[Peace-discuss] A Statue Falls ...

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Jim is undoubtedly right about the importance of Robert Fisk's reporting.  
It shows by contrast the wretchedness of what we're hearing on the US
media about this invasion -- hardly a war, given the dozen years of
near-genocidal sanctions and the mass destruction of weapons of
resistance.  Iraq had been weakened -- it had become the weakest state in
the region -- to the point that the US could attack it with impunity.  
Compare North Korea, which the US has to deal with "diplomatically," and
draw the lesson.  But the US is also taking vigorous action -- it's
killing people -- to condition the story that's coming out of Iraq, as it
did in Kosovo, etc.  Perhaps the attack on the Russian ambassador now,
like that on the Chinese embassy then, aren't accidents.  Like its
principal client, the US is showing its willingness to attack monitors and
observers.  I'm actually just a bit surprised -- my own naivete is
showing.]

Fury at US as attacks kill three journalists 

Al-Jazeera quits Iraq as Americans accused over deaths

Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad, Rory McCarthy in Doha, Jonathan Steele in
Amman and Brian Whitaker

Wednesday April 9, 2003

The Guardian

The Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera is to pull its reporters
out of Iraq after one of them was killed during a US air raid on Baghdad.

"I cannot guarantee anyone's safety," the news editor, Ibrahim Hillal,
told reporters. "We still have four reporters in Baghdad, we will pull
them out. We have one embedded with US forces in Nassiriya; we want to
pull him out."

The move followed a day in which three journalists were killed by US fire
in separate attacks in Baghdad, leading to accusations that US forces were
targeting the news media.

Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, was killed when an American tank
fired a shell directly at the Reuters suite on the 15th floor at the
Palestine hotel, where many journalists are staying.

Jose Couso, 37, a cameraman for the Spanish television channel Tele 5, was
wounded in the same attack and died later in hospital. Samia Nakhoul, the
Gulf bureau chief of Reuters, was also injured, along with a British
technician, Paul Pasquale, and an Iraqi photographer, Faleh Kheiber.

Earlier, al-Jazeera cameraman Tarek Ayyoub, a 35-year-old Palestinian who
lived in Jordan, was killed when two bombs dropped during a US air raid
hit the satellite station's office in the Iraqi capital.

American forces also opened fire on the offices of Abu Dhabi television,
whose identity is spelled out in large blue letters on the roof.

All the journalists were killed and injured in daylight at locations known
to the Pentagon as media sites. The tank shell that hit the Palestine
hotel slammed into the 18-storey building at noon, shaking the tower and
spewing rubble and dirt into hotel rooms at least six floors below.

The attack brought pandemonium in the hotel which lies on the east side of
the Tigris. It was adopted by all remaining western journalists in the
city after advice from the Pentagon to evacuate from the western side of
the river.

Central command in Qatar said its troops had been responding in
self-defence to enemy fire but witnesses dismissed that claim as false.
According to a central command statement, "commanders on the ground
reported that coalition forces received significant enemy fire from the
hotel and consistent with the inherent right of self-defence, coalition
forces returned fire".

The statement added: "Sadly a Reuters and Tele 5 journalist were killed in
this exchange. These tragic incidents appear to be the latest example of
the Iraqi regime's continued strategy of using civilian facilities for
military purposes."

But journalists in the hotel insisted there had been no Iraqi fire.

Sky's correspondent, David Chater, said: "I never heard a single shot
coming from the area around here, certainly not from the hotel," he said.

BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar added that none of the other journalists in
the hotel had heard any sniper fire.

Chater said he saw a US tank pointing its gun at the hotel and turned away
just before the blast. "I noticed one of the tanks had its barrel pointed
up at the building. We went inside and there was an almighty crash. That
tank shell, if it was an American tank shell, was aimed directly at this
hotel and directly at journalists. This wasn't an accident. It seems to be
a very accurate shot."

Geert Linnebank, Reuters editor-in-chief, said the incident "raises
questions about the judgment of the advancing US troops who have known all
along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists
in Baghdad".

Journalists, a watchdog group that defends press freedoms, demanded an
invesigation in a letter to the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. "We
believe these attacks violate the Geneva conventions," the letter said,
adding that even if US forces had been fired on from the Palestine hotel
"the evidence suggests that the response of US forces was disproportionate
and therefore violated humanitarian law".

During the Afghan war, two supposedly smart US bombs hit the Reuters
office in Kabul and many suspect the attack was no accident. It happened
at a strategic moment, two hours before the Northern Alliance took over
the city.

US military officials at central command said they were investigating and
added that the casualties were "regrettable". "We know that we don't
target journalists," said Brigadier General Vince Brooks, deputy director
of operations.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Tarek Ayyoub was broadcasting live to the
satellite station's 7am news bulletin when US aircraft fired two missiles
at the bureau building, killing him and injuring a colleague. Two Iraqi
staff are missing.

Ibrahim Hilal, al-Jazeera's chief editor at its headquarters in Qatar,
said a US warplane was seen above the building before the attack.
"Witnesses saw the plane fly over twice before dropping the bombs. Our
office is in a residential area and even the Pentagon knows its location,"
he said.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Majed Abdul-Hadi said the bombardment was
probably deliberate.

In Doha last night al-Jazeera's chairman, Hamad bin Thamer, said the
channel "could not ascertain" if its Baghdad bureau had been targeted by
the US. But he dismissed American claims that there had been gunfire
coming from the building at the time of the attack.

"This was absolutely and categorically denied by other reporters and our
reporters present on the ground," he said.

Mr Ayyoub, 35, a Palestinian born in Kuwait, had not intended to go to
Baghdad but as the war dragged on he felt he had to work there, and
al-Jazeera agreed to let him work in Baghdad.

His widow, Dima Ayyoub, launched a vitriolic attack on America: "My
message to you is that hatred breeds hatred," she said in a live telephone
link-up from her home in Amman, Jordan. "I cannot see where is the
cleanness in this war. All I see is blood, destruction and shattered
hearts. The US said it was a war against terrorism. Who is committing
terrorism now?"


MediaGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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  Carl Estabrook
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466   
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