Death of journalist outside Abu Ghraib takes on new meaning

[spooked]

http://www.notinourname.net/war/mazen-dana-18aug03.htm

Middle East Children’s Alliance mourns the death of award-winning Palestinian journalist and friend Mazen Dana

August 18, 2003

Berkeley, CA-US soldiers in Iraq shot dead Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, 43, on Sunday August 17 while he filmed outside the Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad. Mazen was an award-winning journalist who covered the daily lives of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank town of Hebron and had been covering events in Iraq since the US occupation in March 2003. He was a journalist of integrity and a valued friend and his death has touched us all. He leaves behind a wife and four children.

According to Mazin’s collegueNael al-Shyoukhi, US troops approached the team on Sunday while they were filming and opened without warning fire-hitting Mazen in the chest. Video footage captured by Mazen minutes before his death records the incident and shows that there were no disturbances in the area at that time. He bled to death on the scene.

[spooked]

1. Soldiers "thought camera was a grenade launcher"

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059785634.html

"American troops shot dead an award-winning Reuters cameraman while he was filming near a US-run prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

Witnesses said soldiers in a US tank shot at Mazen Dana, 43, as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison, which had earlier come under a mortar attack. Dana's last pictures show a US tank driving towards him outside the prison walls.

Several shots rang out from the tank, and Dana's camera fell to the ground.

The US military acknowledged on Sunday that its troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they thought his camera was a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher."

[hexola]

3. ...they thought his camera was a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher

Not to be cruel - but based on that picture...I can see the mistake happening...

From a distance - I'd probably fire too - rather than find out it it's a grenage launcher when my skull explodes.

Advice to videographers...get a small hand-held...

This guy should have been a bit smarter...

[Mel]

5. his helmet

the camera mans helmet that marking on his helmet (red stripes) is that there to warn he's not combat but media?
I know on big construction sites you have different colored hard hats to point out what field you work in ex. purple hats-electricians, brown hats-pipe fitters ect. ect.

It makes sense to me because the red cross has it's symbol so wouldn't the media have colors or a symbol they'd also wear? I don't know if the guy could of been any smarter than to just not be there in a combat situation.

This story doesn't pass the smell test now that we know what was going on inside of Abu Ghraib. Actually, it should be re-investigated and if I was the camera mans editor/boss I'd be on it.

We have been lied to and things kept from us so much in the US. So I can see why any one that thinks critically would question what happened to that camera man he very well could of been reporting on the story of torture inside that prison. Also, your right a soldier could of mistaken that camera for a launcher.

[Q]

6. I can't believe you're excusing the assassination of a journalist...

...who was in the area with permission and knowledge of US forces. This isn't some guy that just wandered there to take pictures. Notice the helment with the big RED cross? Notice the fucking big lens on the camera? Don't the tank crews have binoculars? They KNEW it was a videographer and probably even knew his name.

- Was he killed for the same reason as Berg? Did he get a little to close to the reality of the torture prisons? Did he film 'mass graves' in the desert that didn't belong to Saddam?

- This guy was doing his job...out in the open and will full knowledge and permission of the US military. At the very least the troops were 'trigger happy'. At the very worst they killed him for what he knew...just like so many other journalists in Iraq.

[spooked]

8. Yup, there's definately a difference

[hexola]

11. Take few steps back from your computer...

they start to look more and more alike the further you get from your screen...

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hexola]

12. You really should read more of my posts...

It would cure you of your little black and white delusion...

[hexola]

13. It's not a "Red Cross"

You have no more proof of assasination than I have of accident!

I see the the stipes on his helmet. It is not a "red cross"!

It looks like a homemade marking...looks like orange tape to me.

Take notice of the white microphone WINDSCREEN just above the camera lens that looks very similar to the tip of an RPG.

[lumpy]

17. How many journalists have been

killed in Iraq ? I've lost track. Too many I know to not be suspicious. The red bands on the helmet should have been a clue, unless the military is employing 200/200 vision.

[RetroLounge]

18. Wow, look who's defending the assaination

why am I not surprised?

RL

[hexola]

19. "new meaning" = assasination?

Sorry no mention of "asasination" in the original post...is that what the implication was supposed to be...?

[spooked]

2. Was he filming the "wood hut" behind the prison, perhaps?

revealed in today's Washington Post?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46523-2004May21.html

The documents include statements by four of the seven MPs now charged in the abuse scandal: Spec. Sabrina Harman, Spec. Jeremy Sivits, Sgt. Javal S. Davis and Pfc. Lynndie England. Their statements provide new insights into the unfolding case.

For instance, they contain tantalizing hints about the role of military intelligence officers who operated in the shadows of Tier 1A at the prison. One military police officer said in a sworn statement that civilian and military intelligence officers frequently visited Tier 1A at night, spiriting detainees away for questioning out of sight of the MPs inside a "wood hut" behind the prison building. The documents also offer the first detailed account of how the abuse scandal unraveled.

[keithyboy]

4. DAMN!!! You are so right!

It really does take on new meaning. Wonder how many fello journalists will delve into this in honor of a true hero?

[gottaB]

7. oh yeah

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=456077#456622

[spooked]

10. Wow...link from thread...Secret Burials in the Desert

http://members.aon.at/hpkr/kawther/K20030819A.html

"Did the Pentagon order the assassination of a journalist in order to cover up secret mass burials of dead U.S. soldiers and U.S.-contracted mercenaries in the deserts around Baghdad?

What is really behind the killing of my colleague and friend, the Palestinian Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, in Bagdad? Is the Pentagon really scared of the media telling the U.S public what is really going on in Iraq? Do the criminals in the Pentagon want to cover their crimes against their own soldiers by killing journalists in Iraq? If so, then this is what can be called organized terror.

The U.S. troops obviously felt threatened and in big danger due to the Palestinian Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, who was investigating a story about secret burials of U.S. mercenaries and soldiers in mass graves in far-away places in deserts strips around Baghdad, burials which had obviously been authorized by the commanders of the U.S. army.

Mazen's scoop began when he realized that that the U.S. troops were burying human bodies wrapped in plastic in the desert. Initially, he thought that these were the bodies of Iraqi people. He kept watching and investigating the activities of the U.S. troops. He kept developing his scoop, working around different U.S. units and military jails, trying to figure out where the bodies had come from, and whether they were Iraqi or not.

Ultimately he found a source, a U.S. mercenary, who told him that those buried were not Iraqis, but mercenaries who had been promised green cards and U.S. citizenship in return for serving in the U.S. Army. Besides, according to this source, not few of those interred were Americans who had been killed in combat. Mazen had been able to film the activities of the U.S. army, and their secret mass graves. He was experienced in journalistic work in areas of conflict and under dangerous conditions. In our hometown Hebron, he had been covering the Israeli Duvdevan units, essentially death squads of the Israeli army which can not normally be filmed. Since he had become aware of what the Americans were doing in the desert, he kept the secret to himself. The intelligence units of the U.S. Army probably knew that Mazen was uncovering, and they must have feared that their secret desert burials would expose the Pentagon and the Army for involvement in a big scandal...

During his last days, Mazen felt that the U.S. Army were observing him. Ten days before his death, he called home to Hebron and told his family that he feared for his life because of the story he was investigating, and he promised them to return as soon as he had finished his research. On Sunday, August 17, 2003, at noon and in bright sunshine, Mazen Dana was assassinated by the U.S. Army outside Abu Ghraib prison, where it had previously given him permission to film.

According to my colleague, Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was with Dana at the time of his death, the camera team was known to the U.S. military personnel at the prison. Al-Shyoukhi said that they had asked for permission to interview an officer, which had been denied. The soldiers had seen their IDs and knew about their mission and intentions."

[Texican]

14. Makes Sense

There is a big coverup of coalition deaths. The week that the four mercs were killed in Fallujah, a British paper reported that there had actually been eighty of them killed during that week. It has also been reported that Bush is trying to hire twenty thousand more from South America. We currently have fifteen thousand there.

[seabeyond]

15. they have family members

and we have seen how these family members dont keep mouth shut to protect bushco when there is issue. so how could we possibly have mass graves. people would be missing these soldiers. families would yell

[Logansquare]

16. Not if they're from Honduras

We have an active base down there that was used for training Contras to fight against the Sandinistas. A month ago I would have thought this story was far-fetched, but anything is seeming in the realm of possibility with this administration.

[hexola]

20. Some AV equipment can look "weapon-like" from a distance...

I have black aluminum microphone stand that got police attention at an Allman Brothers concert at DC area Nissan Pavillion. The guy saw me getting it out of my car and I was asked to stop and step away from the car (the trunk)...He thought it was a gun.