***Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - Day 20 - LIVE THREAD***

Multiple ^ | April 8, 2003 | Various

[Tree of Liberty]

MadIvan, could you chime in on that?

[Drago]

We fired a tank shell at the hotel because we were taking fire from the hotel.

We fired a tank shell at the hotel because we thought we were taking fire from the hotel. Firing from hotel not confirmed.

[Prince Charles]

No, none of our reporters were standing on the roof of a building next to an Iraqi gunner, looking down the muzzle of an M1 main battle tank 300 yards away.

[Beck_isright]

Maybe they are. But it's more than likely that they are going up there for a better camera angle on their own. The minders are probably bugging out if they had any brains. The reporters on the other hand, well, they don't have any brains so I guess they want to stay up there with the enemy spotters and try to catch 120mm shells.

V

[Fitzcarraldo]

Sniper...probably Baghdad Betty or that abominable Richard Engle...their lack of journalistic skills make me suspect they are up to something...

[piasa]

I really hate that Chater is right this time.

Chater's not right... he said we are targetting journalists, implying that it was because they are journallists. NOthing could be further from the truth, unless journalists are doubling as snipers.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Alas, I rely on this thread for my "news". I must rely on your observations of the events to get an accurate picture. (Cubically Bound - Bradband Challenged [at home] - only socialist media available [German/Swiss/Austrian + CNNi])

[Mo1]

Many have said that "they were warned" which is quite true. Each and everyone of them knows that what they are doing could get them killed.

That is true .. I still don't like what Chater said though

[Beck_isright]

Regardless, of if we were or were not fired on, if the Iraqis are using that hotel as a spotter's platform it's fair game. T.S. is all I have to say to the "media".

V

[hmmmmm]

They all signed up to take the risk and they were foolish if they believed that would be completely safe in a war zone. I just hate that this could be a screwup because of the verbal spew already flooding the "Arab Street".

[Beck_isright]

"unless journalists are doubling as snipers."

Or maybe there are Iraqi spotters mixed in with the "journalists".....

V

[SirAllen]

I never heard this guy before this war started so I don't know his leanings

I'm not from Britain, but I've been able to tell that if you leaned all the way to the left and then leaned some more, falling out of your chair into a deep abyss you'd see Chater somewhere down there.

[MadIvan]

I'll tell you what I know about Chater - which is limited: on the first night of the airstrikes, he was leaning out his hotel window and saying, "These are very precise...it doesn't appear to have hit any civilian areas at all - very controlled, very precise."

Then a minder from the Iraqi Ministry of Information made him say that there "may have been civilian casualties" - I think he's been closely watched ever since.

Regards, Ivan

[An.American.Expatriate]

Very good points, however I wonder what happened to "journalistic integrity". Just report the facts and keep the personal out of it.

LOL! Seriously, the reports from Baghdad - including the "personal" opinion is strictly scripted - we must not forget this when we criticize some of these dweebs.

[HarryCaul]

My new favorite journalist is Andrew Gilligan from the BBC. At the Palestine Hotel. Confused about reports of US shots on hotel. Assumed at first it was an Iraqi rpg. Hit was on the other side from the "action". Realizes the risks, if a reporter was using binoculars or camera from balcony, he was at fault. Possible a sniner was firing from hotel, hard to say.

"Ashamed to be a journalist" when he saw reporters crowding around the bloody wounded people being carried out, trying to get pictures.

[hmmmmm]

But now it will seem to some that his credibility has been bolstered.

[Timesink]

Richaed Engel is far too stupid to be a double agent.

Hmm, or just he just WANT us to think he's an idiot...?

[Tree of Liberty]

Greg Kelly said that the tanks were receiving RPG fire, but weren't sure from where. They sent out a spotter who believed he saw a set of binoculars and RPG's in an upper level of the Palestine Hotel.