[Peace-discuss] journalist run over by tank driver in u.s. tank

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Fundamental law of driving any tank is to maintain complete ground guide 
control before, during, and after movement. Anyway that is what I learned 
when I was licensed by the U.S. Army to drive Abrams Tanks and Bradley 
Fighting vehicles. You must just watch where you are going. But today's 
incident like the one at Fort Polk, LA where two U.S. soldiers were run over 
about a month and 1/2 ago, and in Korea where two girls were run over and 
killed, launching protests, illustrates the safety ongoing violations.

    


French journalist killed by US tank

 
Bourrat reporting from Afghanistan last year

One of the best-known television journalists in France, Patrick Bourrat, has 
died in hospital in Kuwait. 
He was injured on Saturday after being run over by a tank while covering US 
military exercises in the desert. 

 Courageous, experienced, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the mission to 
inform
 


Jacques Chirac
French President
 
Mr Bourrat, who was in his 40s, was a correspondent for the TF-1 television 
station. 

American military officials say the precise circumstances of the accident are 
being investigated. 

French President Jacques Chirac has led tributes to Mr Bourrat - a veteran 
reporter who covered conflicts from Lebanon and Afghanistan to East Timor and 
Kosovo. 

Thrown into the air 

More than 12,000 American troops are in Kuwait. 

Many of them taking part in live-fire training exercises. 

Mr Bourrat was thrown about five metres into the air after getting into the 
path of an oncoming tank as he pushed away a TF-1 cameraman. 

He suffered extensive damage to his organs - "his spleen was ruptured and one 
kidney, although still working, was half cut," a French embassy spokesman 
said. 

He was operated on but died on Sunday morning, after developing 
post-operative bleeding. 

US Major Denton Knapp told the AFP news agency: "We did everything we could 
to keep him safe. The guy made a mistake and it was a tragic one." 

He said the US army might review the freedom given to journalists to cover 
the exercises. 

President Chirac said Mr Bourrat was "one of the most talented journalists, a 
shining example for his profession". 

"Courageous, experienced, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the mission to 
inform," Mr Chirac said in a letter of condolences to TF-1 management.