Deom

AS WAR CRIMES PILE:

Wed Apr 9 17:44:42 2003
208.152.73.200

AS WAR CRIMES PILE: 25 REPORTERS BESIEGED BY U.S. TANKS SEND SOS

Even with the slightest clue of the actual events and inner political jostling, it should be perfectly clear what the real reason is for the US establishment's great fuss about not joining the ICC or International Criminal Court--considering the record which makes succinct that it was sequential US establishments which primarily promoted and nurtured, the ICC, and up until the reign of the present Chicken-Hawk fascist administration. It is not a matter of approving or not approving of the ICC but it is a matter of fully comprehending WHY really the U.S. did not sign the treaty and being fully aware of the genuine reasons for its great hostilities to the ICC, at its advent. Of course the sad joke is on patriotic Americans who naively believe the current establishment is patriotic, Christian and Constitutional, when in fact it is quite the opposite and employs every mean to destroy any semblance of Constitutional legitimacy, that may be remaining. The US, drunk now with its utopian "grand strategy," insists in its breathtaking hubris, in being exempt to the laws it insisted other nations must uphold. Such mischief however, has just as interesting a way in turning on back stabbing, vindictive and hypocritical dreamers. The world and most importantly, the emerging powers, are taking detailed notes. The second article although somewhat old, is a good example of how feared and hated the truth is by this ruling and warring cabal, and as the first article relays, to the point of killing truth seekers. Remember the bombing of the Serbian TV station where over a dozen reporters were killed, and aljazeera's offices were bombed in Afghanistan. The dangers are terrible for honest journalists and I for one honor them greatly. ac

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-04/08/article11.shtml

25 Reporters Besieged By U.S. Tanks Send SOS

The U.S. tank, left, deliberately moves its turret towards a hotel filled with journalists before firing from a bridge in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Following the tragic death of three reporters earlier Tuesday, April 8, in a U.S. tank attack on Palestine hotel - the residence of reporters - and bombing of Al-Jazeera office, a correspondent with Abu Dhabi TV issued an SOS to humanitarian organizations to rescue a group of journalists who are "surrounded" by U.S. tanks in the satellite channel's Baghdad offices.

The correspondent, Shaker Hamed, issued the call for help on Abu Dhabi TV saying that "25 journalists and technicians belonging to Abu Dhabi television and Qatari satellite television channel Al-Jazeera are surrounded in the offices of Abu Dhabi TV in Baghdad," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"We are surrounded in a military area where there are no civilians, with the exception of the Abu Dhabi TV team and a five people from Al-Jazeera," Hamed said, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) "to intervene quickly to pull us out of this zone where missiles and shells are striking in an unbelievable way."

The correspondent also called for the help of the International Organization of Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontieres and the Arab Journalists Union to rescue them.

The offices are on a road along the banks of the Tigris River between the Mansur Hotel and the Iraqi planning ministry, not far from the Republican Palace compound where fierce fighting raged between U.S. and Iraqi troops early Tuesday.


One of Al-Jazzera's Baghdad correspondents, Tareq Ayyoub, a cameraman for the Reuters news agency, Taras Protsyuk, and a cameraman for Spain's Telecinco, Jose Couso, http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-04/08/article05.shtml >were killed Tuesday in American attacks.

Dubai's Gulf News reported Tuesday that Shaker's older brother Jawad and two of his brother's children, Hamid, 13, and 12-year-old Khulood died in bombing by U.S. warplanes of the southern city of Nassiriya.
==================================================
French TV Exposes Deliberate Targeting

France 3 TV footage showed U.S. tanks deliberately firing at Baghdad's media hotel killing two foreign reporters.

"They (U.S. tanks) headed there, moved their turrets and waited at least two minutes before opening fire," said Herve de Ploeg, the journalist who filmed the U.S. attack.

"I did not hear any shots in the direction of the tank, which was stationed at the west entrance of the Al-Jumhuriya (Republic) bridge, 600 meters (yards) northwest of the hotel," she averred.

The French TV channel had positioned two cameras in two rooms facing the bridge as of 6:30 am (0230 GMT).

"It had been very quiet for a moment. There was no shooting at all. Then I saw the turret turning in our direction and the carriage lifting. It faced the target," said De Ploeg.

"It was not a case of instinctive firing…I'm very specific because I was due to go on air," she explained.

==============================
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-02/26/article09.shtml

War Coverage Will Be Censored to Suit Pentagon: Fisk

CNN intends to apply a censorship system to the coverage of the looming war to reassure the Pentagon that there is no cause for concern about the news coming from the battlefield

LONDON, February 26 (IslamOline.net & News Agencies) – Potential U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would definitely be subject to a lot of censorship from the U.S. media itself, let alone the U.S. wartime administration, said a leading British writer and the former Middle East Independent correspondent.

"The boys from CNN, CBS, ABC and The New York Times will be "embedded" among the U.S. marines and infantry. The degree of censorship hasn't quite been worked out," Robert Fisk said in an article published Tuesday, February 25, in the British daily the Independent.

Fisk revealed that the CNN intends to apply a "censorship" system entitled "Script Approval" to the coverage of the looming war, reassuring the Pentagon officials that there is no cause for concern at all about the news coming from the battlefield.

"It doesn't matter how much the Pentagon cuts from the reporters' dispatches. A new CNN system of "script approval" – the iniquitous instruction to reporters that they have to send all their copy to anonymous officials in Atlanta to ensure it is suitably sanitised – suggests that the Pentagon and the Department of State have nothing to worry about. Nor do the Israelis," he wrote.

According to the new systems, all reporters preparing package scripts must submit the scripts for approval to an "authorized manager to be approved for air…when a script is updated it must be re-approved, preferably by the originating approving authority."

"All packages originating outside Washington, LA (Los Angeles) or NY (New York), including all international bureaus, must come to the ROW in Atlanta for approval," read the CNN-drafted approval document.

The "ROW" is the row of script editors in Atlanta who can insist on changes or "balances" in the reporter's dispatch, said Fisk.
===========================
"We are going to have to see a U.S. army officer denying everything the Iraqis say," Fisk

Fisk further said the new computerised system of script approval will allow authorised script approvers to mark scripts (reports) in a clear and standard manner.

"Script EPs (executive producers) will click on the coloured APPROVED button to turn it from red (unapproved) to green (approved). When someone makes a change in the script after approval, the button will turn yellow." Someone? Who is this someone? CNN's reporters aren't told," Fisk said.

"Note the key words here: "approved" and "authorised". CNN's man or woman in Kuwait or Baghdad – or Jerusalem or Ramallah – may know the background to his or her story; indeed, they will know far more about it than the "authorities" in Atlanta. But CNN's chiefs will decide the spin of the story," Fisk sarcastically added.

Fisk further accused CNN and other U.S. networks of "operating anti-journalistic systems, noting that it was not the fault of the reporters.

"CNN's teams may use clichés and don military costumes – you will see them do this in the next war – but they try to get something of the truth out. Next time, though, they're going to have even less chance," he said.

Ramallah is Case in Point

The British respected writer further gave an example of the CNN "awful system" adopted also by the U.S. network in its coverage of the Israeli incursions on the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah.

"This awful system is evident from an intriguing exchange last year between CNN's reporter in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, and Eason Jordan, one of CNN's top honchos in Atlanta. The journalist's first complaint was about a story by the reporter Michael Holmes on the Red Crescent ambulance drivers who are repeatedly shot at by Israeli troops," Fisk said.

The complaint said: "We risked our lives and went out with ambulance drivers... for a whole day. We have also witnessed ambulances from our window being shot at by Israeli soldiers... The story received approval from Mike Shoulder. The story ran twice and then Rick Davis (a CNN executive) killed it. The reason was we did not have an Israeli army response, even though we stated in our story that Israel believes that Palestinians are smuggling weapons and wanted people in the ambulances.

"The Israelis refused to give CNN an interview, only a written statement. This statement was then written into the CNN script. But again it was rejected by Davis in Atlanta. Only when, after three days, the Israeli army gave CNN an interview did Holmes's story run – but then with the dishonest inclusion of a line that said the ambulances were shot in "crossfire" (i.e. that Palestinians also shot at their own ambulances)."

The relevance of this, Fisk said, is all too obvious in the next Gulf War.

"We are going to have to see a U.S. army officer denying everything the Iraqis say if any report from Iraq is to get on air," he said.
================================================

News and Highlights
2003/03/20 US Army Identified 500 Alleged Iraqi War Criminals in 1992 Report
released under FOIA is precursor to 2003 war crimes proceedings ...
www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/


Rense.com - World's Most Revealing News Service
Stories Move Fast - Scroll Down To See All - Reload Often
http://www.rense.com/ 

• U.S. Offers Rewards for Iraq Weapons Info — MATT KELLEY, Wed Apr 9 18:22