[mobglob-discuss] US troops brutalize journalists

[Bella]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1121995,00.html
US military 'brutalised' journalists

News agency demands inquiry after American forces in Iraq allegedly
treated camera
crew as enemy personnel

Luke Harding in Baghdad
Tuesday January 13, 2004
The Guardian

The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to the
Pentagon
following the "wrongful" arrest and apparent "brutalisation" of three of
its staff
this month by US troops in Iraq.

The complaint followed an incident in the town of Falluja when American
soldiers
fired at two Iraqi cameramen and a driver from the agency while they were
filming
the scene of a helicopter crash.
The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were "enemy
personnel" who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them
for 72
hours.
Although Reuters has not commented publicly, it is understood that the
journalists
were "brutalised and intimidated" by US soldiers, who put bags over their
heads,
told them they would be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and whispered: "Let's have
sex."
At one point during the interrogation, according to the family of one of
the staff
members, a US soldier shoved a shoe into the mouth one of the Iraqis.
The US troops, from the 82nd Airborne Division, based in Falluja, also
made the
blindfolded journalists stand for hours with their arms raised and their
palms
pressed against the cell wall.
"They were brutalised, terrified and humiliated for three days," one
source said.
"It was pretty grim stuff. There was mental and physical abuse."
He added: "It makes you wonder what happens to ordinary Iraqis."
The US military has so far refused to apologise and has bluntly told
Reuters to
"drop" its complaint. Major General Charles Swannack, the commander of the
82nd
Airborne Division, claimed that two US soldiers had provided sworn
evidence that
they had come under fire. He admitted, however, that soldiers sometimes
had to make
"snap judgments".
"More often than not they are right," he said.
On January 2 Reuters' Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja
stringer Ahmed
Mohammed Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani turned up
at the
crash site where a US Kiowa Warrior helicopter had just been shot down,
killing one
soldier.
The journalists were all wearing bulletproof jackets clearly marked
"press". They
drove off after US soldiers who were securing the scene opened fire on their
Mercedes, but were arrested shortly afterwards.
The soldiers also detained a fourth Iraqi, working for the American
network NBC. No
weapons were found, the US military admitted.
Last night the nephew of veteran Reuters driver and latterly cameraman Mr
Ureibi
said that US troops had forced his uncle to strip naked and had ordered
him to put
his shoe in his mouth.
"He protested that he was a journalist but they stuck a shoe in his mouth
anyway.
They also hurt his leg. One of the soldiers told him: 'If you don't shut
up we'll
fuck you.'"
He added: "His treatment was very shameful. He's very sad. He has also had
hospital
treatment because of his leg."
Last August a US soldier shot dead another Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana,
after
mistaking his camera for a rocket launcher while he filmed outside a
Baghdad prison.

An internal US investigation later cleared him of wrongdoing. During the
war last
April another of the agency's cameramen, Ukrainian Taras Protswuk, was
killed after
a US tank fired a shell directly into his room in the Palestine Hotel in
Baghdad,
from where he had been filming.
Last night Simon Walker, a spokesman at Reuters head office in London,
confirmed
that the agency had made a formal complaint to the Pentagon last Friday.
He said: "We have also complained to the US military. We have complained
about the
detention [of our staff] and their treatment in detention. We hope it will
be dealt
with expeditiously."
A spokeswoman for the US military's coalition press and information centre in
Baghdad hung up when the Guardian asked her to comment.
The top US military spokesman in Iraq, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, later
admitted that they had received a formal complaint and that there was an
on-going
investigation into the incident.
Journalists based in Baghdad have expressed concern that the US military
is likely
to treat other media employees in Iraq as targets.