[A-List] Fw: 'Shooting Us Like Rabbits': Angry Reporters Mourn Colleagues Killed By US

["Christopher Black" <bar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "RicK Rozoff" <rwrozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 2:00 AM
Subject: 'Shooting Us Like Rabbits': Angry Reporters Mourn Colleagues Killed
By US


> http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/au/Qiraq-war-baghdad-media.RnRv_DA8.html
>
> Angry reporters mourn colleagues killed by US fire in
> Baghdad
> Sammy Ketz
>
> -"The Americans lack discipline and journalists are
> being treated as combatants. They're shooting at us
> like we were rabbits."
>
>
> BAGHDAD, April 8 (AFP) - Sitting in the tent that
> houses TV equipment on the roof of the Palestine
> Hotel, Ahmad Bahado, a friend of Reuters cameraman
> Taras Protsyuk, wept as he wiped the blood covering
> the camera his colleague had been using when a US tank
> shell hit the site, killing him.
>
> Dozens of journalists were in mourning at the
> Palestine after three of their colleagues were killed
> by US fire Tuesday.
>
> But there was also deep anger in the Baghdad hotel
> serving as a makeshift base for most foreign
> journalists covering the war launched by the United
> States and Britain on March 20.
>
> A colleague of 35-year-old Protsyuk, who died of
> wounds in the head and stomach, banged his helmet on
> the wall of the lift taking him to the 15th floor,
> where the room used by reporters of the British news
> agency is located.
>
> "When will the Americans stop this nonsense?" he
> asked, his face white with rage.
>
> Footage filmed by France 3 television of the strike
> which killed two journalists showed the US tank,
> stationed on the west bank of the Tigris, targeting
> the hotel and waiting at least two minutes before
> firing.
>
> The shell crashed into a balcony where journalists
> were monitoring the battle raging on the other side of
> the river at 11:59 am (0759 GMT).
>
> "I am appalled by the brutality of the attack. Even
> assuming there was a sniper, is this a reason to shell
> a building housing journalists?" asked Thomas
> Alcoverro, an old hand covering the war for the
> Spanish daily La Vanguardia.
>
> A US spokesman said there had been fire from the lobby
> of the hotel but under questioning said he "may have
> misspoken" and that information about the incident was
> still coming in. US Central Command later claimed
> there had been "significant enemy fire."
>
> But witnesses insisted there was no evidence to
> corroborate the claim that an Iraqi sniper might have
> been shooting from the hotel.
>
> Had there been a sniper, "the Americans would have
> targeted him, whereas it was clear they were not
> targeting anyone in particular since the shell hit a
> balcony," said Lilli Gruber of the Italian RAI UNO
> network.
>
> Roger Auque of French RMC radio said US soldiers
> lacked restraint and professionalism.
>
> "The Americans lack discipline and journalists are
> being treated as combatants. They're shooting at us
> like we were rabbits," he fumed.
>
> Until Tuesday, foreign reporters covering the war were
> under the impression that the warring parties would
> not put journalists in the crossfire.
>
> The Iraqis have lived up to their part of the bargain.
> They did not let any armed men into the hotel and
> unarmed Arab volunteers who were there were shifted to
> another hotel from the start of the war.
>
> "The Americans have suggested that the Iraqi regime
> was endangering foreign journalists. But the
> journalists who died in this war were killed either by
> US fire or while accompanying US troops," said Patrice
> Claude of the French daily Le Monde.
>
> Jose Couso, a 37-year-old cameraman for the Telecinco
> Spanish television station, was also killed in the
> strike on the hotel.
>
> Three Reuters staffers were wounded. They are
> television satellite dish coordinator Paul Pasquale, a
> Briton, who sustained leg injuries; Lebanese-born Gulf
> bureau chief Samia Nakhoul, who suffered facial wounds
> and concussion; and photographer Faleh Kheiber, an
> Iraqi, with head injuries.
>
> Earlier Tuesday, Tareq Ayub, 34, of Qatar-based
> Al-Jazeera television, died after a US missile strike
> on the station's Baghdad offices, which also injured
> cameraman Zuhair Nazem Abbas.
>
> On Tuesday night, large pieces of white cloth were
> hung on the facade of the Palestine Hotel -- a pointed
> reminder to US forces that journalists are not a party
> to the conflict and should be spared.
>
> The journalists honored their slain colleagues at a
> candlelight ceremony in the hotel's garden.
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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