May 22 (Reuters) - An Iraqi television station accused U.S. troops on Thursday of shooting dead one of its cameramen as he walked to his Baghdad home.The body of a second journalist, Haidar Hashim al-Husseini, a reporter for al-Sharq newspaper, was found dumped in a field with nine other corpses in Diyala province, police and colleagues said.
Truthdig tips its hat this week to former Army Sgt. Adrienne Kinne, who has defied her one-time higher-ups by speaking out about how military officials knew that a target list in April 2003 contained the name of Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, which was shelled by a U.S. tank on April 8 even though embedded reporters were staying there. Two journalists were killed in the attack; one of them even filmed his own death.Kinne recently talked to “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman about the Palestine Hotel incident, describing how both she and one of her superiors, Warrant Officer John Berry, knew from an internal e-mail that the hotel was on the target list.
[...]
Kinne noted how then-Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted that the hotel “was not attacked during any phase of the aerial campaign”—with emphasis, perhaps, on aerial. She also revealed what she considered to be illegal wiretapping by the military to monitor certain NGOs and described how information from the Iraqi National Congress that later turned out to be false was given high priority in the U.S. government’s chain of command.
[Reuters] Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in Baghdad on Thursday in what witnesses said was a U.S. helicopter attack and which police in a preliminary report called "random American bombardment".
Apparently in Baghdad they get 4 or 5 hours of electricity per day, up from last October's rate of 2.4 hours. Now that's progress.
Pre-invasion rates were 16-24 hours per day.
Another journalist has been killed.
In a stunning display of hypocrisy, one day before the anniversary of the deaths of three journalists in Iraq from US bombing attacks on their media offices, Centcom issued a press release condemning "criminal attacks on journalists" in Iraq.
Ohio is one of the latest States to turn down federal money to opt out of the Abstinence Education program, joining Wisconsin, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Montana and New Jersey. California never participated from the inception. Some of Ohio's objections: "Among other things, the money cannot be used to promote condom or contraceptive use. Students are to be taught that bearing children outside wedlock is likely to harm society and that sexual activity outside marriage is 'likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.'"
Avon Park, Florida, police arrested a 6-year-old girl, put her in handcuffs and took her away, for throwing a tantrum in school. The police chief says she's not the only 6-year-old they've arrested. "Believe me when I tell you, a 6-year-old can inflict injury to you just as much as any other person." Keeping Avon Park safe from 6-year-olds with attitude.
You could caption this Reuters photo, but Dependable Renegade beat you to it.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Al Jazeera pulled its remaining reporters out of Baghdad after the attack. "We got the message," a station director at the Qatar headquarters said. The very next day after the three attacks, the US Army entered Baghdad and staged the destruction of the statue of Saddam Hussein. (The "end of major operations in Iraq" - Mission Accomplished.)
Coincidence?
During the Afghan war, two supposedly smart US bombs hit the Reuters office in Kabul and many suspect the attack was no accident. It happened at a strategic moment, two hours before the Northern Alliance took over the city.
And on this day in particular, with its divine coincidence - the day Christians celebrate a young man laying down his life for the truth - take a moment to reflect on the fact that these young men gave their lives so that we might know the truth.
Tarek Ayyoub, Al Jazeera
Mongrel image
Taras Protsyuk, Reuters
 Reuters image |  Reporters Without Borders image |
Jose Couso, Telecinco
 AFP image |  smh.com.au image |
Rest in peace.
Other journalists killed in Iraq.U.S. Journalist Shot to Death in Iraq
Wednesday August 3, 2005 9:46 PM
By ABBAS FAYADH
Associated Press Writer
BASRA, Iraq (AP) - An American freelance journalist, who accused Basra's police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen in a recent New York Times column and his Internet blog, was found shot to death in the southern city after being abducted by armed men driving a police car.
Steven Vincent, whose work also has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and his female Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint by five men Tuesday evening as they left a currency exchange shop, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said Wednesday.
Vincent's body was discovered Tuesday night on the side of the highway south of Basra. He had been shot in the head and body, al-Zaidi said.[...]
In an opinion column published July 31 in the Times, Vincent wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Vincent quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have taken place in Basra.
``He told me that there is even a sort of 'death car' - a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment,'' he wrote.
Vincent also was critical of the British military, which is responsible for security in Basra, for turning a blind eye to abuses of power by Shiite extremists in the city.[...]
So, perhaps the question of the attack on reporter Giuliana Sgrena has another angle? Perhaps it was actually an attempt (a successful one) to kill Calipari.It is also believed that the late Deputy SISMI chief Nicola Calipari became aware of information in Iraq that linked the control of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere to a "third level" in "an anti-terrorism country."
And if they were lucky, a two-fer.
Corexit: More toxic than the oil
IVAW: Iraq Veterans Against the War
