Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana killed in Baghdad

[Resistance]

He survived years of harassment and beatings from the Israeli army (and settlers), yet it's American troops who kill him ...

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1827.shtml

Mazen Dana, a veteran television cameraman for Reuters, was killed in Baghdad on Sunday while filming outside the city's Abu Ghraib prison. According to wire service reports, Dana was shot by U.S.soldiers riding on a tank in the Iraqi capital.

The 43-year-old Palestinian was honored by CPJ two years ago for his years of courageous reporting on the conflict in his hometown of Hebron in the West Bank.

Reuters story: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YZKWK4LVRSYTYCRBAEOCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3290838

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead on Sunday while filming near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Eyewitnesses said Dana, 43, was shot by soldiers on an American tank as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad.

His last pictures show a U.S. tank driving toward Dana outside the prison walls. Several shots ring out from the tank, and Dana's camera falls to the ground.

[MrPrax]

1. Sounds like an Assassination

sounds familiar and sounds like Sharon is running the show in Iraq

<snip>
The incident took place in daylight on Sunday afternoon.

Mazen Dana's last pictures show a US tank driving towards him outside the prison walls.

Several shots ring out from the tank and the camera falls to the ground.

His sound engineer, Nael al-Shyoukhi, said that the pair had spoken to a US soldier near the prison shortly before the shooting.

"They saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission," he said.

Two shots were fired from a US tank.
<snip>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3160429.stm

[Resistance]

2. Yes - the question for me is

who ordered the hit? Sharon? Bush? Rummy? We'll never know.

[StandWatie]

3. probably nobody

The US troops have made an embarassing show of themselves as an occupying power, it was probably just enough to be dark skinned and in their vicinity.

[Resistance]

4. so it's just coincidence ...

that Dana was also a rather frequent target of abuse from the Israeli authorities in his coverage of events in the Occupied Territories? You could be right ... however, I think we do have enough material here to at least raise our suspicions. An investigation is definitely warranted.

[StandWatie]

5. everyone is a frequent target of IDF abuse..

same with the US occupation forces :shrug:

[Aidoneus]

7. doesn't have to be a conspiracy..

the "AOF" (putting on my Pseudo-clever Cap{TM} for a moment) are popping off and hassling all sorts of people there, journalists of many nationalities including, that this guy was the "wrong" ethnicity is probably not as much a factor as you make it to be. He was carrying a camera, that's more dangerous than the RPG the CYAers claim to have though it was.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. Assasinations aren't conspiracies, they are Israeli and US policy

Conspiracy implies secrecy, there is nothing secret about the assasination policies of either the sharon or the bush regime.

[Resistance]

9. no it doesn't

still, let's face it - we live in a world where the hit on Dana could have been ordered with a couple of quick phone calls.

[Aidoneus]

11. was he particularly notable?

don't really see the motive other than "he was there and I had a gun <shrug>".. all sorts of people get shot by the Hearts & Minds/Machine Gun Brigades, including several journalists.. anyway, unless this guy has video of Sharon & Arafat naked in a hottub I would assume Sharon has better things to do anyway. :shrug:

[Resistance]

12. Actually, yeah he was

He was shot at least three times in 2000 alone by the Israeli Army, and was an outspoken critic of their crimes against journalists. He has said: "Words and images are a public trust and for this reason I will continue with my work regardless of the hardships, even if it costs me my life" (news source)-- this was a man who had spent the past several years documenting Israeli aggression, and is exactly the kind of guy I suspect would rank fairly high on an IDF hit-list.

Ok, so the fact is that I don't have any evidence that might have merited him a definite 'Go-Get-Him' order, and I probably never will - but given the background on his history with the Israeli army, I do say that an investigation is definitely warranted.

BTW, the journalists who were with him at the time are now saying it was no accident - that the US troops knew that journalists were there and knew who they were firing at.

[Aidoneus]

14. ah

ran a search on his name and I think I know who he is now, he was one of the journalists arrested a year or two back for, um.. well, he... then.. arrested for existing in the West Bank, I guess. They said he was "helping terrorists", whatever that means, and held him without being charged for a couple weeks. Read a few of his pieces archived, he produced good work.

I don't know now, with a CYA story this utterly moronic maybe it was on purpose, whether it was a "hit on Mazen Dana" or on "some reporter with a camera". Jeebus H. Flynt, even the IDF's "we'll look into it" stories are more plausible than this nonsense..

Award winning Reuters Cameraman Mazen Dana was killed by US troops on while simulating another shoulder fired missile attack. The American troops did not know that this act was only a simulation and tragically killed Mr. Dana. This is the second simulated attack on American troops, which resulted in a fatality. The first, on April 8th, involving a tripod mounted simulator on a balcony of the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, in Baghdad, which killed Taras Protsyuk.

I have to go off and cry somewhere if somebody actually believes that..

[QuietStorm]

13. Have you seen the background

segments on Mazen Dana. If not Patricia Naylor's PBS segments are here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=70915&mesg_id=71089&page=

[Gimel]

6. Looks rather fair-skinned to me

No dif between him and most mid-aged athletic types.

[QuietStorm]

10. Disscussion also taking place in LBN (story still breaking)

I have one question. All those journalists on the scene. How is it Dana was the one shot? I ask the question in light of his history of being targeted as documented in the PBS video placed in the discussion thread in LBN here...

the story is still breaking. Reuters seems pissed. This is an award winning Palestinian Journalist.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=70915&mesg_id=70915

[QuietStorm]

15. U.S. Military Probes Cameraman's Death

Anyone interested new article is in editorials 15 hours ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=6783

[Lurking Dem]

16. Some of you might be interested

in this book. It looked fascinating and goes all the way back to Crimea.

http://giftshop.newseum.org/detail.asp?ProductID=165

I remember the first time I saw a journalist being killed on the news. I think he was with CBS?? and he was filming the "Troubles" in Ireland. Watching from the point of view of the camera was heart wrenching - I was maybe 8 or 9 and I've never forgotten it.

This incident brought it all back like it was yesterday.