"The release last Monday of the US military video Collateral Murder by Wikileaks has already being dubbed a landmark equal to the Abu Ghraib pictures. It could not have come at a more appropriate time as global organisations of journalists commemorate today a similar slaughter of journalists that took place at the hands of the US army seven years ago. Just before noon on 8 April 2003, journalists billeted at the Palestine hotel in Baghdad watched in horror from their balconies as an M1A1 Abrams tank fired a heat round from nearly a mile away on the Jumhurya bridge toward the hotel. The shell hit a 15th-floor balcony, fatally wounding veteran Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish cameraman José Couso of Telecinco. Three other Reuters staff were injured – Paul Pasquale, Samia Nakhoul and photographer Faleh Kheiber.
That morning there was intense fighting all around the hotel in what was to be one of the last days of the battle of Baghdad. Among the 100 or so journalists staying at the Palestine many were huddled on the balconies observing the fight, but none would have ever imagined that they themselves would become targets.
The scene inside the Abrams tank and the exchange between US commanders prior to the order to fire is not as finely documented as the attack by the Apache helicopter shown in Collateral Murder, but the similarities are plenty. In the explanation for the shelling of the Palestine hotel, US commanders on the ground were quick to allege that they were under fire from Iraqis in buildings on the east side of the Tigris, a statement backed immediately by Centcom, maintaining that their forces came under "significant enemy fire from the Palestine hotel in Baghdad". This version was to be consolidated into all the US governments' official communications. Later on Lieutenant Colonel Philip DeCamp, commander of the 4th battalion 64th armor regiment, gave a new twist to the official explanation, asserting that there was an Iraqi fighters' bunker at the base of the hotel. Other commanders maintained that the shell was fired at someone carrying binoculars, which they identified as an artillery spotter.
The rationale for attack that unfolded during the Appache helicopter attack was similar in many aspects. A camera slung on Saeed Chmag's shoulder suddenly became a weapon and a few garbled exchanges with the commanding officer were enough to get the green light to open fire.
The only difference is that in one case tank officers fired at a 17-story building crammed with journalists on its balconies and some on the roof, while in the other the trigger-happy gunner mowed down a small group of unarmed civilians in a courtyard.
For every year since the Palestine hotel shooting, 8 April has come to symbolise impunity over attacks on journalists and media staff in Iraq and around the world. Earlier that day, another journalist, al-Jazeera reporter Tariq Ayyoub, was killed at the network studio when a US air-to-surface missile struck the Baghdad office of the news channel. Since then, documented evidence has emerged of 19 cases of journalists and media – seven in 2003, six in 2004, one in 2005 and five in 2007 – who died directly at the hands of the US army in Iraq.
Another similarity with the Apache helicopter shooting is the reluctance of US authorities to find and put on trial the killers. Over the years, there have indeed been reports of killings published by US authorities, but most failed to thoroughly examine the evidence available and instead put their main thrust on exonerating US personnel at all levels of command.
In the case of Terry Lloyd, also killed in 2003 by US soldiers, the Pentagon let his killers get away with murder. Lloyd's inquest in October 2006 saw a clip of the incident where the makeshift ambulance carrying Lloyd was fired upon by US troops. Lloyd was killed and so were his translator, Hussein Osman, and his cameraman, Fred Nerac, whose body has never been found. None of the US marines who took part in the exchange gave evidence at the inquest. Such is the degree of protection that the Pentagon gives to its soldiers that CPS representatives who travelled to America as part of their own inquiries, could not even talk to the men suspected of involvement.
In all of these cases, families and friends of the killed journalists continue to wait for credible investigations and honest reports about how and why their loved ones died. They just cannot understand why independent investigations of these incidents were not carried out.
For the last seven years, journalists' organisations have been urging US presidents – first George Bush, now Barack Obama – to meet their obligations and deliver justice and fair treatment to the victims of violence by its own soldiers. Their lack of response so far has been the same, showing their armed forces that criminal brutality or carelessness would not be punished. As John Simpson wrote: "Since the first world war, every war in which the Americans have fought has been marked by unnecessary civilian deaths …
Now, it seems, there may be a new distinguishing feature of American wars: the killing of journalists."http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/10/us-friendly-fire-justice-iraq
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