Haditha Reporter Was Jailed By US, Shares Name With Source

Sweetness & Light ^ | June 1, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

Given the breathless coverage (actually repetition of the same paltry facts) from our one party media about the civilian deaths in Haditha, I am surprised that we have heard nothing about the curious background of one of the first journalists to report the story.

It turns out he might not have felt the kindliest intentions towards the US, having been imprisoned for five months only weeks before his Haditha scoop.

And, in fact, he has since been detained by the US again, for two weeks -- in fact, being only released today.

From Reuters [excerpted]:

Reuters journalist Ali al-Mashhadani (R), a television cameraman, embraces a colleague in Baghdad January 15, 2006. Mashhadani was released from U.S. military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad on Thursday after 12 days in detention.

Reuters journalist freed in Iraq

By Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi journalist working for Reuters was released from U.S. military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad on Thursday after 12 days in detention.

Ali al-Mashhadani, 37, was arrested by U.S. Marines in his home town of Ramadi on May 20 when he went to a U.S. base to retrieve Reuters telephones taken from him earlier that week.

He spent five months in U.S. custody last year before being released without charge in January.

Though again no specific allegation or charge was leveled against him, U.S. officials said last week he was held as a security threat. Marines interrogated him intensively about his work as a journalist in the restive Sunni province of Anbar...

As many as seven journalists for international media groups were held by the U.S. military in Iraq at one stage last year. One such journalist, from Ramadi, is currently being held.

Mashhadani, who reports and provides video and pictures, is one of a small number of journalists providing news from Anbar province, where U.S. Marines and Sunni Arab insurgents, including al Qaeda militants, are locked in a fierce conflict...

Among Mashhadani's recent stories was reporting from the town of Haditha in March. Following Time magazine's revelation of accusations that U.S. Marines shot dead 24 civilians there in November, he filmed fresh interviews with local officials and residents that were widely used by international media...

So after five months in prison at the hands of the US, and being released in Janauary, Mr. al-Mashhadani stumbles upon the story of Haditha in March.

Here is al-Mashhadani's original report on Haditha from Reuters [excerpted]:

Iraqi residents say bodies in video from U.S. raid

By Ali al-Mashhadani

Tue 21 Mar 2006

HADITHA, Iraq (Reuters) - A video of civilians who may have been killed by U.S. Marines in an Iraqi town in November showed residents describing a rampage by U.S. soldiers that left a trail of bullet-riddled bodies and destruction.

A copy of the video, given to Reuters by Iraq's Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy, showed corpses lined up at the Haditha morgue. The chief doctor at Haditha's hospital, Waleed al-Obaidi, said the victims had bullet wounds in the head and chest.

Most residents interviewed by Reuters in Haditha on Tuesday echoed accusations by residents in the video that U.S. Marines attacked houses after their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.

They said the Marines opened fire on houses. "I saw a soldier standing outside a house and he opened fire on the house," said one resident, who did not want to be identified...

Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is in Anbar province, an area that has seen much activity by Sunni Arab insurgents whose campaign to topple the Iraqi government has killed thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces and civilians.

On November 20, U.S. Marines spokesman Captain Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that, on the previous day, a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gunbattle, U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed eight insurgents, he added.

U.S. military officials have since confirmed to Reuters that that version of the events of November 19 was wrong and that the 15 civilians were not killed by the blast but were shot dead.

TRUCK PILED WITH CORPSES

Time magazine said this week the video of the corpses it provided to the military in January had prompted the revision.

Accusations that American soldiers often kill innocent people have fuelled anger at the occupation among Iraqis over the past three years.

The video given to Reuters shows bodies piled in the back of a white pickup truck outside the morgue. Among them was a girl who appeared to be about three years old...

Some residents blamed U.S. President George W. Bush, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Jalal Talabani. "Is this the democracy Allawi, Talabani and Bush are talking about?" one resident asked.

Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani, head of Hammurabi, said U.S. Marines had killed 15 people in Haditha after the roadside bomb attack. The group's Haditha branch said it got the video from a local man.

Mashhadani said he had brought the case to the attention of the United Nations office in Baghdad. "These violations of human rights happen every day in Iraq," he told Reuters...

This account is pretty much the same account that is still being parroted throughout our one party media worldwide now two months later. There are several particulars which are just stated as fact, such as:

U.S. military officials have since confirmed to Reuters that that version of the events of November 19 was wrong and that the 15 civilians were not killed by the blast but were shot dead.

This assertion has been repeated in almost every subsequent account. But I have never seen any confirmation of this from the US military or any named officials.

And what is the relationship if any between this news-making journalist Ali al-Mashhadani, and Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani of Iraq's Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy?

The latter al-Mashhanis is the person who first brought these "human rights violations" to public attention.

Perhaps al-Mashhadani is a very common name around those parts. (Probably being a kind of tribal or regional descriptor.) But what are the odds?

And how odd it is that Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani just happened to be given a video by an unnamed local. And that he then turned it over to Ali al-Mashhadani who just happens to make videos for Reuters.

And had anyone ever heard of Iraq's Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy before this?

But even leaving their similar names aside, did Ali al-Mashhadani have an axe to grind against the US after having just been released after being held for five months by the Americans?

Did it color his reporting, which is still the centerpiece of every report we have on the Haditha deaths to date?

[usmcobra]

Maj. Tahseen Ali Al Mashhadani, resides in Al `Amiriya.

This is interesting, His name shows up in The Structure of the Mukhabarat (Iraqi Intelligence Service - IIS)

[MNJohnnie]

This has been most Freepers whole point all along. Let us wait and see. It IS possible some Marine lost it. What amaze me is how FEW ever do! It is a statement of their incredibly professionalism that they so rarely do lose it. That said, it is possible this is a staged atrocity. Terrorists have done these sorts of PR stunts before. I simply object to this rush to condem the Marines without even hearing anything but the accusations.

Most of us were not born or too young to do anything about how they treated the 'Nam vets.

We are not too little this time. If this turns out to be terrorist propaganda, the Dems will be held accountable for this at the ballot box. They are tapping into a seam of rage that has festered in the Hearts of millions of Americans for 35 years. They have no idea how bad this may end up hurting them.

[MNJohnnie]

http://www.totse.com/en/politics/foreign_military_intelligence_agencies/iraqiis.html

GREAT fine. Wonder though, is is the same guy? Sure looks like a Saddamite.

[marron]

Since we know that the reporter is an insurgent, and we know the bodies had been disturbed, there is little reliable physical evidence to back up the insurgents' story. People shot during a battle does not equal execution. People killed in a bomb blast can be shot again after death to create false evidence of an execution.

In an insurgent stronghold, in an event reported by insurgents, with insurgents and their kin as the only witnesses, I would tend to give every benefit of the doubt to the marines.

When insurgents hide among civilians and even family members, it is inevitable that non-combatants will be killed. It is so inevitable that, while any normal human will regret the tragic loss of their lives, it is not even worth an apology.

[Sam Hill]

I guess that could be a relation.

Al-Mashhadani seems to be a fairly common SUNNI name in that region.

[MNJohnnie]

It all fun and games for the Jihadies util the Marines waste their whole family in the firefight. Even the kids "knew about the bomb" according to one video tape of "survivors" braodcast by CNN. So Iraqis don't want your women and children killed in firefights, don't hide behind them to attack us.

[MNJohnnie]

Odd that the his organization also shares the same name as one of Saddam's pet Republican Guard outfits. How did he have the money and authority to set up this "Iraqi Civil Rights Group" unless of course he was been a big shot under Saddam. I suspect it is the same guy or a close relative.

[usmcobra]

It could be the same man as well he is the right age to be a Major, moves freely about, and is in contact with insurgents.

I mean if anyone would be capable of staging a massacre it would be a member of the Mukhabarat.

[Sam Hill]

If he changed his name. Which I guess is possible.

But the reporter's full name is said to be Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani.

[Velveeta]

Thanks for the ping, Pissant.

Great job, Sam Hill!

In addition.....the doctor who verified that all victims were shot in the head and chest, had also been previously arrested.

This is same doctor (Walid al-Obeidi) who was ok with al Qaida setting up base camp AT the hospital in Haditha.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Walid+Al-Obeidi&btnG=Google+Search

Also, a question...


Does it make sense that ALL the victims had "bullet wounds to the head and chest" according to the doc, but the 10 year old survivor Eman, had shrapnel wounds on her left thigh?

[livius]

His name shows up in The Structure of the Mukhabarat

Wow. Great catch. I am assuming our guys have found this out already, but if not, I hope they find it out here. I should think that would disqualify any statement he might make.

[Sam Hill]

It's not the same name.

Again, al-Al-Mashhadani seems to be a fairly common Sunni name in the region. (It's probably based on a tribe or town.)

But as noted, he could be a relative.

[KTM rider]

Hmmmm....how does Mashdahani manage to keep his head while running around the insurgent strongholds ?

could it be that his head is not in danger of detachment ?

could Ali be "one of them" ?

very suspicious indeed

[Sam Hill]

Wow, that is a great catch!

Check this out from the terrorist lovers at Uruknet:

Iraqi Doctors Beaten and Arrested in Haditha Hospital :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch

Iraqi Doctors Beaten and Arrested in Haditha Hospital
Sabah Ali, BRussells Tribunal

October 30, 2005

Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi, the director of Haditha General Hospital and Dr. Jamil Abdul Jabbar, the only surgeon in the Haditha area were arrested for a week, very badly beaten and threatened to face the same treatment in the future by the American troops.

Dr.Walid said "they arrested me in my house in front of my family, covered my eyes, and tied my hands to the back on Oct 5 2005 morning, during the last attack on Haditha (360 kilometers west of Baghdad). They occupied the hospital for 8 days and made it their office. The first day they beat me on my eyes, nose, back, hands, legs... My face was covered with blood .When they removed the tie I could not see. They investigated me until the afternoon. I realized later that I was arrested in the hospital store. Then they tied my hands to the front, and left me for two days. I was moved then to the pharmacy department. They accused me of treating terrorists, and asked for their names...

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=17363&colonna=&bh=0&l=e

This doctor definitely hates the US.

Great catch!

[pissant]

This case is falling apart as we speak. And it will take the MSM months to ever admit it, if ever.

[2rightsleftcoast]

I admire you for greeting our soldiers. Thank you for doing such good work. I am livid about this Haditha thing.
I want our leaders with a spine to start speaking out.

[Marine_Uncle]

"They are tapping into a seam of rage that has festered in the Hearts of millions of Americans for 35 years. They have no idea how bad this may end up hurting them."
You got that right. Many an honorable vet who is married, has kids, family, will pass on just what the hell is going on, hopefully. This is truly like the Wally Cronkite shit brain era. I remember the portrayal of My Lai. And it is a repeat.
Yes it is possible some Marine lost it. But the more we are seeing, it may not have been as is being portrayed. To damn many conflicting versions.
I sense in my bones this was a carefully contrived PR stunt by the ali babba. And that so called A RAB reporter?
He has it in for the Marines. I have no doubt about that.
Sadly as usual the main damage is done. The L/MSM will not cover any details if it turns out only some minor infractions where commited by our Marines, and no one gets court martialed. The press will just pass on the issue, it will have been "old news".

[usmcobra]

He's a cause celebre for every left wing nutjob liberal journalism group on the web.

Ibrahim is another spelling of Abrahem.

But check this out The last excutive director of The Mukhabarat was Khudayr Isma’il Ibrahim Al Mashhadani. A father or Uncle maybe?

[2rightsleftcoast]

Their lips are moving. You got that right.
Did you see the young girl saying she wants the soldiers
TORTURED and killed. Nothing about the terrorists doing this crap every day. Move along nothing to see here.
Tell the women and children to leave if they wish and then bomb the whole place.

[2rightsleftcoast]

They did know about the IED. I was watching CNN yesterday and the interpreter said the little girls story changed after the third telling. She said, I knew the bomb would be going off so I covered my ears"!!!!! Why isn't this being talked about. They are lying. The terrorists killed those people and the citizens are lying to cover for them. IMHO.