what do you think

[rollin5150]

hey all


i have been following the news and came across this.

apparently, some people have been complaining about this

while the iraqi did this and those reporters were against the war?

i think that all you know my stance, what do you all think.

[KorpDeath]

If you are in war zone, you're taking your chances. Simple, obvious.........

[powertoad5000]

Nabil Khoury, a U.S. State Department spokesman in Doha, said the strike on the Arab satellite TV network's office was a mistake, and he called upon al-Jazeera not to jump to conclusions.

"My personal view is that it is a mistake, a grave mistake. It is something we all regret," Khoury said. "I personally cannot imagine that a country which respects general freedoms can target media establishments."

Mistake - my arse. Surgical strikes have a funny way of missing their targets and damaging certain things which the US government wouldn't mind seeing destroyed.

As KorpDeath said, if you're in a war zone, you're taking your chances. However, the al-Jazeera offices were not near any significant military or government installation, and their bombing was a 'mistake'. The European journalists were travelling with the 3rd Infantry. So the Iraqis attack enemy infantry and kill two journalists, and the US attacks an Arab news station and kills a journalist. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise why people are complaining about the US incident.

On the topic of journalists being killed, it seems like the US is deliberately targeting non-embedded journalists in an attempt to scare them off and make other journalists wary of entering the country without being 'embedded' with a military unit. There were the British reporters who came under fire from US forces with only the cameraman surviving, and now the recent case of three journalists in the Palestine Hotel being killed. 'Information warfare' indeed KorpDeath.

[IchNiSan]

Powertoad, um, the al jazeera office is right accross the street from the Iraqi Ministry of Information. A perfectly VALID military target.

I think it is horrible that they were killed. However, I think it probably was a mispunched coordinate or bad wind compensation which caused that one.

Abu Dabi(also right next to the information ministry btw) was attacked by a tank, as was the palestine hotel.

Picture this, you are in fairly intense combat for almost 3 weeks straight, people are firing at you from somewhere, you believe you see it from one of those 2 locations, you don't have a tv in your tank, so you really have no idea where these journalists are, you are tired, nervous, whatever, and you fire at something by mistake.

I am convinced that this was a mistake pure and simple. If the thinking is that we were shooting at them on purpose because we didnt like there coverage, we would have to raid the Al Jazeera corporate headquarters in Doha Qatar in order to prevent them from giving us even worse coverage after killing their reporter. Same with Abu Dabi, as well as Reuters, and Tele 5.

As for the british journalists, as far as I can remember, the latest I heard was that they had managed to get in the middle of a fight between iraqi and american forces.

give it a rest powertoad.

[Ghostdog]

Killing journalist was started before the war, remember the french journalist Patrick Bourrat. The spannish journalist were with the US army so they were assimilated as ennemy. For al-Jazeera I can't say if it was on a strategic point I don't know Bagdad. That's can be a mistake but it can be also to hide something since al-Jazeera don't film the same things as CNN. US army can control the images that CNN show but not those of al-Jazeera. If US army want to attack in a direction and al-Jazeera film them it's like phoning to Saddam to say what you want to do.

[Negative]

Reuters-cameraman Taras Protsyuk (35), an Ukrainian living in Warschau, died shortly after the grenade impacted on the Palestine hotel - the hotel where the majority of foreign media is staying.
A little later, Spanish camera-man José Couso (37) from Tele5, died as well. Both were hit on the 15th floor of Hotel Palestine, a floor only occupied by journalists. Reuter's headquarters were completely destroyed, as well as Al-Arabiya's, two floors higher.

American troops acknoledged one of their tanks fired at the hotel "after we were being shot at from the hotel", but journalists do not agree.
"I have never ever heard one single shot in that area, and definitely not from within the hotel", David Charter (from British Sky) said. Chater saw the barrel of a tank being aimed at him, and ran away from his balcony.
Representatives for the US army said they were sorry, but kept on telling everyone that they were being fired at.
"A tank was being shot at with light weapons and rocketlaunchers from within the hotel, and confronted the target with one shot", US general Buford Blount said.

They must not have seen the taped evidence yet.... tsk tsk...

"The explanation from General Blount is a blatant lie. I was driving on the road between the tanks and the hotel at the moment of the attack. No shots could be heard. The videotape registered four minutes of absolute silence right before the attack. There were no snipers in the building. We must remember that two dead and six wounded journalists is not a massacre. It doesn't even come close to the hundreds of wounded civilians who have been mutilated by the invasion-power.
And it's also true that the Iraqi regime has murdered some of its own journalists in the past, along with tens of thousands of its own people.
But yesterday, some really dangerous happened. Now, there are elements in the US army who hate the press and want to take out journalists in Bagdad. Reuters-correspondent Samia (42), a personal friend and colleage sind the Libanese civlian war (1975-1990), was in the hospital yesterday, bleeding to death. And General Blount has the guts to call this woman a sniper. What, I ask myself, does this tell us about the war in Iraq?"
- Robert Fisk, The Independent.

In another 'incident', an American warplane aimed its rockets at Al-Jazeera's headquarters yesterday.
In 2001, the US destroyed Al-Jazeera's Kabul-headquarters with a cruise missile. Kabul is the place from where the Bin Laden-tapes were being spread. The US never explained their attack. Al-Jazeera's correspondent Taiseer Alouni survived the attack. Alouni was in Al-Jazeera's Iraq headquarters yesterday when they were being attacked. To avoid "bad luck" such as in 2001, he two months ago sent the Pentagon the exact co-ordinates of their Iraqi headquarters. He was assured the US would not attack it. Guess what happened yesterday...

[IchNiSan]

Now, there are elements in the US army who hate the press and want to take out journalists in Bagdad.

Give me a break. Anyone with a brain in their head, no matter how stupid, could see that this action would only incline journalists inside baghdad to be even harder on the US than they already are(justified or not). Intentionally targetting journalists, even from Al Jazeera is so ridiculous, ok, if you are upset about the coverage in the war, shoot the journalists whose networks you don't controll, and that will make the coverage better?????????? Not even George Bush could manage to warp his brain that far.

I am personally against the war, but this is just ridiculous.

[dublix]

I hate to see anyone die. If im correct United States officials warned all journalist to leave the country and that it was not safe to be in the country. Obviously journalist are known to be pretty brave people, and will always go in and cover a war no matter what country and circumstance.

[KorpDeath]

If you are in a "war zone" you are taking your chances. That's as simle as it gets......It's not murder, it's not manslaughter, it's f**king war..

Get over it. Just get over it. Isn't it tiring to whine about EVERYTHING in the world that has to do with the U.S.???? Don't you have other things to do? Anything??? Take up a hobby for God's sake...

Long live Iraqi people!!!!!