Posted on 04/08/2003 5:48:59 AM PDT by m1911
JOURNALISTS HIT IN HOTEL
Sky News correspondent David Chater was inside the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad when the very floor he was staying on was hit by American tank fire.
A cameraman for Spanish television died, as well as one Reuters journalist. At least three others have been seriously wounded in the attack on the high rise hotel.
A US 3rd Infantry commander admitted a tank had fired a single round at the media's hotel.
He said the strike came after shots were fired from the building but Chater has insisted he heard nothing coming from the Palestine Hotel and called the claim "patently absurd".
US deputy director of operations Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said it is too early to say exactly what happened, but maintained that US troops were returning fire that had come from the hotel.
He said bluntly: "This Coalition does not target journalists."
But he added that Saddam Hussein's regime is known to endanger the lives of non-combatants, indicating that it is possible an Iraqi fighter was hiding among the journalists for cover.
Chater speculated that the glint of a camera lense from working journalists may have been mistaken for a rocket-propelled grenade, triggering US troops to shoot.
Sky News' correspondent immediately contacted Sky News Centre and told presenters: "I was about to go out onto the balcony.. when there was a huge explosion then shouts and screams from people along our corridor.
"They were shouting, 'Somebody's been hit. Can somebody find a doctor?' They were saying they could see blood and bone."
The room hit by the strike was just a few doors down the corridor on the hotel's 14th floor from Chater and his team. Two other floors were also hit.
He said: "There were a lot of French journalists screaming, 'Get a doctor, get a doctor'. There was a great sense of panic because these walls are very thin."
A Reuters journalist, a photographer and a cameraman were all hurt in the attack.
Dubai's Arabiya television channel said its bureau on the 17th floor was also damaged.
US tanks are in the city and have been firing at targets in the area.
"We saw the tanks up on the bridge," Chater said.
"They started firing across the bank. The shells were landing either side of us at what we thought were military targets. Then we were hit. We are in the middle of a tank battle."
Seconds before the blast Chater had looked out at a tank facing his hotel.
"I remarked at the time, 'One of those barrels is looking straight up at us'."
With the sound of people running and shouting in the background, evacuating the building, he said: "I don't understand why they were doing that. There was no fire coming out of this hotel - everyone knows it's full of journalists.
"Everybody is putting on flack jackets. Everybody is running for cover," Chater said. "We now feel extremely vulnerable and we are now going to say goodbye to you."
The line was cut off but minutes later, after Chater had taken cover, he contacted Sky News again saying: "I'm taking what cover I possibly can. I'm no longer on the 14th floor."
He told how the Palestine Hotel is in the middle of the battle zone saying: "It's an extremely dangerous place."
Chater said the journalists at the hotel had been watching the progress of Coalition troops from their hotel balconies and how forces had surely been aware of their presence.
"They knew exactly what this hotel is. They know the press corps is here. I don't know why they are trying to target journalists."
He added: "The whole hotel shook with the impact. It was an incredible sound."
"You never know where the military targets are here. It's the same for the journalists here as it is for the civilians.
"There are bound to be casualties but that tank shell was aimed at us. This wasn't an accident. This seems to be a very accurate shot."
Matresses and sheets were used as makeshift stretchers to get the injured out of the hotel and into vehicles to be rushed through the beseiged streets to hospital.
Still in direct view of the tank and speaking live on Sky, Chater said: "There are awful scenes around me. There's a Reuters tent just a few yards away from me where people are in tears."
After stopping to hold his emotions in check and in respect of the Reuters correspondents, David said: "It makes you realise how vulnerable you are."
He added: "What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to carry on if American shells are targeting Western journalists?"
Not good.
In this interview about Gulf War 1, Bernard Shaw said anti-aircraft batteries were surrounding the hotel. I think it was Peter Arnett who said that there was an anti-aircraft battery on top of the hotel as well.
http://www.cnn.com/COMMUNITY/transcripts/2001/01/16/shaw/
Bernard Shaw: First, my feeling and description of the opening moments of the war when I looked outside the hotel window and saw silvery pieces floating from the sky; instantly I knew it had to have been radar jamming chaff. Equally instantly, anti-aircraft batteries surrounding the hotel began firing frantically and aimlessly into the black sky. Air raid sirens wailed and I became very angry because I knew I had no control over my safety or fate and I knew the war was now underway.
CNN Moderator: Did security personnel at the Al Rashid Hotel try to remove you from the hotel room before the U.S. began its air strikes, or only afterwards when it realized you were broadcasting to the world that Iraq was not in control of its airspace at the moment?
Bernard Shaw: Over long stretches of time into the night, security forces tried to flush us out of Suite 906 at the Al Rashid Hotel. I told Peter Arnett and Holliman that when anyone banged on the door at least two of us should hide -- under tables, anywhere -- so that if one or two of us were pulled out of the suite then one of us remaining could come up on the air and report to the world what was happening.
Did someone forget to inform the journalists that there is a war going on? Did you think that it was safe because you have press credintials?
No sh!t. Where do you think you are? The French Riviera?
Reuters doesn't have any "journalists." Their blatant bias is so offensive, it's hard for me to feel any sorrow for their loss.
And this MENSA graduate actually believes that those two statements are mutually exclusive?
A classic Darwin Award candidate...
All non-Iraqi and journalists were warned repeatedly to leave the country for their own safety. These journalists failed to heed this warning prior to the commencement of hostilities. US forces have used amazing skill and restraint to curtail civilian casulities; however, non-Iraqi civilians are fully responsible and capable to remove themselves from the field of battle. Unlike the Iraqi people, they are not prisoners in their own lands and can leave when danger comes their way and are free to leave if they so choose.
Those of us who were up watching it all night on the live thread can answer that for you: YES, he DID think it was safe.
It was scary the way all the news channels immediately turned on the coalition - and this fully includes Fox News - the moment some of their Precious Own took a hit. (Only when the morning stafsf came in and took over did the hatefests cease.) They do mostly believe that they are capital-G Gods.
(Someone with better posting skills, please add her photo. Preferably the Zombie one from Registered. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/879274/posts)
Please understand I am not addressing the firing on the hotel, directly, just your question about David Chater.
Those who post on the Daily Thread have made note many, many times of the propaganda he has reported as if it were fact.
Yes, everybody knows Sky News is Fox's British affiliate. It is far left and has been pro-Saddam in its reporting. I would not take Chater's word for any account.
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