Posted on 11/18/2004 12:59:19 PM PST by Pikamax
Newsman Who Taped Marine Shooting Captive Keeps Silent By ROBERT F. WORTH
EAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 18 - The American photographer whose videotape of what appears to be a marine shooting a wounded Iraqi is generating a storm of outrage in the Arab world maintained his steadfast silence on Wednesday, saying he wanted to continue reporting on the incident before commenting.
"As sensitive as this is, we want to make sure the world has an accurate picture of the events," the photographer, Kevin Sites, a freelance cameraman working for NBC News, told a reporter at the military base near Falluja where he is staying.
The videotape shows a group of marines on Saturday entering a mosque in Falluja, where several wounded Iraqi prisoners lay on the floor. One marine is shown shooting and apparently killing one Iraqis. The marines were members of the Third Battalion, First Regiment, with whom Mr. Sites was embedded.
An unedited version of the videotape, which was distributed to other news agencies as part of a pool report, was being broadcast several times an hour on Arab satellite television stations on Wednesday, and American commanders have said it has already yielded a huge propaganda victory for the anti-American insurgency. Some Arab commentators have even compared it to the scandal surrounding mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
Yet many questions about the shooting remain unanswered, human rights advocates and senior military officials agree. In the videotape, the soldier, before firing at the prone body, can be heard yelling that the Iraqi prisoner was only pretending to be dead, suggesting that he may have believed he was acting in self-defense. It is unclear from watching it whether the prisoner was moving before the shot.
Mr. Sites would appear to be in a unique position to shed some light on what happened, but he declined repeatedly to comment on Wednesday.
He did say he had received hate mail and threats since the broadcast, in edited form, on the initial NBC News report. A comment section on a Web site he maintains has been shut down because of death threats.
A lanky man with shoulder-length hair and a goatee, Mr. Sites has maintained a low profile since emerging from the fighting in Falluja, avoiding the area where other reporters on the base are billeted.
Several other reporters said he might be concerned about legal or other complications stemming from the shooting, and was staying silent for that reason. Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are conducting an inquiry, and the marine who fired the shot has been removed from the battlefield.
A spokeswoman for NBC News, Allison Gollust, said by e-mail, "Given that there is an investigation on behalf of the marines into this incident, it just doesn't make sense for Kevin to be commenting on it at this point."
On www.kevinsites.net, his Web site, Mr. Sites has posted photographs and writings from the days he spent with the marines in Falluja. In one journal, he wrote, "The marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement."
It goes on to quote a marine saying everything to the west of his position in Falluja was "weapons free." It continues, "Weapons free means the marines can shoot whatever they see - it's all considered hostile."
His entries on the site say nothing about the shooting or the videotape. But the site has links to a comment page maintained by a Web administrator, with a fierce exchange of views about the tape. Some viewers support his videotaping of the shooting, while others criticize it, some using obscene language. A number of comments have been deleted by the administrator.
His Web site describes Mr. Sites as a "pioneering, multimedia journalist" who has worked in Afghanistan, Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East. It features a photograph of him in a black T-shirt sitting next to a machine gun, gesturing, with the words, "Dispatches from a life in conflict." It recounts an incident in which he and his team were abducted outside Tikrit by members of the fedayeen, Saddam Hussein's paramilitary troops, and threatened with death, before their Kurdish interpreter negotiated their release after four hours.
Mr. Sites has worked for several networks and has a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, according to the site.
good idea
He knew what he was doing. I hope the bastard gets what he deserves.
There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites. The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong. Clear the Marine and return him to duty.
"The marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement."
I guess Mr. Sites prefers our marines to be SHOT AT...rather than our marines doing the shooting. He's keeping quiet because he's done what he intended to do...to make our marines look like heartless murderers. He needs to crawl under a rock and stay there.
What, he is still breathing?
Is this creep still doing reporting with our soldiers? I hope our soldiers kick his ASS out of Iraq!
MSM stench cowering in the corner. Glad to see he is getting the credit he deserves. He should consider doing surveillance photos for John Edwards when his is chasing ambulances.
he obviously supports terrorists!
My question is:
If sites was working for NBC---How did Al-Jazeera get the film so fast?
Maybe that was one of the conditions they set for releasing him instead of beheading him. Any way you look at it, this guy is a traitor.
I bet he does!
Yeah...it appears that the Marine shot the wrong guy. It should have been the reporter who tried to set him up.
[There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites.]
You've got to be kidding me....he knew EXACTLY what he was doing by releasing that clip. He wanted to portray our marines as murderers.
That film should never have been released. I thought the military screens any footage before it is released. There was no reason to release this. They could have conducted an internal investigation.
nick
If he thought that there was a war crime of some sort, he should have turned the tape over to the military authorities.
I wish he would have a fatal accident.
This guy Sites obviously sent the video over to Al Jazeera - that is like sending a copy to every anti-american Arab in the world. He know the backlash against the U.S. was going to resonate in the ARAB WORLD! Instead of giving it to the Miltary to annalyze he sent it to Al Jazeera the plague of the Arab World!
There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites. The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong. Clear the Marine and return him to duty.
I agree. If the pointy head libs & the Arab world are traumatized, I say that's a good thing.
I can think of one reason. How was that pool video handled? Did we ever find out how and when Reuters got it?
I suspect he will be silent untill he is well out of country and back in his plush appartment and well away from anyone with a short haircut and an M16.
Then he will no doubt start flapping his yap.
But I doubt this guy is getting much help anymore, and probably fears he will just be accidentally left behind in the next fire-fight. I'm sure our guys wouldn't hurt him, but I doubt they would risk their life for him either.
He's suddenly found himself in a war zone, with no friends anywhere in site.
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