"U.S. military will detain/kill any journalist covering the Iraqi side..."

[LynnTheDem]

IMO, this is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT news articles to date over the past 2 years.

May 8, 2005

Home from Iraq
Journalist urges Americans to search for truth, freedom'

We spent 10 months in Iraq, working on a story, understanding who the people are who are fighting, why they fight, what their fundamental beliefs are, when they started, what kinds of backgrounds they come from, what education, jobs they have. Were they former military, are they Iraqi or foreign? Are they part of al-Qaida?

But the basic point for this discussion is that we both thought it was really journalistically important to understand who it was who was resisting the presence of the foreign troops. If you didn't understand that, how could you report what was clearly becoming an "ongoing conflict?" And if you were reading the news in America, or Europe, how could you understand the full context of what was unfolding if what motivates the "other side" of the conflict is not understood, or even discussed?

Just the process of working on that story has revealed many things to me about my own country. I'd like to share some of them with you:


Lesson Five: What it's like to be afraid of your own country.

It's time we looked in the mirror and began to take responsibility for what our country looks like, what our country is and how it behaves, rather than acting like victims before we actually are.

Or do I need to start facing the reality that all I love and believe in is simply self-delusion?

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050508/OPINION04/505080346/1054/OPINION

[Junkdrawer]

1. Here's the sentence you reference:

I could go into a long litany of the ways in which the American military has treated journalists in Iraq. Recent actions indicate that the U.S. military will detain and/or kill any journalist who happens to be caught covering the Iraqi side of the militant resistance, and indeed a number of journalists have been killed by U.S. troops while working in Iraq. This behavior at the moment seems to be limited to journalists who also happen to be Arabs, or Arab-looking, but that is only a tangential story to what I'm telling you about here.

[Imagevision]

2. It's what the Italian journalist's secret service agent killing was about

[Roland99]

31. And, arguably, Ruzicka?

[bryant69]

3. This really is worth reading -

Although, like everything, it shoudl be read with a critical eye.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Toots]

4. Way,way past time you looked in the mirror and begin taking responsibility

Time to shut the barn door the cows are gone.

[Straight Shooter]

22. Did you read the article? This journalist was acting very responsibly.

Please read the entire article. Her courage, and the courage of her British correspondent, is amazing. I'm surprised it got printed at all, in the American media.

[Bandit]

28. .

[Karenina]

49. My FAVORITE bit ...

"Lesson One: Many journalists in Iraq could not, or would not, check their nationality or their own perspective at the door.

One of the hardest things about working on this story for me personally, and as a journalist, was to set my "American self" and perspective aside. It was an ongoing challenge to listen open-mindedly to a group of people whose foundation of belief is significantly different from mine, and one I found I often strongly disagreed with.

But going in to report a story with a pile of prejudices is no way to do a story justice, or to do it fairly, and that constant necessity to bite my tongue, wipe the smirk off my face or continue to listen through a racial or religious diatribe that I found appalling was a skill I had to practice. We would never walk in to cover a union problem or political event without seeking to understand the perspective from both, or the many sides of the story that exist. Why should we as journalists do it in Iraq?"

[mike_c]

5. wow, that is a POWERFUL article/speech!

Thanks for posting it.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. At long last, courage!

Thank you for posting this!

[Kagemusha]

7. I'll be blunt.

Yes. The writer does need to start facing that reality.

I think what we are seeing is self-delusion that reporting in America was ever, in a matter of war and peace, objective according to some ideal of true reporting as opposed to the reporting that actually took place. I am not an expert on this aspect of history, but in many other cases, when I have studied history, I have found things that logically should have occured, but people denied, did, in fact, take place.

IF you go back to the reporting on the Korean War, WWII, WWI, various actions in the Americas, the Phillipine War, the Spanish-American War, the undeclared war with France, the War of 1812, the American Revolution, and the French & Indian Wars, I find it difficult to believe that we would find reporting during these times to be objective, to be the result of reporters putting aside their group identities, to be untainted by personal or by group bias, or any other modern fantasy.

The idea of reporting that's objective to the point of not taking the side of your country is relatively new and most certainly would have been regarded as treason in the past. That it is regarded as such today should not be a surprise or shock. Perhaps it should not be so. But attempting to look at the world as it should be, and not as it is, is indeed self-delusion.

[Junkdrawer]

10. You're right. The US military censorship is not new - it's a return...

to the blatant domestic propaganda common prior to the Viet Nam war - the type of blatant propaganda our (the boomer) generation decided was too dangerous to allow in a post-nuclear world.

[Just Me]

36. The awareness of that "delusion" is expanding.

However, I would call that "delusion" mass manipulation via government-sponsored propaganda intended to brainwash people into doing something they would not otherwise do.

It's only "self-delusion" when one actually has the facts to make a choice to be self-deluding. Under the circumstances, where a government intentionally misleads people to believe a delusion, misrepresents reality,...that is called mass manipulation via government sponsored propaganda or psyops.

[LynnTheDem]

8. Loved her line...

"My value of human life and rights don't fluctuate depending on which country I'm in."

[leftchick]

52. The whole speech was excellent...

one of her best points IMO...

<snip>

And, again, this is not meant as any criticism of the military; they have a war to win, and dominating the "message," or the news is an integral part of that war. The military has a name for it, "information operations," and the aim is to achieve information superiority in the same way they would seek to achieve air superiority. If you look closely, you will notice there is very little, maybe even no direct reporting on the resistance in Iraq. We do, however, as journalists report what the Americans say about the resistance. Is this really anything more than stenography?

And many American journalists often refer to those attacking Americans or Iraqi troops and policemen as "terrorists." Some are indeed using terrorist tactics, but calling them "terrorists" simply shuts down any sense of need or interest to look beyond that word, to understand why indeed human beings might be willing to die in a violent struggle to achieve their goal. Pushing them off as simply "insane, wild Arabs" or "extremist Muslims" does them no service, but even more, it does the U.S. no service. If we as Americans fail to understand who attacks us and why, we will simply continue on this same path, and continue watching from afar as a war we don't understand boils over.

... So the Pentagon Propaganda has a name."information operations "!
who knew?

Hey Lynn, Do you have any idea how to read her article published in VF?

[LynnTheDem]

9. "Recall Patrick Henry's famous speech...

encouraging the Second Virginia Convention, gathered on March 20, 1775, to fight the British, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Why is it that we, as Americans, presume that any Iraqi would feel any differently?

Then why is it that this story of human effort for self-determination by violent means cannot be told in America? Are we so small, so confused by our own values that we cannot recognize when someone emulates our own struggle?"

***

American smug arrogant superiority complex. We're American; all others are untermenschen.

[JustJill]

11. kick

[LynnTheDem]

12. Welcome to DU, JJ.

:hi:

[gordianot]

13. Wonder if that extends to the home front also?

It would explain a lot.

[FinallyStartingToWin]

14. Powerful, Yes... But,

After reading the entire article, did any of you find it strange that the author never ended up telling you about the other side's point of view? I'm reading this whole article hearing the author speak of how her whole purpose was to gt the other side's perspective, yet never gives you one detail. I was looking forward to reading the perspective, and was kinda let down when I reached the end of the article with no details at all.

[Maddy McCall]

16. That wasn't the thesis of her article.

Here's her thesis statement: "Just the process of working on that story has revealed many things to me about my own country. I'd like to share some of them with you."

And her article nicely supports her thesis statement.

[FinallyStartingToWin]

17. I Don't Care. I Was Disappointed Anyway. n/t

[LynnTheDem]

18. Her other side article was done by Vanity Fair, July 2004.

Her documentary isn't yet released.

[bobthedrummer]

15. That's what really happened in Fallujah. The Bremer/Iraqi authority

ordered local newspapers shut down. This involved those that had published the truth about Abu Ghraib in Fallujah.

There was a demonstration to restore publication and Blackwater Security employees shot the demonstrators, mostly women and students, in the face.

In Fallujah Blackwater Security employees were killed and mutilated, the USMC was ordered to take reprisals-and it just escalated from there.

That's pretty much the anecdotal story I've heard from several returned US military members.

[Jo March]

19. Wow. this is powerful and scary

This has to be way worse than when Nixon was in office. I wasn't alive then but imagine that it was pretty bad.

This is getting crazy. Correction - it has been crazy but now crazy is starting to leak through all of the cracks.

[bobthedrummer]

20. Defense Department Invokes Geneva Conventions To Withhold Torture

Photos
by ACLU
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ACL504A.html

That's another example of freedom on the march, and the role of a free press in a free society, isn't it?

[funflower]

21. Couple of links about deaths/mistreatment of journalists in Iraq

http://www.cpj.org/attacks04/mideast04/iraq.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75461FFE-8C82-4379-AABD-5809006DC49A.htm

[spanone]

23. ALL Iraqi news, I repeat, ALL Iraqi news is Pentagon filtered.

It's ALL propaganda.

[bobthedrummer]

24. Detention could mean being shuttled throughout the worldwide gulag

of these RW traitors both in and out of uniform imo.
Gone for years with no official records kept.
:grr:

[bobthedrummer]

25. It is a very important story and should be kept kicked and updated.

:dem::kick:

[lumpy]

26. Kick

up for freedom of the press.

[alfredo]

27. My family and the Bingham family go way back.

She is just like the Bingham's before, smart, tough, and talented. They were the ones that hired my grandpa and great uncle when they arrived in the US from Europe.

How do your recommend this for the front page?




BTW, are you Lynn formerly from Lexington, now a business person in Louisville?
Does Alfalfa mean anything to you? Do you have ugly lamps?

[bobthedrummer]

29. I think this goes to support what Sgrena said too.

Then there is the murder of the Italian agent and the diplomatic chill from the cover-up.

[Roland99]

30. Didn't see this thread before I created this one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3624320&mesg_id=3624320


I've posted this in another forum and the pseudo-Freepers there either dismiss it as leftist crap or ask why we need to know the truth anyway.

:eyes:

[unhappycamper]

32. Kick for the afternoon crowd .....nt

[bobthedrummer]

33. One good kick deserves another

:dem::kick:

[Roland99]

34. And another

:kick:

[Just Me]

35. Learned the hard way that "understanding" is to be QUASHED,...

The absolute LAST thing the corporacrats want to protect is an understanding of reality. To the contrary, in order for the corporacrats to advance their heartless, greedy profiteering,...they must QUASH those who pursue "understanding"!!!

:grr: The corporacrats ARE in charge,...and they have no morals or ethics or values,....other than valuing M-O-N-E-Y!!!! :grr:

[mzmolly]

37. This story is out of Kentucky.

Perhaps we'll wake up after all?

Excellent article.

[Just Me]

40. One day,....at a time,...

After all, betrayal is difficult to overcome. The betrayal we're talking about,...is very painful.

There is nothing worse,...than THAT betrayal,...nothing!!!!

[Roland99]

47. Doubtful. While there are some vocal elements here...

the sheep in the form of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeast Christian Church (and it's $80 million facility...still expanding), and Highview Baptist Church (it's $10 million new church the site of the recent "Just Us" Sunday event) are here and are making themselves loud and proud (hmm...just like Jesus taught...NOT!)

[clem_c_rock]

38. Any asshole want to get up in front of the class and talk

About how we should stay in Iraq and how we're there to bring "democracy" to the Iraqis?

[clem_c_rock]

39. kick it to the moon

[bobthedrummer]

41. To the stars too

:dem::kick:

[Hissyspit]

42. Thanks, Lynn. Kicking this AND emailing it.

[Catrina]

43. Eason Jordon was right ~

but CNN let him go ~ maybe this article should be emailed to them. I'm sure they know he was right, this war started out with the killing of two journalists in the Palestine Hotel, but the news media dropped that story when the PR stunt pulling down the Saddam statue, took over the airwaves.

Good for her for telling the truth, if only her colleagues had the courage to do the same.

[clem_c_rock]

44. kick it all week

[Hissyspit]

45. O.K. n/t

[Roland99]

46. Aye! Aye!

:kick:

[Roland99]

48. ttt

[bobthedrummer]

50. Kick.

:patriot:

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tennessee Gal]

53. Right wing troll?

I believe so.

Afraid of the truth?

I believe so.

Willing to accept any Bush lie?

I believe so.

[Roland99]

54. Kick!!

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

55. Kick.

:patriot:

[Karenina]

56. HEADS UP!!!

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

57. Yep, all week this is going to be kicked up!

:patriot:

[Karenina]

58. Ummmm...

:kick: