Posted on 03/22/2004 10:26:52 PM PST by SkyPilot
Report: Shooting of Cameraman Tragic But Justified
LONDON (Reuters) - An American soldier who killed Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana in Iraq (news - web sites) was justified in opening fire, a U.S. army report said on Monday.
The report, made public seven months after Dana died, found that the soldier's "decision to fire at Mr. Dana, though tragic and regrettable, was justified based on the information available to him at the time."
Reuters said it could not agree that the death of Dana, a prize-winning Palestinian cameraman, was justified and called for the urgent implementation of recommendations in the report to improve the safety of journalists in war zones.
It said Dana would not have died in the shooting outside Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison on August 17 if the recommendations had been in place.
The Army report said the soldier, who shot from a tank, had a "reasonable certainty" that Dana was about to fire a rocket- propelled grenade (RPG), having mistaken his camera for a launcher. But it said the tank commander recognized Dana was holding a camera immediately after the fatal shots were fired.
The report concluded that lack of procedures for communicating the presence of journalists among U.S. troops contributed to the tragedy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It made a series of recommendations, including better communication and coordination between U.S. units and wider dissemination of knowledge about the presence of journalists and other civilians in war zones.
Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger welcomed the thoroughness of the report but said: "In recent months the safety of journalists in Iraq has deteriorated significantly. To avoid further needless loss of life it is imperative that these recommendations be implemented immediately throughout all areas of conflict."
Journalists working in Iraq say most of the recommendations do not appear to have been enforced although the report was completed several months ago.
Dana was the second Reuters cameraman killed in Iraq.
The first, Ukrainian Taras Protsyuk, died last April when a U.S. tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad in the closing hours of the war to oust Saddam Hussein Jose Couso, of Spain's Telecinco television, was also killed.
Schlesinger said in a statement both Dana and Protsyuk's deaths could have been avoided.
"We believe that the Reuters staff killed in Iraq...would both still be alive if the recommendation regarding improved communications between U.S. units in the field and the military's high command had been implemented before their deaths."
Dana had made his presence known to U.S. troops at the prison and the Palestine was widely known to be a media hotel. But this information was not passed the units that fired. Dana's widow Suzan said in the Palestinian city of Ramallah: "I am not satisfied with the investigation at all. They said that Mazen did not do anything wrong, but at the same time they did not criticize the soldier who killed him. They are only trying to justify their actions."
Schlesinger said in his statement: "The Pentagon (news - web sites) must now accept that independent journalists will always operate in the field outside the embedding process and there need to be sensible and prudent measures to avoid them being killed."
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Schlesinger endorsed another recommendation in the report, for a review of the rules of engagement used by U.S. troops to reduce the risk of injury to non-combatants. The rules have never been made public by the Pentagon.
Other report recommendations welcomed by Reuters were weekly security briefings for media organizations and improved systematic communication between media and the military.
The Pentagon report said "sudden movements" by Dana and the glare of the sun contributed to the soldier's decision to shoot him and the failure to identify a camera instead of an RPG.
Reuters says the evidence does not support these conclusions.
Two Iraqi journalists working for Dubai's Al Arabiya television died last week after being shot by U.S. troops in central Baghdad. That brought the number of media staff killed since the start of the war in Iraq to 36, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Schlesinger's statement concluded: "The bottom line is that the military and media organizations must work together to improve journalist safety and ensure that it is approached on a programmatic, operational level that is relevant to all conflicts, not just the current one in Iraq."
Um, okay, how about this recommendation then: "Journalists in war zones should either be embedded with the troops (so that the troops know who/where they are), or else take cover until the shooting stops, so that they won't appear to be a combatant."
Either that, or make sure your life insurance is paid up, and take your chances.
The dead cameraman and his wife are Palestinian, and I believe Betaille was responding to the wife's comments faulting the US military and the results of its investigation. If I get his point, it's that Palestinians seem to have a double standard when it comes to non-combatants caught in the crossfire, depending upon which side they're on.
"Do over! Do over!"
I believe the media have a right to report, under certain rules of course. During WW II, the media operated under overt censorship by the military--and they even censored themselves!! They understood this was necessary.
Vietnam changed all that--and we began to see a media that had "a score to settle."
The "press pool" during the Grenada operation and Operation JUST CAUSE in Panama infuriated the media? The pool allowed the press to be escorted into the combat zones under full military transportation and protection. Why did the media squawk?
In a word--glory. Only a select few got to go into the combat zone. They were to share their stories with the rest of the media left behind. One thing we have to understand--the media treat wars like the winning the lottery. To them, it is big news, exciting, and a chance to make their mark and improve their career. You think I am kidding? I am not. Watch the movie "The Killing Fields" and pay attention to the part where the NYT reporter yearns for the applause and awards dinner by his collegues back home.
By and large the "embeds" did a good job--and that only ticked off the press even more. They felt they "went Native" and supported the troops too much.
The "press pool" during the Grenada operation and Operation JUST CAUSE in Panama infuriated the media?
I meant an !. They way I wrote is implied you asked a question that I refuted, which is not true. Sorry about that.
Sherman considered reporters to be no better than spies. They were unwelcome in his camp and his outriders ran them off. During Vietnam, the nightly news reports (especially Cronkite) directly contradicted everything the guys in country were saying in their letters home. It was nothing but a communist propaganda campaign. Since that time, I always assume the media are lying unless it's proven otherwise. The NYT made a huge deal of the Jayson Blair mess, devoting many inches of column space to their tedious apologia. But it wasn't just damage control. It also served to give the false impression that dishonest reporting is rare and that the media care about "journalistic integrity." Balderdash! They care only about their leftist ideology, political clout and personal enrichment. The rest is strictly for show.
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