Dahr Jamail: Censoring the Carnage (on warcrimes and censorship)

[Monkie]

http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=6425

"At long last, the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq is upon us. As a witness providing testimony, I'm being interviewed by many outlets. Today, one of them was by reporters for one of the larger newspapers in Turkey, Yeni Safak.

I'll leave the reporters nameless, for reasons you'll soon see.

The newspaper has been translating various articles of mine into Turkish and running them, particularly those concerning the most recent Fallujah massacre. The reporter who was interviewing me today told me that the former American consulate here, Eric Edelman, asked the prime minister of Turkey to pressure his paper to not run so many of my stories.

"Why did he do this?" I asked him.

"Edelman said it was the wrong news," he told me with a smile.

Turns out Edelman also asked that articles by Robert Fisk and Naomi Klein not be run so often in Yeni Safak, either.
~snip~
People like Edelman don't want the public to know that the same tactics were used in Fallujah by the U.S. military – posting snipers around the city to shoot anyone who moved, targeting ambulances, impeding medical care, and detaining innocent civilians en masse
"

[carincross]

1. kudos to Amy Goodman

Dahr Jamail, Naomi Klein, and Robert Fisk are all frequent contributors to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! It's the best newscast in America.

[Oversea Visitor]

2. Yes and when a respected hardworking media

try to give their hardwork some attention
Chimp start throwing his weight around gee Prime Minister of Turkey
Wonder what was the outcome
When has Iraq become part of USA

[Jack Rabbit]

3. If this is true, then it is more evidence of war crimes as policy

What is being described as happening in Buhrez is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Of that, there can be no doubt.

If this was instigated in the field by US commanders, then they are responsible. They should be relieved of command and made to face a court martial. However, I doubt that is the case. Rather, such war crimes as this appears to be Bush regime policy. The fact that Mr. Edelman, the US Ambassador to Turkey, is working to cover up the atrocity is disturbing to say the least and indicative that this is a matter of regime policy, not of any commander in the field being a bad apple. In that event, I am not the least bit interested in prosecuting the field commanders. There are bigger fish to fry.

Those at the top who are responsible for this policy should be impeached and removed from office and all regime officials who plan or implement this policy should be indicted and prosecuted under the War Crimes Act of 1996; if the federal government is unable or unwilling to prosecute, then an international tribunal should be convened for the purpose.

Mr. Edelman is a small fry in this scheme. Nevertheless, the attempts to shield war criminals, whether the crimes were instigated by commanders in the field or as a matter of policy, is something that itself should be investigated. If this is regime policy, then Ambassador Edelman should be charged and tired as a war criminal.