tagged w/ End the Occupation of Iraq
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Stand for freedom, stand with Anonymous for the downtrodden have no names...
Take A Stand
Free Bradley ManninStand for freedom, stand with Anonymous for the downtrodden have no names...
Take A... more
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9sxRfU-ik
David Schlesinger, the editor in chief of Reuters, declined to run a story by one of his own reporters containing claims that the 2007 killings of two Reuters staffers in Baghdad by U.S. troops may have been war crimes.
Reuters staffers Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh were killed by U.S. helicopter gunships in Baghdad in 2007. Video of the attack, which shows the journalists standing next to unidentified armed men on a Baghdad street and records the destruction of a van attempting to retrieve a wounded Chmagh, was published this week by Wikileaks.
The video has launched a debate about the legality of the attack, which also wounded two children (you can read our take here). Yesterday, Reuters' deputy Brussels bureau chief Luke Baker filed a muscular story repeating allegations from several human rights and international law experts that the killings may have constituted war crimes. But Reuters chief David Schlesinger, a tipster says, spiked the story because "it needed more comment from the Pentagon and U.S. lawyers." It never ran, but you can read it in full below.
Reuters' response to the disclosure of the video has been relatively muted. Schlesinger issued a statement on Tuesday calling the video "disturbing" but declining to assign blame or accuse the U.S. military of improper behavior:
In this particular case, [I] want to meet with the Pentagon to press the need to learn lessons from this tragedy.
These stories are not easy for us to report or to be involved in. They test our commitment to viewing events and actions objectively.
What matters in the end is not how we as colleagues and friends feel; what matters is the wider public debate that our stories and this video provoke.
Baker's story went much farther, quoting three human rights experts describing the killings as war crimes. While portions of those quotes ended up running in a different Reuters story on the video that appeared yesterday and which Baker is credited as having contributed to, some of the more direct accusations did not. For instance, Baker quoted Clive Stafford-Smith, a human rights lawyer, saying, "I don't think there's any question that this is a violation of the Geneva Conventions." Stafford-Smith didn't appear in any of Reuters' coverage of the incident. Baker's story also paraphrased Reuters lawyer Thomas Kim saying that "further investigation may be required" into the incident—a sentiment that Schlesinger did not express in his initial statement. Kim's remark does not appear in any of Reuters' coverage of the killings. The U.S. Central Command has said it has no plans to reopen an investigation.
Our tipster is baffled by Schlesinger's apparent hesitance to take on the Pentagon over the killings: "Nothing about wanting to seek justice for the deaths of the Reuters' employees or about seeking the truth. Just a bland statement about wanting to work with the Pentagon. Whose side is this guy on? Does he have any spine?"
A Reuters spokesperson denied in absolute terms the accusation that Baker's story was spiked. "It's 100% not true that the story was spiked," she said. "Schlesinger sent it back for more reporting. But it was overtaken by events, and parts of it eventually ran in an updated story." In a later statement, the spokeswoman added that the story was held up in "an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts."
UPDATE: Reuters' spokeswoman has asked us to publish the statement that she provided to us after our phone conversation in its entirety:
It is absolutely untrue that this story was spiked. It was sent back for more reporting in an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts. The story was then overtaken by a more updated one out of Washington that incorporated reporting from the original piece.
This isn't the first time Schlesinger has been accused of killing Reuters stories for fishy reasons. In December, Talking Biz News reported that Schlesinger spiked a damaging story about hedge fund manager Steve Cohen after Cohen called to complain. He later admitted that it wasn't "a bad story" and that it "could have run."
DESENSITISED KILLING
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British army officer who has conducted investigations in war zones, said knowing exactly what rules of engagement the pilots were operating under was critical to understanding whether they had acted appropriately.
But even then, he said, the decision to fire on the van as unarmed men came to help one of the wounded appeared to be a clear breach of the laws governing military conduct in war.
"Engaging the people picking up the wounded is outrageous,"he said. "That is the element that is blatant. That is against all humanitarian law and the rules of conflict — most definitely and without a doubt," he told Reuters.
David Schlesinger, Reuters' editor-in-chief, said the video showed the "extreme dangers that exist in covering war zones"and said he would seek to meet with officials at the Pentagon to"press the need to learn lessons from this tragedy".
Asked whether the company had any intention of pursuing legal action over the deaths of Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, Thomson Reuters' deputy legal counsel, Thomas Kim, said:"Our priority is to engage in dialogue at a senior level with the Pentagon." He added, however, that the footage, which Thomson Reuters had repeatedly sought to have the U.S. military release, indicated further investigation may be required.
Bibi van Ginkel, an international lawyer and senior fellow at the Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations, said the video was only a fragment of evidence and more investigation was needed. But still she added:
"My first guess would be that a war crime was committed. Very simply speaking, if people are helping the wounded, they are non-combatants. If force is used against them, then that is a war crime. But will it be investigated."
While the video footage, with its gung-ho audio track —including the words "look at all those dead bastards" — is shocking, some military experts said there may be nothing wrong with the acts carried out given the combat environment.
In a military courtroom, a jury would have to decide if the gunner "honestly and reasonably" believed he was shooting the enemy, Gary Solis, a military law expert at Georgetown University, told online magazine Salon. "That will always be a defence," he said.But whether there are grounds for legal action or not,experts said their bigger concern was about the desensitisation of war, with soldiers appearing to dehumanise the enemy and seeming not to care about killing from afar.
"It's the attitude and mindset of the computer, war-gaming generation," said Cobb-Smith. "The detachment that a serviceman can now feel when he's operating a weapons system at such a distance via a video screen. That's unnerving and worrying."
FOR THE FULL STORY ~Including "Luke Baker's spiked story" : ========
http://gawker.com/5512623/reuters-chief-shoots-down-story-on-killing-of-his-own-staffers-in-baghdad
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem)
Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9sxRfU-ik
David Schlesinger, the editor in chief... more
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The Film: "Personal Responsibility"
[ Warning: This Video Has a PG Rating ]
~ About Freedom of the Press & Freedom of Speech
How very important of a roll that all members of a Free Press and Journalism play in our Society .
JFK spoke of how the press and it's manipulation by powerful corporations and secrecy will destroy the fabric of democracy. A process that today has turned most of us in Journalism into no more than PIOs. and PR agents.
JFK's words on Secrecy, Censorship, and Freedom of The Press ~ remind all of us how very important it is... that today we all standup and reevaluate ourselves again and repoint our journalistic compasses to the North star again...
This is a chance for all the media and all Journalists to begin again to perform our mandated historic investigative rolls to uncover and report the full complete truth and wrongdoing where ever that may lead us and no matter how painful it may be....
That is the only way to get our country back on course again.
Our freedom our Democracy and our future all depend on that.
The Truth is courageous...
Be Courageous...
~The Film: "Personal Responsibility"
[ Warning: This Video Has a PG... more
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Students at the New School have occupied the Graduate Faculty building. Their demands are for the resignation of the school's president Bill Kerrey and vice president James Murtha.
A similar action happened in December but students were not able to take over the entire building.Students at the New School have occupied the Graduate Faculty building. Their demands... more
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Under pressure from Iraqi government troops and the American military and with his eye on coming provincial elections, Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers Friday to stop the bloodshed, unite with all Iraqis and focus their firepower on driving out the “occupation forces,” meaning the United States military and its foreign allies.Under pressure from Iraqi government troops and the American military and with his eye... more
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Rockin' Rob's latest political satire piece, featuring Michael 'the Skull' Scaredoff, the Official HEAD of Homeland SCARITY, warning us all to be very, verrrry careful, because the Skull is watching (and LISTENING TO)....YOU!Rockin' Rob's latest political satire piece, featuring Michael 'the... more
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Rockin' Rob at it again, with another political satire piece, this one on Homeland Security and their incessant Terror Alerts. Features Michael 'the Skull' Scaredoff, Official Head of the Dept. of Homeland SCARITY!Rockin' Rob at it again, with another political satire piece, this one on... more
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This award winning AP photographer will have his day in court. Eventually. And he still doesn't know what he is being charged with. But after 19 months in an Iraq prison, what's the hurry?
We need to wake up.This award winning AP photographer will have his day in court. Eventually. And he... more
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This article makes me wonder about the study that estimated 650,000 deceased Iraqis. I fear that this estimate is too low. What if many of the Iraqis that are missing or assumed to have fled are actually in mass graves like these in Baghdad? And what is the connection to the missing reporters? Are they finding truths that someone doesn't want us to know?
And my million dollar question:
How could removing hundreds of thousands of armed men and their weaponry from a country increase the violence in that country?
This article makes me wonder about the study that estimated 650,000 deceased Iraqis. I... more
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CHICAGO - The euphoria of a soldier's homecoming from Iraq often gives way to depression, stress and trouble dealing with family members during the first months home, a new Pentagon study finds.
CHICAGO - The euphoria of a soldier's homecoming from Iraq often gives way to... more
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WASHINGTON - House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008.
WASHINGTON - House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war... more
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Rockin Rob combines Willie Nelson's A Peaceful Solution song, with dramatic anti-war protest footage & audio tracks. Music by Willie Nelson www.willienelsonpri.com. Special thanks to Willie for his Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute. Rockin Rob combines Willie Nelson's A Peaceful Solution song, with dramatic... more
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Rockin' Rob offers his anti-war song in the style of Country Joe MacDonald's classic What Are We Fighting For, to clips from a recent anti-war protest rally. Features the traveling exhibit The Wall of Heros. Music and lyrics by Rockin' Rob. Rockin' Rob offers his anti-war song in the style of Country Joe MacDonald's... more
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