Tony Gosling
bristol@nuj.org.uk
Tue, 13 May 2003 12:14:32 +0100
--=======472A4D07======= Content-Type: text/plain; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-367E234C; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Neither of these articles are hot off the press but - if you put two and=20 two together..... The Pentagon source responded to Kate Adie's concern with "Who cares...=20 They've been warned." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------------------------------------------------------------ Airstrike! The Pentagon simplifies media relations http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29750.html By John Lettice Posted: 13/03/2003 at 17:10 GMT Should war in the Gulf commence, the Pentagon proposes to take radical new= =20 steps in media relations - 'unauthorised' journalists will be shot at.=20 Speaking on The Sunday Show on Ireland's RTE1 last Sunday veteran war=20 reporter Kate Adie said she had been warned by a senior Pentagon official=20 that uplinks, i.e. TV broadcasts or satellite phones, that are detected by= =20 US aircraft are likely to be fired on. Bush pere's Iraq war featured tight control of the media, but the current=20 administration intends to go rather further. According to Adie (who,=20 overseas readers should be aware, is effectively a saint in the UK), the=20 Pentagon is vetting journalists who propose to cover the war, and is taking= =20 control of their comms equipment. This presumably will ease the logistics=20 of managing the hacks quite considerably, because if the US has control of= =20 all the gear, then any gear it doesn't know about that starts broadcasting= =20 is presumably a target. According to Adie the official told her: "There is a 'no' list... they have= =20 been warned." We presume that US forces will not be specifically trying to= =20 kill journalists - that escalation sounds more like the next war to us. But= =20 by warning of the dangers, the US is providing further discouragement for=20 the few journalists who'll attempt to report from behind Iraqi lines, or to= =20 'freelance' outside the control of the US authorities. And should they get= =20 one or two while taking out unidentified communications systems, well,=20 they've covered themselves. They should however bear in mind that should=20 Saint Adie be in the slightest bit damaged, no force on earth will be=20 strong enough to save Tony Blair from the British public. Adie's remarks came as part of a discussion of war reporting and media=20 freedom which also involved author Phillip Knightley, New York Times war=20 correspondent Chris Hedges and former Irish Times editor Connor Brady. The= =20 whole discussion is well worth listening to, and we particularly liked=20 Hedges' put-down of CNN: "CNN survives from war to war; as soon as the war= =20 starts they become part of the problem." You can find a partial transcript= =20 of Adie's remarks here, and you can get the whole show here. See also: Penatagon threatens to kill independent=20 reporters http://www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm Pentagon =91threatens to fire on reporters=92=20 http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0304war.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= -------------------------------- Did the United State murder these journalists? http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=3Dstory_28-4-2003_pg4_6 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=3D400409 By Robert Fisk Samia, a brave and honest woman, was almost destroyed as a human being by=20 that American tank crew 26 April 2003 What is a journalist=92s life worth? I ask this question for a number of=20 reasons, some of them =96 frankly =96 quite revolting. Two days ago, I went= to=20 visit one of my colleagues wounded in the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.= =20 Samia Nakhoul is a Reuters correspondent, a young woman reporter who is=20 married to another colleague, the Financial Times correspondent in Beirut.= =20 Part of an American tank shell was embedded in her brain =96 a millimetre=20 difference in entry point and she would have been half paralysed =96 after= an=20 M1A1 Abrams tank fired a round at the Reuters office in Baghdad, in the=20 Palestine Hotel, last week. Samia, a brave and honourable lady who has reported the cruelty of the=20 Lebanese civil war at first hand for many years, was almost destroyed as a= =20 human being by that tank crew. At the time, General Buford Blount of the 3rd Infantry Division, told a=20 lie: he said that sniper fire had been directed at the tank =96 on the=20 Joumhouriyah Bridge over the Tigris river =96 and that the fire had ended=20 =93after the tank had fired=94 at the Palestine Hotel. I was between the= tank=20 and the hotel when the shell was fired. There was no sniper fire =96 nor any= =20 rocket-propelled grenade fire, as the American officer claimed =96 at the=20 time. French television footage of the tank, running for minutes before the= =20 attack, shows the same thing. The soundtrack =96 until the blinding,=20 repulsive golden flash from the tank barrel =96 is silent. Samia Nakhoul wasn=92t the only one to be hit. Her Ukrainian cameraman,=20 father of a small child, was killed. So was a Spanish cameraman on the=20 floor above. And then yesterday I had to read, in the New York Times, that= =20 Colin Powell had justified the murder =96 yes, murder =96 of these two=20 journalists. This former four-star general =96 I=92m talking about Mr= Powell,=20 not the liar who runs the 3rd Infantry Division =96 actually said, and I=20 quote: =93According to a US military review of the incident, our forces=20 responded to hostile fire appearing to come from a location later=20 identified as the Palestine Hotel... Our review of the April 8th incident=20 indicates that the use of force was justified.=94 But it gets worse. A few hours before I visited Samia, I was in Beirut with= =20 Mohamed Jassem al-Ali, the managing director of the Qatar-based Arab=20 al-Jazeera channel. On that same day =96 8 April =96 that the American tank= =20 fired at the Reuters office in Baghdad, an American aircraft fired a=20 missile at the al-Jazeera office in Baghdad. Mr al-Ali has given me a copy= =20 of his letter to Victoria Clarke, the US Assistant Secretary of State of=20 Defence for Public Affairs in Washington, sent on 24 February this year. In= =20 the letter, he gives the address and the map coordinates of the station=92s= =20 office in Baghdad =96 Lat: 33.19/29.08, Lon 44.24/03.63 =96 adding that=20 civilian journalists would be working in the building. The Americans were outraged at al-Jazeera=92s coverage of the civilian=20 victims of US bombing raids. And on 8 April, less than three hours before=20 the Reuters office was attacked, an American aircraft fired a single=20 missile at the al-Jazeera office =97 at those precise map coordinates Mr=20 al-Ali had sent to Ms Clarke =96 and killed the station=92s reporter Tareq= =20 Ayoub. =93We find these events,=94 Mr al-Ali wrote in his slightly= inaccurate=20 English, =93unjustifiable, unacceptable, arousing all forms of anger and=20 rejection and most of all need an explanation.=94 And what did he get? Victoria Clarke wrote a letter that was as=20 inappropriate as it was =93economical with the truth=94. She offered her=20 =93condolences=94 to the family and colleagues of Mr Ayoub and then went on= to=20 write a preachy note to al-Jazeera. =93Being close to the action means being= =20 close to danger,=94 she wrote. =93...we have gone to extraordinary [sic]=20 lengths in Iraq to avoid civilian casualties. Unfortunately, even our best= =20 efforts will not prevent some innocents from getting caught in the=20 crossfire [sic]... Sometimes this results in tragedy. War by its very=20 nature is tragic and sad...=94 Pardon me? Al-Jazeera asks why its office was targeted and Ms Clarke tells= =20 the dead man=92s employer that war is =93sad=94? I don=92t believe this.= General=20 Blount lied about his tank crew on the Tigris river. =93General=94 Powell= went=20 along with this lie. And now Ms Clarke =96 who clearly was told to write= what=20 she wrote since her letter is so trite =96 does not even attempt to explain= =20 why an American jet killed Al Jazeera=92s reporter (just like an American=20 missile was fired at Al Jazeera=92s office in Kabul in 2001). A Ukrainian, a Spaniard, an Arab. They all died within hours of each other.= =20 I suspect they were killed because the US =96 someone in the Pentagon though= =20 not, I=92m sure, Ms Clarke =96 decided to try to =93close down=94 the press.= Of=20 course, American journalists are not investigating this. They should =96=20 because they will be next. As for Mohamed al-Ali, he has the painful experience of knowing that he=20 gave the Pentagon the map coordinates to kill his own reporter. Who was the= =20 pilot of the American jet that fired that missile at al-Jazeera? Why did he= =20 fire? What were the coordinates? Who was the American tank officer who=20 blasted a piece of metal into Samia=92s brain? A day after he fired, I=20 climbed on his tank and asked the soldier on top if he was responsible. =93I= =20 don=92t know anything about that, sir,=94 he replied. And I believe him.= Like I=20 believe in Father Christmas and fairies at the bottom of my garden.=20 =97Independent Bristol branch - National Union of Journalists 10-12 Picton Street Montpelier BRISTOL BS6 5QA England http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/nuj_bristol/ http://www.gn.apc.org/media/nuj.html http://www.nuj.org.uk http://www.cpj.org http://www.ifj.org +44 (0)117 944 6219 --=======472A4D07=======--