Reuters Cameraman Shot Dead in Iraq

[Nambe]

BAGHDAD (Reuters)

Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead on Sunday while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, witnesses said. -

Witnesses said Dana, a Palestinian who has worked for Reuters for a decade, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad when he was shot.

Journalists had gone to the prison after the U.S. military said a mortar bomb attack there a day before had killed six Iraqis and wounded 59. -

Dana, 41, worked for Reuters mostly in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Married with four children, he was one of the company's most experienced conflict journalists and had worked in Baghdad before, shortly after U.S. troops entered the city.

He was awarded an International Press Freedom Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.

Banish bush From Texas Too

[qanda]

1. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family nt

nt

[htuttle]

2. Shot by what kind of bullet?

Wonder if it will be removed before his body is sent home?

It would be good to find out.

[Fridays Child]

3. If it wasn't British or US military issue...

...he was probably shot by one of Ahmed Chalabi's thugs. And those criminals get their marching orders directly from Rumsfeld and his Office of Special Plans.

[Dover]

4. Sounds suspicious. In fact the bombing of the prison sounded suspicious

too.
Was this the journalist that the Israeli soldiers shot at and beat...knowing full well he was a journalist (because they were told several times)? While his job was clearly a dangerous one and he was always right in the midst of the battles, I believe he was more a nuisance and threat to Bushco and the Israelis than to our supposed "enemies". That is why this strikes me as odd and I hope a fellow journalist witnessed the event and will tell us more.

[TeeYiYi]

5. He must have stumbled across a story . . .

. . . that 'someone' didn't want reported.

TYY

[NNN0LHI]

6. MSNBC is reporting American troops killed him now n/t

[indictrichardperle]

7. a pattern is emerging

targeting journalists is a war crime and very unamerican.

This entire war and occupation is very unamerican, but that fits right in with those who pushed this war.

[DUreader]

8. AP Link but the Whores leave it out of Headline: US says accident

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3038693,00.html



A Reuters staffer told The Associated Pres in
Baghdad that Dana, a Palestinian, appeared to
have been shot by U.S. soldiers as he was
videotaping outside the Abu Ghraib prison after a
mortar attack there today, in which six prisoners
were killed and about 60 others were wounded.

The staffer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the video tape in Dana's camera
showed two U.S. tanks coming toward him, two
shots, apparently from the tanks, rang out and
Dana fell to the ground. He was taken away by a
U.S. helicopter for treatment.

A U.S. military statement issued in Baghdad
confirmed ``a fatal accident involving a civilian at
Abu Ghraib prison'' and said an investigation was
underway.

[PaDUer]

19. They're all

accidents..BS!

[IndianaGreen]

9. Easy to tell even from a distance that it is a Reuters correspondent

Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana films in the West Bank city of Hebron, October 18, 2001. Dana was shot dead August 17, 2003 while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, witnesses said. A spokesman for Iraq's U.S.-led administration confirmed a journalist had been killed and said an investigation was under way. Photo by Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuters

From Reuters story that started this thread.

[NYC]

15. What happened to the film he took?

Where is that now? I'm very curious.

I didn't read the article because I am thoroughly disgusted. How can the U.S. keep justifying killing journalists? Is this what we want done to our journalists?

[NickB79]

27. But he was Palestinian

One of those "brown people", and you know how much the US loves to kill "brown people" (thats part of a skit by George Carlin). I can see them now questioning the soldiers that fired. "But he looked like one of those damn sand monkeys, er, I mean, Iraqis!"

[IndianaGreen]

29. Don't ya know that it is America's white man's burden to impose peace?

The White Man's Burden
By Rudyard Kipling
McClure's Magazine 12 (Feb. 1899).

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.

http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/kipling/kipling.html

[kainah]

31. the first clue to that

was all the passive voice in the article. "was shot" "was killed" As if no one had fired the weapon that did the deed .... clearly, in my mind, that points to American involvement. "Mistakes were made."

[0007]

10. This is a total waste

all these people dying, is this how humanswork for the good of brotherhood and love?

[eablair3]

14. didn't Bush say he is directed by God?

yes, it's tragic. all the supposed good Christians and other religious types at work

[Occulus]

36. The Bible does say

many will be deceived during the end times.

No, I don't call myself a Christian... not as it's defined by society today. No way.

[Minstrel Boy]

11. This is the real story:

"US troops shoot Reuters cameraman dead as he films military prison"

"Fatal accident"?!? :mad:

This is from an updated Reuters report:

"His last pictures show a U.S. tank driving toward Dana outside the prison walls. Several shots ring out from the tank, and Dana's camera falls to the ground."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BN2QCYVJPIXWKCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3290609

[markses]

13. There's no good answer for this

Either they shot the camera man intentionally (which would mean that some shit had gone on for real) or they shot him accidentally, which means that they're so jumpy they can't tell a camera from an RPG launcher (which means some shit has gone on for real).

Or, they shot him for shits and giggles, which means that they're fucked, cuz some shit has gone on for real to fuck them.

[GregW]

12. What's the score now? Tanks 3 - Journos 0

Those tankers must really hate journalists to keep blowing the shit out of them.

[psychopomp]

16. Shameful

What on Earth is going on? Will the media look the other way and give the U.S. military another pass???

[w4rma]

17. Big media needs to take better care of their journalists by RAISING HELL

when Bush* lets this type of thing happen.

They MUST hold Bush* accountable for his poor leadership which has (perhaps intentionally) killed YET ANOTHER journalist in Iraq.

It's obvious that Bush* isn't going to give a flip about any dead journalists unless the media outlets MAKE SURE BUSH* KNOWS that killing them WILL hurt his poll numbers.

Except for pulling journalists out (which is exactly what Bush* wants and why he is allowing this intemidation) ALOT OF BAD PRESS is the only way to force Bush* to stop the killing of journalists in Iraq.

[scipan]

18. soldiers "engaged" the cameraman

Reuters soundman Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana at the time, said Dana was shot by a U.S. soldier on a tank.

"I cried at the soldier, telling him you killed a journalist. They shouted at me and asked me to step back and I said 'I will step back but please help, please help and stop the bleed'," Shyoukhi said. The soldiers tried to help but Dana died.

The U.S. military acknowledged on Sunday that its troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they had thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.

"Army soldiers engaged an individual they thought was aiming an RPG at them. It turned out to be a Reuters cameraman," Navy Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in Washington.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3290933
Sickening.

[NYC]

21. Why can't people in the army distinguish a rocket propelled grenade

launcher from a camera? I would imagine training should cover that.

[FlashHarry]

28. In a split-second, could you?

I'm not condoning or even excusing this, but a professional video camera could easily be mistaken for a shoulder-launched RPG. This incident is indicative of a larger problem--i.e. the fact that nobody knows what the hell they're doing there.

[BiggJawn]

30. Yes.

Here is an RPG



and here's Dana with his Hitatchi ENG camera:


Now, granted, I've been around more Betacams in my professional life than I have Iraqi RPG's, but I can tell the difference, why can't our highly trianed "Armys of ONE"?

A professional video camera resembles an RPG about as much as my crotch resembles J-Lo's.

[NYC]

33. They need better training in recognizing weapons.

From BigJawn's pictures, they don't look very much alike (rocket propelled grenade launcher & camera). How is visibility from inside a tank? Is that a problem?

Suppose he had been an American journalist? Surely then there would have been some kind of fuss about killing an innocent journalist?

I know it's a war, but they are calling it an occupation for the benefit of Iraqis. How do you benefit Iraqis if you shoot anyone who has something on his shoulder? At that rate, we are defeating our own (stated) purpose, and hositilities will never cease.

Except to reduce reporting, what advantage or benefit could the army see in shooting journalists?

[Occulus]

37. absolutely I could

ANY idiot could tell the difference

A camera is thick and bulky

an RPG launcher is long and thin.

This was a very, very stupid and preventable accident and the soldiers involved should be removed from the duration of the campaign if not court martialed.

PERIOD.

[Turley]

42. Yeah right

Ever ridden in a tank? Ever worn a tanker's helmet in 120 degree weather? Ever had 100 miles worth of desert dust up your nose, in your ears, eyelids caked half-shut with sweat mixed with sand?

Do you have any idea how many shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons there are? (Not just RPGs). Ever dealt with sleep deprivation for, oh, say three months? Ever lived daily in fear of being shot?

Sure you can tell the difference when you see them in profile on a nice sharp photo on your computer screen. Real life tends to be different, though.

[IndianaGreen]

23. That story is a lie: An RPG poses no threat to an Abrams tank

You might as well shoot the M1 with a water pistol.

The US military is lying! They shot the guy because he did not look like a Westener. GIs are shooting at anyone that looks Middle Eastern.

[Pert_UK]

25. What, so the US military lets people shoot it with small-arms?

That argument stinks....

An RPG wouldn't damage the tank, therefore the tank crew let anyone with an RPG shoot at them without returning fire....???

Come off it.....if you're in a tank and you believe you see anyone aiming a weapon at you then you'll perceive them as an enemy combatant making an attack and you'll kill them. You wouldn't wait around until someone pulled out a bigger weapon before returning fire.

To be honest, tragic though this story is, I think it's perfectly understandable. If you're in a tank in a hostile zone and you see someone with a large, black object on their shoulder swing round and point it at you, you're going to react.

It's not right, it's not OK, but it's understandable.

Of course, if the cameraman was only 50 yards away wearing a huge "JOURNALIST" sign on his jacket, then that's different.

P.

[Turley]

41. Well, not the tank itself

but if you're in the hatch it will turn you into a pile of goo.

[maggrwaggr]

44. give me a freaking break! The guy doesn't LOOK middle-eastern at all!

He looks very western. He looks American.

Okay, yes, GEORGE BUSH himself was riding that tank and HE pulled the trigger. GEORGE BUSH is killing journalists!

OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD

You people are sounding as bad as the freepers who blame everything on Clinton's dick!

The guy was a journalist who'd been SHOT BEFORE. Guys like that KNOW the dangers they work in, and know full well that the second they raise the camera to their shoulder some trigger-happy sleep-deprived, shit-in-his-pants 18 year old from Oklahoma might pop him!

Wrong place, wrong time, bad luck. These guys get killed in every war

[Wcross]

50. Well said

It is all too easy to judge others actions while you sit in your lazy-boy recliner. Shit happens in a war zone,this guy just ran out of luck.

[LizW]

20. They're shooting anything that moves

There's no telling how many civilians are dead. Shoot first, ask questions (maybe) later.

[snippy]

22. Freeper point of view.

To: Destro

Hmmm... I think a Commie Reuters cameraman is worth a
hundred points. The troopie who greased him should get
a private pat on the back, a leave for R&R, ...


4 posted on 08/17/2003 5:10 PM PDT by familyop (Essayons.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/965693/posts

How very republican.

[Pert_UK]

26. That makes me sick.....

How anyone could take pleasure in the US army killing a journalist is beyond me.

Fuck those freepers (and not in a good way).

P.

[SyracuseDemocrat]

24. So tragic

I feel for his children and their mother.

[knowledgeispower]

49. Mazen was a hero

One of the few real journalists left, who was interested in the objective truth as opposed to serving somebody's interests.

[kainah]

32. Does this have anything to do with strange headline yesterday on CNN

saying that a couple hundred Iraqi prisoners had been released by the US, according to eyewitnesses in Iraq. But the Pentagon had denied it. A search of google news turns up nothing about that. Could there be some connection between that story and this attack on a prison????

[Merlin]

34. I certainly hope a GI goes to prison for this.

It's pathetic that we can't maintain the kind of fire discipline that would be imposed on the rawest recruits.

[DeathvadeR]

35. Wonder why we never hear of any ......

Faux reporters accidentally getting Shot?

[maggrwaggr]

45. You think Faux "reporters" would have the balls?

fuck no, they're eating steak lunches back in America and the women are all getting their hair bleached blond

[muchacho]

38. US Army admits killing TV cameraman

The US Army acknowledged today that it had killed a television journalist after soldiers had mistaken his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Meanwhile, saboteurs set back efforts to rebuild Iraq over the weekend with attacks on the countries lifeblood oil pipelines and the capital's water supply.

The water main bombing came yesterday as two oil fires raged out of control along an oil pipeline to Turkey, halting exports just days after they started. The first blaze appeared to be sabotage, a coalition spokesman said.

A new group of resistance fighters vowed yesterday to battle the US-led occupation whether or not it helps rebuild the country.

In new violence, a mortar attack on a Baghdad prison being used by the United States killed six Iraqis and injured about 60.

<snip>

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059775382.html

[radfringe]

39. honest investigation

The group would be writing to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday to seek a fuller investigation than those inquiries made into previous incidents in Iraq, Cazes said.

"It's disappointing to see that a country which is a big democracy, which respects freedom of the press and which is waging a war in the name of those values is not able to do proper investigations," she said.

RSF urged Rumsfeld to launch an "honest investigation that will not lead to just a whitewash of the U.S. military."

The U.S. armed forces said on Sunday that their troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman. It said soldiers had thought his camera was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

............

mmmmmmmmm.... honest investigation??? does this imply that other investigations were not all that honest???

Will this put the teeth back into the media when one of their own gets killed? or will they be soon bending over for AWOL Inc.....again?

[Turley]

40. Contrarian take

From the photo the distance looks about 75m although we don't know how close the tank was when they opened fire. Also not clear whether it was the gunner's weapon or one mounted on turret. The gunner would have been looking through a viewfinder, not the best for picking out dismounted enemy, especially when you're bumping down a dusty road. In any case he could have easily mistaken the camera for a shoulder-mounted weapon, RPG or otherwise.

Most likely the guy in the hatch shot him. An RPG from the front generally won't damage an M1 too much but if you're up in the hatch you'd pretty much be hamburger if one hit even close to you. Being up in that hatch is a scary, vulnerable place to be.

Obviously we don't know if the Commander (I assume) observed the cameraman for any length of time or if he just shot in reaction to an unknown guy jumping out of a car and putting something up on his shoulder. Just too many unknowns here but from my point of view it would be very easy for either the gunner or the commander to mistake the camera for a weapon depending on speed, dust, line of sight, whether he just acquired the cameraman at the last second, and other factors.

I have to wonder about the context of his ccolleagues comment that "they knew our identities and our mission". Is he referring to the dismounted soldiers at the prison or the mounted soldiers approaching it. Not sure how he could make any sort of determination that the monted soldiers had a clue. I suspect he was quoted out of context.

Anyhoo, flame away. Just thought I'd give the "Veteran's perspective".

Cheers

[44wax]

43. Great points to process before rushing to judgment

It takes huge amounts of courage to do the job Mazen Dana was doing. He will not be forgotten by me. However, I will not rush to judgement against the troops that killed him.

[maggrwaggr]

46. I'm with you 100%

I'm appalled at the naive rush to judgement on this board.

The cameraman knew the risks, he was a veteran who'd been shot before. I personally know cameramen who do this, they know the risks. Many of them get a certain addiction to the adrenaline, they become risk junkies as it were. We all owe the journalist, and guys like him, a lot because they put their lives on the line trying to show us the truth. But sometimes they get killed.

[Turley]

47. One thing I've learned here

There are two kinds of U.S. soldier. Either they are NAZIS!!!! or poor, ignorant, baby-faced kids who haven't been trained well enough. Either way they have superhuman abilites to identify both the nationality and political persuasion of journalists at distances of 100 meters and, of course, are under orders from the President to kill anyone who doesn't measure up.

The other thing I've learned here is that Journalists all have only the purest of motives and would never, ever do anything callous, stupid, or which might get innocent people killed just so they can get their freaking scoop.

Fortunately, I've been deployed before and have dealt with journalists and know there are good ones and bad ones. Not that I'm passing judgement on the victim here. It could well be that the soldier who shot him was a complete imbecile. I've been around enough to know we've got plenty of those too.

[knowledgeispower]

48. Very dangerous to be a journalist these days

But, I was surprised to see, at least CNN is following the story. They actually showed the cameraman's final footage, which shows a U.S. tank coming towards him and then you hear shots and the camera falls to the ground. Pretty powerful.