U.S.: Troops killed reporter

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TheeBadOne

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BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 18 — The U.S. military acknowledged Monday that U.S. troops had accidentally killed a television journalist after soldiers mistook his video camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

IN THE journalist’s death, the U.S. military said that troops had “engaged†Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, thinking that his camera was an RPG launcher.
“This is clearly another tragic incident, it is extremely regrettable,†said Central Command spokesman Sgt. Maj. Lewis Matson.
Dana’s driver, however, thought the cameraman, 43, had been deliberately shot outside the U.S.-run jail. Journalists had gathered there after the U.S. Army announced that a mortar attack on Saturday evening had killed at least six Iraqi prisoners and wounded scores.
“There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists,†said Munzer Abbas. “This was not an accident.â€
Stephan Breitner of France 2 television echoed that view. “We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don’t think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy.â€......

http://www.msnbc.com/news/951994.asp?0cv=CB10
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Ouch! Should the US soldiers responsible for killing the reporter face any type of charges? Manslaughter? (just getting a jump on the media, I say most likely no overt foul involved)
 
Having shot many cameramen myself in training - be careful of what you start here. Its hard to distinguish friend from foe and when the dude jumps out and points a big hollow lens at you - you tend to shoot. Cameramen need to be careful where they jump and at whom they point that thing. Sad story all around.
 
HBK"It's sad, but that's part of war."
Click to expand...
While I don't disagree with you there will be some (just waiting for the media) who will say it wasn't war. The war is over and while there may be some hostiles around it's rebuilding/occupation, not war. (I'll watch the news tonight, I'm sure someone will be on saying a like thing......)
 
As soon as I heard this this morning (on NPR no less), I was waiting for Reuters/BBC/other leftist press to go nuts with "the US did it on purpose."
I expected them to play up the "he was shot for being a Muslim" angle though (apparently the cameraman was Palestinian, according to NPR).

Sigh.
 
Reporters provide a fine service in what they do and I am grateful they do it, but you have to be an idiot to willingly go to a place where a war or post war gun battles are an ongoing process. No doubt that Friend or Foe identification is very important in warfare. No doubt that in the heat of battle, Friend or Foe identification gets blurred real quickly.

This is a sad fact of any battle/conflict situation where the big boys play with guns.

"They knew we were journalists..." Sure enough. And American soldiers continue to be killed by people they knew to be ______ (car load of women, pro American civilians, etc.).

I saw the picture of the killed camera man. If that is an example of what he was wearing when killed, it is a shame, but I would fault the cameraman. He has body armor, helmet, and what could easily be seen as an optically sighted weapon.

From the article, Stephan Breitner of France 2 television echoed that view. “We were all there, for at least half an hour. They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don’t think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy.â€

Let's see, people keep killing American soldiers every day and Breitner of France thinks that being very tense is somehow not proper.

It is sad. I hope Rueters spends as much money and time helping the family of their reporter as they do on their investigation.

If you want to up your chances to survive such a conflict, the best defense is to NOT BE THERE!
 
I hope that the shooter is OK. He is propably feeling remorse for his (justifiable) actions. Any man who places himself in harms way, whether to report or to fight must understand that they could die.

May peace come to the photographers family.
 
there is always bias there when you are looking for it or expect it.
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St, Johns-

Actually quite the opposite. I always look at these things optomistically, hoping that the reporting will be straightforward and without an agenda. i am constantly disappointed, however.

For what its worth, I see a lot of the same thing from the other side of the political fence, i.e Fox News Channel.

I have to admit, as I am not British I only get small doses of BBC and Reuters, so you are probably more qualified as to their overall tone.
 
Greyhound-

Way too late at night to get into the BBC argument again. Was just pointing out that people often approach a news report with a prejudice about the perceived prejudice of the organisation reporting - this often leads them to misjudge and plain get things wrong.

Fair enough that you approach it the other way. The BBC are reporting this incident this way: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3160429.stm.

Seems fairly evenly balanced to me - the picture very definitely shows how when on edge you could make that same mistake. The quotes are from other sources such as Reporters sans frontieres. This will be a follow up story - I have been chopping wood all day so missed the way the news was broken.

My sympathies to all concerned - hope the soldier concerned can chalk it to what seems so far like a genuine mistake, a tragic one, but a mistake nonetheless.


edit

Just watched the news report linked to on that page - am sure it will make uncomfortable viewing for some. I suspend my own judgement.
 
When you look at it, the big shoulder-carry cameras do kind of look like an RPG launcher or a LAWS rocket launcher. If I was stuck in that shooting gallery with a target painted on my back, I'd be pretty quick on the trigger as well.
 
I can see where a camera like the one carried can look like a sholder launched weapon. With the clothing being worn I can also see confusion. It is a decision that has to be made quickly if you want to live in a combat zone (I'm sorry if they say major combat is over, but this is combat, and combat that can be more intense that in big unit operations). Having been in the intelligence business for many years I think (based on knowledge of the facts of the operation) that 99% of the media are unwilling to tell the truth if it does not advance their agenda. I feal sorry more for the man that fired the shot and what he now must endure from the armchair combat "experts" than I do for the newsman. I may take alot of flame for this, but the newsman that thinks he is always in the right for doing his "job" but fails to consider the situtation is a fool, and that is what happens to fools whom do not stop to think about what is going on.

My condolences to his family, any life lost is a shame. But if you where there, and you saw what looked like an RPG about to be launched at you, would you not shoot to protect yourself and your comrads.

Semper Fi
 
"W" may have declared the war over but people are still dying,ergo the fornicating war is NOT over and soldiers are going to react accordingly when someone points a possible weapon at them. It,s about as smart as going into a crouch and pointing a cellphone (or whatever) at a cop at night in a high-crime neighborhood-----do-do is gonna occur.
 
I have little to no sympathy for reporters and their staff that willfully remain where any sane man would do his best to leave.

Perhaps this is a product of a general "You can't do that to me!" attitude I've noticed in the past few years. Everyone thinks they have the right to go anywhere and know anything, and fail to apply a little common sense when they look at the place they demand to go.

-Teuf
 
This may sound harsh, but, given the tenor of the usual one-sided portrayal these lttle tin gods continually spew forth, even if the shot were intentional I would applaud it. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, press! :scrutiny:
 
Hmmm, bias is subjective I suppose. Here is the last para from the BBC report on this shooting: "In April, Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian based in Warsaw, died when a US tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, the base for many foreign media in Baghdad."

True statement. However, can anyone in the class state the circumstances that led to the directed fire upon this establishment?

I also just LUV this "unbiased" statement from the BBC "bubble headed bleach-blonde from the evening news" during the video clip: "... From Americans who shoot first and ask questions, if at all, only later."

This is not Brit bashing, ALL the news providers play the masses like fine instruments...
:barf:
 
The war is over and while there may be some hostiles around it's rebuilding/occupation, not war
Click to expand...
TheeBadOne,

I don't recall anyone saying the war is over, just an end to major combat operations.

GT
 
Having pointed a camara with a 300mm telephoto lens at a East German, Berlin wall, guard tower, and having a machine gun in said tower pointed at me in return, in my misspent youth -

'Never point a camara with a long lens at someone with a gun, without making certain that they know what you really are. '

The East German guard did look us over with his very powerful binoculars to make sure that I and my friend (who was quite spooked by the event) were just simple tourists taking a picture. (and no I can't find the photograph, it's been 20 years now and I seem to have lost a few over time; damm..)
 
My condolences for the family of the dead photographer.

One of these days I shall compare the responses to this bit of mistaken threat ID, with the responses to the TFL Amadou Diallo mistaken threat ID threads.

I think the comparison should prove to be enlightening.

LawDog
 
LEO's are officers of the court, NOT soldiers. Some might THINK they are soldiers. Indeed, it's just this sort of "we're at war on ____ (drugs, guns, booze, whatever)" thinking on the part of police that might lead a bunch of anti-gun plainclothes cops to empty their highcaps into a guy trying to give them his wallet.

When citizens start firing RPG's at squad cars and detonating explosves under them on a daily basis, THEN you might have an argument.
 
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