs to be aimed at its target the same way a gun is. The man probably turning to video tape someone in the American forces and it probably appeared that he was aiming a rocket propelled gernade at them. After all of the deaths coming by way of these weapons you would have to suspect that is what lead to the itchy trigger finger.

[ma4t]

10. "to be honest"

A shoulder held video camera looks almost exactly like a shoulder held missle launcher when looking from a "head-on" perspective.

[El Mariachi]

13. no?

I could tell a video cam from a russian rpg launcher or stinger launcher from about 100 yards and i've never been in the armed forces.

That big lens thingie and the fact that most cams nowadays let you hold it up with just your shoulder and one hand. You ever see someone with an rpg launcher use one hand?

[maggrwaggr]

14. give me a break. I've used those cameras

and you almost ALWAYS have two hands on them.

Any journalist in a war zone knows he might be mistaken for a soldier, especially with a camera on his shoulder. I know some personally who have told me they've made decisions in war zones to NOT shoot any tape because of this.

Wrong place wrong time. You take the risks, you know the risks, shit happens.

Let's put YOU in the tank with the gun, you're in constant fear of losing your LIFE, and see if you don't have an itchy trigger finger.

[samsingh]

12. this could be another route

to censorship.

i'm suspicious and sad.

[kaldaras]

15. something to consider

One thing that seems to have been overlooked is that he had asked for and been denied permission to remain the area for filming purposes. Whether or not you agree with the presence of US troops in the country, he should have been smarter than to ignore what they said. He chose to remain anyway and put himself at risk.

With the way the soldiers have been getting ambushed and randomly attacked, what did he expect would happen when (as far as the tropps were concerned, he had obeyed them and left) somebody showed up with a shoulder mounted device and pointed it at troops who have been under constant threat of attack.

Sure, its unfortunate that another life was lost, but to paint it as some sort of conspiracy is a bit rediculous.

[shance]

16. And excuse me, but how in the hell would you know what is "rediculous"?

Have you even been to Israel and Palestine?

Have you seen the living conditions lately in Palestine? If you havent been over there, I bet you dont. Because our American media successfully censors every crime and otrocity being committed over there, except when the Israelis are hit with another suicide fighter. What we side is a very jaded and slanted picture of any remote reality of what the Palestinians are enduring.

What the Palestinians are living in at this time is nothing short of being like fish in a barrel. This wall they have created is nothing short of what Hitler constructed, and I never saw the Berlin wall but this wall shutting the Palestinians into a hell hole sounds like the same goal. Every day, it is sounding more and more like genocide and that these Israeli fundamentalists are killing off the Palestinians.

In addition, I am a WASP that has no political or religious affiliation whatsoever, other than to know the truth, and that these people are being treated in essence the same way the Jews were being treated in World War II. Its breathtakingly ironic and tragic. Humans are a baffling species.

[maggrwaggr]

18. Geez, dude watch it with the "otrocious" spelling criticisms

And I don't see what you're flying off the handle about has anything to do with what we're talking about.

Journalists in war zones get killed. All the time.

It's not like he was dressed in a palestinian flag. Look at the guy. he looks totally American

[newyawker99]

17. Hi kaldaras!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Zan_of_Texas]

19. Two additional accounts -- "they knew we were journalists"

(1)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030817/ts_nm/iraq_cameraman_dc

Journalists had gone to the prison after the U.S. military said a mortar bomb attack there a day before had killed six Iraqis and wounded 59 others.

Recounting the moments before the shooting, Reuters soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana, said he had asked a U.S. soldier near the prison if they could speak to an officer and was told they could not.

"They saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission," Shyoukhi said. The incident happened in the afternoon in daylight.

The soldier agreed to their request to film an overview of the prison from a bridge nearby.

"After we filmed we went into the car and prepared to go when a convoy led by a tank arrived and Mazen stepped out of the car to film. I followed him and Mazen walked three to four meters (yards). We were noted and seen clearly," Shyoukhi said.


(2)

Witnesses: Killing of cameraman was not an accident   
   
    Monday, August 18 2003 @ 01:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time

http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20030818133210903

Foreign journalists in Iraq Monday accused American soldiers of negligence in the shooting death of a Reuters cameraman, saying it was clear the victim was a newsman when soldiers on two tanks opened fire.

Mazen Dana, a Reuters cameraman was shot dead Sunday while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad that earlier was hit by a mortar attack, the AP said.

Dana, 41, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad when he was shot, Reuters added. A U.S. military official said Dana was shot by US troops.

Witnesses said Dana was dressed in civilian clothes. "We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy," said Stephan Breitner of France 2 television.

Dana's driver, Munzer Abbas, said Dana had got out of the car when he saw the tanks approaching.

"We saw a tank, 50 meters away. I heard six shots and Mazen fell to the ground. One of the soldiers started shouting at us, but when he knew we were journalists, he softened. One of the soldiers told us they thought Mazen carrying a rocket-propelled grenade," said Abbas.

"There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident," he said.

Reuters quoted soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was with Dana, as saying that the U.S. soldiers "saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.

[Zan_of_Texas]

20. Looks like

Well, reading these closely again, it looks like the tank arrived late on the scene, so may not have known what the other military DID know -- that the journalists were journalists.

However, taken together with all the other "accidents" like shooting journalists at the central hotel in Baghdad, it sure does make you wonder.

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. It would be hard to mistaken this guy for an Iraqi

Seem they killed him on purpose, probably because he had 'seen' too much.

BTW: Four more children woke up today without a father. A father who was a very brave man, who did his best to let the world see what is really going on in these conflicts. A man who put his ass on the line, while some of us sit behind our computers in the comfort of our homes trying to blame and discredit him for being murdered by people who would prefer to hide the truth from the world.

[KoKo]

22. This needs a kick!

:kick: