Public Inquiry Call After U.S. Troops Kill Cameraman

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20030818/wl_nm/iraq_journalist_reuters_dc

"The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) in Paris urged Washington to investigate how, by the official U.S. account, a soldier mistook Mazen Dana's camera for a grenade launcher on Sunday.

Reuters also wants a probe into the second killing of one of its cameramen by a U.S. tank crew. On April 8, a shell killed Reuters' Taras Protsyuk at Baghdad's media hotel. Troops said they thought a spotter was directing enemy fire. "

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1. There is more to this story than meets the eye.

I'm deeply concerned about the multiple incidents in Iraq of news agency cameramen being shot and killed.

We all know that these people are taking some serious chances when they go into occupied territories to film the news as it happens. This has gone beyond chances to calculated murder, I fear.

The Reuters cameraman that was shot yesterday happened to be a man that was featured in a episode of Frontline/WORLD a few month's ago, I suggest to people that they go to the pbs.org website and look it up and watch it.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/about/episodes/201.html

He had received death threats, for filming the news. That was when he was filming the rather brutal (justified or not, who is right in the conflict is not the issue.) Israeli incursions into the West Bank. In this segment they clearly show that the Israeli Defense Force, and the Sharon government have a PR policy in effect that involves shooting journalists. They're using rubber-coated bullets though.

Back to Iraq.

Clearly the Bush administration is walking a tightrope in public opinion here (The U.S.) and abroad in regards to all foreign affairs, but especially in regards to Iraq, it's motivations to go to war, the occupation, and the reconstruction. They have great reason to want to control the media, especially the international media that has proven itself particularly stubborn in it's endeavor to report the news accurately. So it seems that the Bush administration has adopted a similarly, but perhaps more deadly PR policy to the one that the Israelis have adopted.

These policies do not run parallel to the values of the United States and are more consistent with those of Saddam Hussein himself. The men that have implemented them must be exposed and prosecuted if, as it appears, this is a PR policy of murder.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Actually, those ARE the values of the United States

Those are the values of the bush regime, and the regime dictates the values. Those who oppose the regime have the freedom to accept the consequences.

In some cases the consequences may be job loss, in other cases "targetted killing."

[are_we_united_yet]

7. You might be correct

I thought the bombing of the Palestine hotel was a bit over the top myself.

[Beetwasher]

3. I'll save everyone the trouble

Here's the result of any investigation:

The US Military has looked in to the matter and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Those responsible have been promoted. Now move along.

[booksenkatz]

4. They'll hafta get in line

Some of us are still waiting for a true 9-11 investigation.

[samsingh]

5. sickening

that the media whores spin on their shows in safety while the real journalists are getting killed to support shrub's phoney war.

when will the whores start protecting their own?

[stickdog]

6. Whores protect no one.

Not even themselves.