[Bloquez l'empire!] "US forces 'out of control', says Reuters chief" By Julia Day, The Guardian, September 28, 2005

[Bloquez l'empire]

> Article from The Guardian on American troops being "out of control" in
Iraq.
>
> Ed Corrigan
>
> *US forces 'out of control', says Reuters chief*
>
> *Julia Day
> Wednesday September 28, 2005*
>
> Reuters has told the US government that American forces' conduct towards
> journalists in Iraq is "spiralling out of control" and preventing full
> coverage of the war reaching the public.
>
> The detention and accidental shootings of journalists is limiting how
> journalists can operate, wrote David Schlesinger, the Reuters global
> managing editor, in a letter to Senator John Warner, head of the armed
> services committee.
>
> The Reuters news service chief referred to "a long parade of disturbing
> incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully
> detained, and/or illegally abused by US forces in Iraq".
>
> Mr Schlesinger urged the senator to raise the concerns with Defence
> Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is due to testify to the committee this
> Thursday.
>
> He asked Mr Warner to demand that Mr Rumsfeld resolve these issues "in a
> way that best balances the legitimate security interests of the US
> forces in Iraq and the equally legitimate rights of journalists in
> conflict zones under international law".
>
> At least 66 journalists and media workers, most of them Iraqis, have
> been killed in the country since March 2003.
>
> US forces admitted killing three Reuters journalists, most recently
> soundman Waleed Khaled, who was shot by American soldiers on August 28
> while on assignment in Baghdad. But the military said the soldiers were
> justified in opening fire. Reuters believes a fourth journalist working
> for the agency, who died in Ramadi last year, was killed by a US sniper.
>
> *'A serious chilling effect on the media'*
>
> "The worsening situation for professional journalists in Iraq directly
> limits journalists' abilities to do their jobs and, more importantly,
> creates a serious chilling effect on the media overall," Mr Schlesinger
> wrote.
>
> "By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover
> the events in Iraq, the US forces are unduly preventing US citizens from
> receiving information ... and undermining the very freedoms the US says
> it is seeking to foster every day that it commits US lives and US
dollars."
>
> Mr Schlesinger said the US military had refused to conduct independent
> and transparent investigations into the deaths of the Reuters
> journalists, relying instead on inquiries by officers from the units
> responsible, who had exonerated their soldiers.
>
> He noted that the US military had failed to implement recommendations by
> its own inquiry into the death of award-winning Palestinian cameraman
> Mazen Dana, who was shot dead while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in
> August 2003.
>
> He said that Reuters and other reputable international news
> organisations were concerned by the "sizeable and rapidly increasing
> number of journalists detained by US forces".
>
> He said detentions were prompted by legitimate journalistic activity
> such as possessing photographs and video of insurgents, which US
> soldiers assumed showed sympathy with the insurgency.
>
> Earlier this week Reuters demanded the release of a freelance Iraqi
> cameraman after a secret tribunal ordered that he be detained
indefinitely.
>
> Samir Mohammed Noor, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, was
> arrested by Iraqi troops at his home in the northern town of Tal Afar
> four months ago.
>
> A US military spokesman has told the agency that a secret hearing held
> last week had found him to be "an imperative threat to the coalition
> forces and the security of Iraq".
>
> The news agency has demanded that he be released or given a chance to
> defend himself in open court.
>
> The US network CBS has raised concerns over the arrest of its cameraman,
> Abdul Amir Younes, who was arrested in hospital in April after he was
> shot by US troops.
>
> CBS said it is concerned that he had no legal representation at the
> hearing and has had no chance to see the evidence against him.
>
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>
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