Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: U.S. MILITARY BRUTALIZES MORE JOURNALISTS

"It makes you wonder what happens to ordinary Iraqis.".....
Journalists in Baghdad concerned that US military likely to target
other media.....  "If you don't shut up we'll fuck you."...  Reuters
warned to drop its complaint....
U.S. MILITARY BRUTALIZES MORE JOURNALISTS
News agency demands inquiry after U.S. forces terrorize camera crew
by LUKE HARDING (The Guardian) in Baghdad, January 13, 2004
Edited by MORRISSEY BREEN (Daisycutter Sports)
The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to
the Pentagon following the wrongful arrest and 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 brutalized 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 infamous 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 brutalized, 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 apologize 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 claimed.
On 2 January  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 allegedly "mistaking his camera for a rocket launcher"
while he filmed outside a Baghdad prison.  An internal US
investigation later cleared the killer of wrongdoing.
During the invasion 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.
Guardian Unlimited Š Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4834849-103550,00.html

 Journalists in Baghdad concerned that US military likely to target
Stronzata gia' pubblicata su questo ng a suo tempo.
-Stefano