Nine Journalists Missing, Others Beaten By US Troops

Brussels based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) yesterday demanded an "immediate and full inquiry" into reports that two Israelis and a Portuguese television reporter were arrested by US forces in Iraq, beaten up and detained for 48 hours.
By Azer H.Hasret, BT
29/03/2003 10:39

"If true, this maltreatment of journalists is a grave violation of journalists' rights. This incident must be investigated and those responsible brought to justice," said the IF

According to IFJ the journalists, Dan Scemama, of Israel's Channel 1 TV, Boaz Bismuth of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot and Louis de Castro of Radio Television Portugal, were traveling alongside American convoys. As told to relatives and colleagues, the journalists were forced to stop on Tuesday, beside six tanks, because of sandstorms. The Americans advised them not to move because they would not be identified in the dust. Early on Wednesday, soldiers woke them up at gunpoint, took them away and accused them of espionage.

"The reporters were told to lift their shirts and let down their pants to prove they were not carrying bombs and they were later kept in a closed jeep for 36 hours. The Portuguese journalist asked to phone home and was allegedly beaten; his ribs were broken and he is now in hospital. One of the Israeli journalists was also beaten. Yediot Aharonot, concerned about loss of contact with the journalists, asked the Pentagon to help find them. After 48 hours, a helicopter flew the reporters to an American military base in Kuwait, where they were released and given their telephones back," says IFJ statement.

Other press freedom organization - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) speaks about more dangerous situation. According to this organization nine journalists are missing in the "front line" and two others - ITN's Terry Lloyd and Australian cameraman Paul Moran, of Australia's ABC TV, already killed. At least two other journalists have been wounded.

Those missing are a cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV, French cameraman Fred Nerac and Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman, Syrian reporter Wael Awad, cameraman Talal Fawzi al-Masri and technician Ali Hassan Safa of Al-Arabiya TV, journalists from the US daily paper Newsday, Moises Saman and Matthew McAllester, Freelance French-American photographer Molly Bingham. All of them were lost in different circumstances.

"We're huntin' journalists down, we're smokin' 'em out. The propaganda campaign remains on track" ... Pentagon Official Billy Joe Bob Goebbels.

Late News...or rather Late News Reporter. Another ITN front line reporter in Iraq bites the dust. Quite literally this time as he fell off a building in mysterious circumstances. Getting spooky this, isn't it? Now, I'm not one for conspiracy theories, as everyone knows, but at this rate between their best reporters dropping like flies and the rest of the Light Entertainment Channel's staff being arrested on paedophile charges, they won't have anything left to broadcast soon. The BBC denies all knowledge of the incident.
Unfortunately, as yet, the Rant of the Week's own roving reporter, Ms Peggy Farcus (92), has not come under friendly fire...although rumours abound that she has gone down with some of the Australian troops.

In the realm of "Don't let a good ambiguous headline get in the way of the facts".

British troops find chemical warfare equipment near Basra

"Chemical warfare training equipment including nerve gas simulators, vials and a Geiger counter were discovered by British troops near the besieged southern city of Basra, officers said.

"Until further tests are carried out on the vials of chemicals we have found here we do not know exactly what the material is," Captain Kevin Cooney of the Joint NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) Regiment said.

"To my eye it looks like training equipment to teach people how to identify if there is something like Sarin (nerve gas) in the air and what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.

"Further tests will have to be done and this is now a matter that has been passed up the chain of command for further consideration," he said.

The equipment, found in 13 wooden cases marked "Ministry of Defence, Baghdad", was found in an Iraqi ordnance facility south of Basra in territory now controlled by coalition forces.

There were also gas masks, chemical warfare suits and "Combo Pens", devices carried by troops which deliver a small but concentrated dose of antidote against nerve agents when injected into the thigh.

A journalist embedded with the British troops said the boxes included two packets of glass vials containing coloured crystals with what appeared to be instructions on how to use them for detection of nerve agents, including Sarin, Soman and V-Gases."

The fact is, it would seem that British troops found anti chemical warfare equipment. Surprise, surprise! Still no smoking gun to justify this madness. Another instance of the Iraqi regime (still not quite as "regime changed" as the script would have it) not playing by the rules.

Report from Peggy Farcus bedded down with the Australian Special Forces.

Australian Special Operations Personnel have found 13 wooden cases marked "Ponds Institute, Baghdad" in the bombed out wreckage of the Baaa'aaaaath Party Head Office and Childcare Centre. A journalist embedded with the Australian troops said the boxes included two cartons of Mary Kay Velocity® shine it!™ Lip Gloss, 5 containers of REVLON™ Triple Lifting Night Cream and 2 dozen bottles of Pantene "It Won't Happen Overnight, But It Will Happen" Shampoos of Mass Coiffure.

Brigadier Bruce McBruce said that the discovery was significant. "It tells us that Saddam Hussein is still alive. A recurring theme in reports from our intelligence sources close to the Iraqi leadership group is Saddam's defiant vow that he wouldn't be seen dead without his make up."

Brigadier McBruce went on to confide, "I know you embedded blokes and blokesses won't let the wombat out of the bag, so I can let you in on our plan to smoke out the Butcher, Baker and Candlestick maker of Baghdad. In what we have designated "Operation Ding Dong" it is planned to have Privates Chooka, Robbo, Wocka and Dazza from 6th Division to visit every house still standing in Baghdad (fortunately that reduces our target area quite significantly) disguised as Avon ladies. O.K. I know there has been a lot of loose talk about the Genevieve Convention but I've had this operation cleared with both PSYOPS and the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs who administer the Fair Trading Act and the Door to Door Sales Act.

We at Command Centre believe Saddam will be lured out by this month's "Sheer Sparkle Crystal Vision Nail Enamel Two for One Special Promotion" . As soon as he offers his hands for the free demo we shall slap on the cuffs and Bob's your cross dressing aunty. Quite often the simplest plans are the most effective."

This just in: British Armed Forces are now employing 'liberated' (please note the sarcastic inflection) Iraqi civilians in the port of Umm Qasr to help unload much needed Humanitarian Aid packages from HMS Sir Gallahad the Chased-by-sea-mines.
For their efforts the Iraqi civilians are each earning sixty pence a day.
"I know that sounds a bit on the tight fisted side," commented Major Smythe Polyp of the Queen's Own Punjab Wog and Slave regiment. "But it's still a considerable improvement on the wages they'd be getting at MacDonalds."

The Coalition of the Incredibly Stupid have decided to adopt new battle tactics today. Finding themselves increasingly bogged down by guerrilla warfare in which trained Iraqi soldiers don the costumes of ordinary civilians and mingle mercilessly with the plebs, the allied forces have been clamping down on the movement of journalists. Apparently this is for their own good as Iraq is an extremely dangerous place to be right now. (A matter, apparently, of which the journalists weren't aware.)
Also for 'the good of the Iraqi people' television transmitters and telephone masts have started being removed in force.
"Most of these installations have/had dual purposes...one civilian, the other military," explained a spokesperson from the Ministry of Operations, Room 101. "Once journalists are banned from Iraq and the television stations stop their propaganda-filled broadcasts we can go in and kill as many civilians as we damn well like. These bastard elite forces are impossible to separate from the crowd. So we've no other choice but to take the whole frigging crowd out. Nobody wants to see mass slaughter on this scale when they're eating their bangers and mash so it's journalists and television masts first, the hearts, minds and various limbs of the Iraqi citizens second."

Other news and I forgot to put my clock forward last night. This morning I woke up and stumbled into the kitchen door which had been open at the time but which I'd closed half an hour later to allow continuity due to my sense of time being completely out of whack but being knocked off balance by an hour was in a state of phasic flux. Then I ran into myself coming back from the cafe which I haven't actually done yet but intend to do just as soon as I've woken up and posted this before it was written.

Something I picked up (apart from a dose of cyber clap from www.grannies_who_put_out.com) whilst browsing ...

"Once upon a time, a group of unwashed rebels with unconventional religious ideals used guerilla tactics to fend off an imperialist army. Raids, robberies, false surrenders and ambushes were used to give them an edge over a superior force. The imperialists accused them of being barbaric, and failing to follow the rules of engagement.

The French clandestinely, and later openly, intervened in the war, providing the rebels with much needed cash and weaponry.

Over time, after thousands of skirmishes, the British lost the revolutionary war." Source.

Over time, after thousands of well intentioned votes led to the election of some jug-eared smirking git, Britain lost again.

"We had a great day," Sergeant Schrumpf said. "We killed a lot of people."

Both marines said they were most frustrated by the practice of some Iraqi soldiers to use unarmed women and children as shields against American bullets. They called the tactic cowardly but agreed that it had been effective. Both Sergeant Schrumpf and Corporal McIntosh said they had declined several times to shoot at Iraqi soldiers out of fear they might hit civilians.

"It's a judgment call," Corporal McIntosh said. "If the risks outweigh the losses, then you don't take the shot."

But in the heat of a firefight, both men conceded, when the calculus often warps, a shot not taken in one set of circumstances may suddenly present itself as a life-or-death necessity.

"We dropped a few civilians," Sergeant Schrumpf said, "but what do you do?"

To illustrate, the sergeant offered a pair of examples from earlier in the week.

"There was one Iraqi soldier, and 25 women and children," he said, "I didn't take the shot."

But more than once, Sergeant Schrumpf said, he faced a different choice: one Iraqi soldier standing among two or three civilians. He recalled one such incident, in which he and other men in his unit opened fire. He recalled watching one of the women standing near the Iraqi soldier go down.

"I'm sorry," the sergeant said. "But the chick was in the way."

Chilled?

... and a couple of fine quotes from the trenches:-

"The US military has been forced to admit the 8,000 Iraqi soldiers they claimed to have captured last week are now battling British forces."

"These missiles are very accurate when they hit their intended targets."

... and one from "Trench Central"

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God" - George Bush