"Should USA Target Iraq TV Crews/Reporters For Destruction Due to Graphic POWs Video?

AmericanInTokyo ^ | 24 March 2003 | AmericanInTokyo

[AmericanInTokyo]

As a recipient of various Arab real-time satellite TV channels, such as al-Jazeera, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, Egypt Satellite, etc., I have been watching these programs perhaps more than CNN and the others recently, only if for the sole reason I want to find items that are provocative and are not making it into the Western media.

If I was looking for 'provocative', I certainly found it by viewing, yesterday morning US time, a live satellite broadcast from LBC which was relaying the IRAQ TV broadcast of frightened US POWs from Texas, and humiliated/disrepected bodies of American heroes that had been shot in the head.

My two immediate thoughts after seeing the horrifying, close-up color video from IRAQ TV via LBC, were: 1) GENEVA CONVENTION VIOLATIONS and 2) PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (TERRORISM) BY THE ENEMY OF THE UNITED STATES

IRAQ TV is now attempting to cause psychological terror in the West by showing such horrendous, close-up color photos and videos, and humiliating the bodies and memories of the deceased in some building in al Nasiriya.

Add to these the other thought I had just this day.

In the cases of these videos, and other videos I have been seeing, the reporters for Iraqi TV are in MILITARY UNIFORM. Further, as we all know, Iraqi TV is dictatorship state-run T.V., i.e. it is firmly run by the Saddam Ba'athist Party and is part and parcel of the enemy's information infrastructure.

My conclusion to this is, NO MORE PROTECTION.

Who out there believes the USA/Allies should embark on a program of locating and eliminating, as our national policy, the reporters and camera crews of the Enemy, IRAQ TV? It is not a difficult stretch to say that Iraq TV will further videotape and show these kinds of scenes in the future, particularly if more American/British POWs are likewise captured and shot. Live POWs are interrogated roughly by the 'TV questioner' who is off camera. These reporters are enemy combatants. Further, since Iraq TV must know the location of Western human shields in Baghdad, they are liable to execute them at an opportune time, and then parade the bodies, broadcasting worldwide, to further effect public opinion in the 'shields' home countries. This must be stopped.

We have significant technology including Predators w/Hellfire, smart bombs, cruise missiles, etc. to obliterate IRAQ-TV and their reporting teams as they make there way to-and-fro, and take out this vital 'psy war' component of the enemy. Live remotes can be located through frequency tracking technology and obliterated.

What would other Freepers say? The US need not announce this as a general military policy in the open; the US just needs to start taking action against the enemy's potent and immoral infrastructure in this regard.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I think demonstrations in front of al-Jazeera Western offices at this point are relatively meaningless. They will NOT change their policy of airing Iraq TV to the world. We should strike at the head of the propaganda snake which is providing these objectionable video feeds to al-Jazeera, LBC, and others.

I post this vanity, only after now spending the last 24 hours contemplating what I witnessed yesterday on TV (now shown censored/edited in the US).

[1Old Pro]

I would not be saddened if a stray missle hit the al-Jazeera transmitters.

[taxed2death]

...from a country that professes free speech, this would seem odd.

[Orlando]

YES, YES...

We need to knock out Iraqi Tv and Jam there state-gov't run
Radio.

The Sooner it's done the faster the War will end !

[NavyCaptain]

Heard a military pundent say today that probably Iraqi TV was noe headquartered in a day-care center or senior home to avoid being targeted. So much for using our "Rules of Engagement" to their benefit!

[wimpycat]

There is no free speech in Iraq, or anywhere in the Muslim world.

[KingPin]

Since this is a war crime, I think the Justice Department should get involved. They should go after Al Jazerra on two fronts, 1) Civil 2) Criminal.

Civilly, they have broadcase images that are against the Geneva Conventions and quite possibly violated FCC regulations in the process. I'd like to see the Dept. Justice go after them in the neighberhood of $500 million.

Criminally, they have exploited a crime against humanity. I do not think they can hide journalistic dependence. Their senior management in the U.S. and aboard should be held accountable for conspiracy and aiding in a war crime.

[Maeve]

If we had an EMP bomb, I wish we would use it on Baghdad and take out Iraqi television and radio.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The American POWs I saw sprawled on the ground with _______________ on the floor, had no 'free speech'.

Things change in War, I believe. Interesting counter point, though.

[AmericanInTokyo]

al-Jazeera can get the legal remedy.

But their video source, the enemy's propaganda "IRAQ TV", I believe, is what deserves direct action as I have suggested here, ASAP.

[Lady Heron]

If the U.S. wanted to they could stop Iraq tv. I wish they could stop Al Jazeria(sp?). Going after individual reporters, as an enemy target, they can not do. After the war on the other hand they can target them for war crimes since they have participated in breaking the Genevia conventinons (at least I hope they can). The more the Iraq tapes their own war crimes only helps us after.

[NittanyLion]

There would be no quicker way to turn American sentiment against the war than by destroying a media outlet, regardless of whether they're propagandists for the enemy. It may not be fair, but it's life.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Upon second read, excellent! What conservative congressman do we know that sits on an FCC oversight panel in the House, whom we can ask to ask the FCC to take immediate action against al-Jazeera.

Still, hoping to emphasize in this thread, that the US should take military action in the field against IRAQ TV Reporters, cameramen and other technicians. Let them know they have no guarantee of safety when they venture out for any report. This will also turn the psy war tables ON THEM.

[smith288]

Destroying IraqiTV is nothing more than govt agency over there. Destroying it is legal yet hard, I hear its located under a nursing home or something like that.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Reporters, even if in military clothes and reporting for a station that is not private, but is dictator-state owned, and therefore part of the enemy infrastructure? I'd take a differing view.

[freedomlover]

The more the Iraq tapes their own war crimes only helps us after.

FWIW many Nazis were hung based on their own video tapes. They loved to film everything.

[annyokie]

After that atrosity yesterday, IMO, Geneva Convention be damned.

Screw the rules!

[Prince Charles]

Yes, bomb them. The Bent One didn't have any scruples about bombing state-run Serbian RTS TV during the Kosovo war, so when the leftists object, you can relay this tidbit of information.

In fact, The Bent One tipped off CNN beforehand not to be anywhere near RTS TV studios.

[Andiceman]

To be technically correct, it was film, not video tape, that the Nazi's used.

[ApesForEvolution]

It's time for the embedded 'journalists' to be safely escorted back to Iraq for their own safety. The last thing we need is for them to be get wasted as the real dirty work is upon our men. I can't imagine that having a communist subversive shooting footage everywhere the soldiers go is conducive to doing what needs to be done.