http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34
http://news.yahoo.com/remains-274-us-troops-dumped-landfill-report-081234306.html
Excerpt:
Remains of 274 US troops dumped in landfill: report
– 1 hr 1 min ago
The procedure was never formally authorized or disclosed to senior Pentagon officials, who conducted a review of the cremation policies of Dover Air Base -- the main point of entry for US war dead -- in 2008, the Post said.
Nor was the dumping ever disclosed to the families of the fallen troops, who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a respectful and dignified manner, the Post said, citing Air Force officials.The newspaper quoted officials as saying that a precise count of the remains disposed of at a Virginia landfill would require searching through the records of 6,300 troops whose remains have passed through Dover since 2001.
An additional group of 1,762 remains -- which could not undergo DNA testing because they were badly damaged or burned -- were also disposed of in this manner, the Post said, citing the Air Force.
Defense officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last month investigators said they had found "gross mismanagement" at the US Air Force mortuary, with body parts lost and remains mishandled.After allegations from whistle-blowers, an Air Force probe found that two "portions of the remains" of fallen troops had been lost and uncovered other problems at the morgue.
New procedures have been put in place at the mortuary and the commander at the morgue, a colonel, together with two civilian officials were disciplined over the episode but not sacked.
The Dover affair echoes a scandal that erupted last year at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's hallowed ground for war dead. Investigators there uncovered cases of misidentified remains and mismanagement.
Following an Army probe, the conduct at Arlington is now the subject of a criminal investigation.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/298282.shtml
Excerpt:
Where have all the young men gone? Buried in mass graves in the desert
author: allen aslan heart e-mail: whiteaglesoaring@yahoo..com
Mazen Dana, an award-winning cameraman of Palestinian descent told his brother before he was murdered by US troops that he had discovered a mass grave dug by U.S. troops to conceal the bodies of their fellow comrades killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. Now finally there is evidence of the most grisly cover-up in US military history.
Many young Americans have already died in this illegal war. Their government sent them without adequate protection, 1 mistreated them when they returned home wounded,2 and threatened to cut their pay.3 Their families and communities will miss them. The pain of their loss may one day be healed. Their bodies have been brought back in flag-draped coffins, hidden from public view as though there was shame in their death.4 But it is not their shame, but the shame of American leaders, military and civilian, who betrayed their country, by their propaganda and outright lies.
Early in the Iraq invasion, Mazen Dana, an award-winning cameraman of Palestinian descent, was shot by a soldier on a tank as he filmed near Baghdad on 17 August 2003. A US military spokesman said that the inquiry had found troops respected their rules of engagement in the incident, but that Washington would not publish the full report.
His brother, Nazmi, said he was deliberately murdered for discovering mass graves of U.S. troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. "Mazen told me by phone few days before his death that he discovered a mass grave dug by U.S. troops to conceal the bodies of their fellow comrades killed in Iraqi resistance attacks," Nazmi told IslamOnline.net in exclusive statements.
"He also told me that he found U.S. troops covered in plastic bags in remote desert areas and he filmed them for a TV program. We are pretty sure that the American forces had killed Mazen knowingly to prevent him from airing his finding."5
In February 2004, Joe Vialls reported that, "According to a well-placed Pentagon source, the White House and corporate media are reporting less than half the actual American military deaths in Iraq. As of 3 February 2004, the 'official' media total stood at 528, while the real total at midnight on the same day was 1,188. This criminal discrepancy in the fatality figures is due to corrupt civilians in the Pentagon working for Paul Wolfowitz Inc." 6
In April 2004 this report appeared on Sky News and then swiftly disappeared:
Arrogantly assuming their actions would not be noticed [or could not be countered] by the Republic Guard, a few thousand U.S. Marines with battle tanks and other armor approached the 300,000 residents of Fallujah from the east and the west, drawn from existing Marine bases in Ar Ramadi and Baghdad. This was an inexcusably stupid tactical error, because as soon as the U.S. Marines closed on Fallujah and started shelling the unarmed women and children within, Republican Guard Special Forces units carried out lightning strikes on the weakened Marine bases in Ar Ramadi and Western Baghdad, destroying fuel dumps and killing 130 Americans in less than 12 hours.7
In December 2003, Captain Eric Holmes May published Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry, describing the strange reporting and lack of reporting about the fall of Baghdad. US troops were being attacked and all the media could talk about was Private Jessica Lynch and, soon after, the photo-op mock demonstration of Iraqis "pulling down" Saddam's statue. The misdirection worked like a charm few asked any questions. Many troops were killed by the Iraqi Republican Guard but Americans were not told.8
Now finally there is evidence of the most grisly cover-up in US military history. Al-Basrah.net reports that eye witnesses in Falluja have claimed this morning (Wednesday, September 22) that some civilians have detected a mass grave in the north western sector of the city containing the bodies of sixteen people of foreign appearance.
The witnesses have informed the correspondent of the German News Agency that the inhabitants of that area have detected a grave this morning at 11 a.m. local time which contained the dead bodies of 16 foreigners who have recently been killed and probably belong to American soldiers who were buried in a ditch in the North West sector of the city.
The witnesses have clarified that the identity of the dead bodies which were hitherto remained unidentified, were found to be dressed in dresses similar to those worn by local Fallujans. The style of their haircut indicated that the dead were military personnel and the color of the hair and the face appearances suggested that they were foreigners.
The way by which these people were killed is so far unclear. An eye witness has said that the grave was detected when the local people have smelled a bad odor in the surrounding which urged them to dig up the place in order to reveal the source of the unpleasant smells.
The witnesses have also added that the local police have arrived to the scene and have prevented the civilians and journalist from approaching the grave and photographing the dead bodies. 9
Another mass grave found in Ramadi earlier this year This statement by the Iraqi Islamic Army.
Baghdad - Iraq on the 7th of March 2004. The photos were taken in the province of Ramadi, Iraq at a site that belongs to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and was used until the end of January 2004 by the U.S. occupation forces as a military base. Due to the continuous attacks by the Iraqi Resistance, the enemy troops were forced to leave. on the 20th of February a scouting group visited the site and it's surrounding area to confirm the lack of enemy activity in this area. During the mission the personnel noticed a lot of dogs & wolves in this desolate area digging and sniffing the grounds. After a closer look, tracks & markings of heavy vehicles were discovered along with trenches and digging area that were left unattended. Further exploration of the site revealed the infamous black body bags that we in Iraq have heard so many rumors about. In these bags we found the dead bodies or body parts of dead soldiers who died as a result of direct hits to the head and chest areas by bullets or shrapnel. These bodies have been buried for a few months only, and are definitely soldiers who belong to the occupying forces. They are soldiers who have been stripped of all their clothes and IDs. in order to avoid their identification if discovered. A large number of bodies have been discovered and have been removed from the sites where they were found and relocated to places only known to our active personnel. These bodies have been relocated for the sole purpose of uncovering the mass deception and lies that the U.S. administration & the British government have carried out since the beginning of this conflict. These bodies will be handed over to the Red Cross at the suitable time in order to be returned to their families for proper burial. The above statement is being released by the Iraqi Islamic Army, one of the active factions that are resisting the occupying forces led by the United States & Britain. Further information will be released at the appropriate time. Now do we have proof of the mass graves that Mazen Dana photographed before his death? Do we have an explanation for the discrepancy in fatalities Joe Vialls reported? Perhaps so. Only a thorough INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION can provide definitive answers. We cannot expect the Pentagon to investigate itself.
We have other questions to consider as well. Is this the way Americans expect their war dead to be treated? Is this disrespect for the dead related to the careless attitude of not providing adequate body armor? Who are our leaders that can so cavalierly send young American men and women off to war with such ringing oratory and patriotic fervor and then leave them behind to rot in the desert? If this is how they treat the "nation's finest", how then do they view you and me? Do you wish for your son or daughter to be buried in an unmarked mass grave in a distant land? What are they trying to hide from us? If this is their attitude toward an American life, how easy would it be to murder 3,000 people on 9-11?
Much has been made of the glory and honor of serving and defending one's nation and the responsibility of never leaving a warrior behind. That must have been another day and another generation of leaders. Consider what lies ahead if these people continue to lead us. 1. Full Metal Jacket: Why must American soldiers in Iraq face death because of outmoded body armor? 29 September 2003 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-turley29sep29,1,3663195.story 2. Maimed in Iraq, then mistreated, neglected, and hidden in America. Feb 18, 2004 http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=654 3. Troops in Iraq face pay cut: Pentagon says tough duty bonuses are budget-buster http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/14/MN94780.DTL 4. Dead Soldiers Come Home behind a Wall of Secrecy 21 Oct 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55816-2003Oct20.html 5. Reuters Cameraman Killed For Filming U.S. Graves: Brother 17 August 2003 http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-08/19/article08.shtml 6. 1,188 Americans Killed in Iraq - Pentagon definition of dead differs 11 February 2004 http://joevialls.altermedia.info/yourson.html 7. Pentagon reports 130 soldiers killed in Iraqi battle 20 miles west of Fallujah April 6, 2004 http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1130577,00.html 8. Ghost Troop 3/7 Cavalry http://www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/ 9. The Detection of Sixteen Dead Bodies in A mass Grave in Falluja 22 September 2004 http://www.albasrah.net/images/3loj/mass-grave-us-soldiers.htm
homepage: http://www.the7thfire.com/Iraq_War/where_have_all_the_young_men_gone.htm
http://cpj.org/awards/2001/dana.php
Excerpt:
MAZEN DANAYeah, yeah, on purpose after we said to them, "We are journalists," they said, "OK, go back!" So we came into our car and went back, then after that they shoot us. You can't see them because succeeds falling out, it is from a magazine 250. And they both are some danger. And this has been treated in the camp from here. After the authority forbid us to enter Hebrom means it's to, it's not under Israeli control and this is not politics, again, this is the freedom of journalists. So, for a few days in this kind of this month, I've got injury in my leg too, but it's like bullets from candles, boom, boom. And I still now, I'm not ready to go to work. And this is the democracy which Israelis said about the freedom of journalists.
INTERVIEWER
Are we to understand that Palestinian journalists are not allowed to move into an area under Israeli control.
MAZEN DANA
Yeah, yeah, they book many, many of them in Palestinian, they said clearly, "You are not allowed if we saw anybody, if anybody's seen a journalist in this Israeli area, you will be arrested and your life will be in danger."
http://www.kawther.info/K20030819A.html
Excerpt:
http://www.kenhudnall.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=53
Excerpt:
Dirty Dealings
Written by Ken Hudnall
Monday, 29 November 2010 09:58
We are the only remaining superpower and arguably the greatest country in the world. So it is sad to find that not only have we broken the law, but we use the power inherent in our international position to cover up the story. Those who would tell the truth are crushed in the process. I am talking about a story that is now back in the nbews as a result of the release of over 250,000 messages between the State Department and our allies. Understand I am not in favor of such revelations, but I do believe that at times these airing of activity may be necessary to keep this country on track.
I was made aware of a story from August 17, 2003. An award winning Reuters camerman, Mazen Dana, was killed, allegedly by US troops while he was filming near the Abu Gharib prison in Baghdad. According to Nazmi Dana, the brother of the dead camerman, Mazen Dana was murdered for discovering and filming mass graves of US troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. Accoriding to Nazmi Dana, his brother was wearing his badge identifying him as a newsman, but when he discovered the hidden mass graves, he was shot in cold blood. It seems that our command structure had given orders to cover up the extent of U.S. casualties. Mazen Dana also told his brother that he had found many dead US soldiers covered by plastic bags in remote desert areas and he had filmed those bodies for a television program.
Have we really sunken to such depths?
(Source: Islamonline.net, August 20, 2003)
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/israel.palestine/thestory.html
Excerpt:
The West Bank city of Hebron is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is home to 150,000 Palestinians and an enclave of some 400 Jewish settlers who are guarded by Israeli soldiers. The tensions between the settlers and the Palestinians make Hebron particularly volatile.
While working as a journalist in Israel, Patricia Naylor, a Canadian TV producer, met a number of Palestinian video cameramen and still photographers who cover the frequent clashes in Hebron. These journalists work for Western media companies. Cameramen Mazen Dana and Nael Shyouki of the British news agency, Reuters, and their colleagues are accustomed to the risks of photographing street protests and riots. But displaying their wounds, they all told Naylor they had become targets of Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and even live ammunition.
To document the shootings and other hazards they face, the Palestinian cameramen made a pact: whenever one of them was being attacked, the others would film. Mazen Dana and the others showed this private video collection to Naylor. On one tape she sees Israeli settlers in Hebron, some of them children, throwing stones at the cameramen. On another tape, settlers attack and beat unconscious a cameraman for the French news agency, AFP. There is footage of Mazen Dana being shot twice.
"But of all the videotaped shootings," says Naylor, "the one I found most disturbing was Nael Shyouki's from [March] 1998 before the current intifada."
That night Shyouki and his colleagues had just finished covering a march by Jewish settlers who had been forced to return home by Israeli soldiers. The cameramen were standing around, making plans to leave, when soldiers arrived and started shooting at them. Shyouki was hit by rubber bullets. In graphic footage, we see Shyouki lying on the ground, bleeding, as he is shot a second time. Finally, his colleagues drag him to safety and rush him to the hospital.
Three years later, Shyouki took Naylor to the scene, emphasizing that the soldiers who fired were less than 100 feet away. "The moment they took positions they started firing towards us," recalls Shyouki. "Everybody hid and screamed we are journalists. We spoke in Hebrew, we spoke in English. We shout a lot. I guess this whole mountain heard our voice. Everybody in this area, except these soldiers because they don't want to hear it. They just kept shooting and shooting and shooting."
Shyouki says eight journalists were shot that night, including Mazen Dana. They had been hit by rubber bullets, which are used for crowd control. "But these Israeli-made bullets have a steel core," reports Naylor. "They can be deadly at close range."
At the time, Israeli journalists joined their Palestinian colleagues to protest the shootings, but no one was ever punished. Naylor showed the footage of Shyouki's shooting to Danny Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office. Grimacing at the disturbing videotape, Seaman - speaking as an individual - says, "I'm sorry, I wish he didn't have to go through this." Seaman tells Naylor that Shyouki may receive the official apology he seeks.
When the Palestinian intifada began, shootings of journalists became more frequent. The French group, Reporters Without Borders, documented 40 shootings in the first few months of the uprising, including the case of Bertrand Agierre, who was shot in the chest while covering a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The French TV correspondent was saved thanks to his bulletproof vest. The Israelis investigated the shooting but concluded there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. A freelance Israeli photographer, Avichai Nitzan, was shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier who, he says, confided later that he mistook him for a Palestinian. "I was standing with five or six Palestinian photographers and the soldiers hate Palestinian photographers," Nitzan tells Naylor. An army report, which Nitzan disputes, says he was reckless. Nitzan is now suing the army in which he once served.
In response to all the shootings, Israeli official Danny Seaman announced at a July 2001 press conference: "Threats, injury or harm to members of the media whether intentional or by error are unacceptable. The state of Israel regrets any injury caused to journalists as a result of actions by our forces or individuals within our forces."
But since that declaration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated. Palestinian suicide bombers intensified their deadly campaign. The Israeli army invaded most of the West Bank. More than 600 Israelis and more than 1,700 Palestinians have died. And the situation for journalists has deteriorated.
During the heavy fighting in the spring of 2002, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a BBC crew and an NBC crew, including correspondent Dana Lewis. The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York warns of "a growing animosity in Israel toward the media." At their 20th anniversary ceremony in November 2001, CPJ bestowed a Press Freedom Award upon Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana, but the award has not made his work any less dangerous.
Returning to Israel last summer, Naylor finds that Dana had almost been killed by a bullet as he photographed Israeli bulldozers demolishing a contested area. Dana's boss, Tim Heritage, the Reuters bureau chief in Jerusalem, tells Naylor, "We have an incident a week probably where someone gets shot at. We routinely protest, [but] don't really hear anything back from the army. We demand investigations. Don't really get much."
Asked why he thinks journalists are being shot at by Israeli soldiers, Heritage replies, "Because they don't want us going places, they don't want us doing things. They don't like us...I'm not sure it's deliberate policy or anything...I think it's just more haphazard and there's a lack of control...There's a lack of sense of being punished if you do it. And we regard it at Reuters as a gross violation of media freedoms."
The Israeli army denied Naylor's repeated requests for interviews, so she returns to speak with Danny Seaman, the head of the Israeli press office. "After all the violence of the past year, I found his attitude had hardened," observes Naylor.
"I'm not worried about the press, freedom of the press," Seaman tells her. "If there are any limitations to it, it'll be restored. Any freedom can be restored - the lives of Israelis cannot be restored."
The Israeli government has taken away the press cards that allow Palestinian journalists to move freely. Nael Shyouki is now confined to the city of Bethlehem. He never did get an apology for his 1998 shooting. And Reuters has decided that to safeguard the life of Mazen Dana, their award-winning cameraman, they must take him off the street.
"It has always been hard to report the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hard to tell both sides of the conflict," Naylor says. "Now it's going to be harder still. And the toll on journalists has been profound."
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/298282.shtml
Excerpt:
Where have all the young men gone? Buried in mass graves in the desert
author: allen aslan heart e-mail: whiteaglesoaring@yahoo..com
Mazen Dana, an award-winning cameraman of Palestinian descent told his brother before he was murdered by US troops that he had discovered a mass grave dug by U.S. troops to conceal the bodies of their fellow comrades killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. Now finally there is evidence of the most grisly cover-up in US military history.
Many young Americans have already died in this illegal war. Their government sent them without adequate protection, 1 mistreated them when they returned home wounded,2 and threatened to cut their pay.3 Their families and communities will miss them. The pain of their loss may one day be healed. Their bodies have been brought back in flag-draped coffins, hidden from public view as though there was shame in their death.4 But it is not their shame, but the shame of American leaders, military and civilian, who betrayed their country, by their propaganda and outright lies.
Early in the Iraq invasion, Mazen Dana, an award-winning cameraman of Palestinian descent, was shot by a soldier on a tank as he filmed near Baghdad on 17 August 2003. A US military spokesman said that the inquiry had found troops respected their rules of engagement in the incident, but that Washington would not publish the full report.
His brother, Nazmi, said he was deliberately murdered for discovering mass graves of U.S. troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. "Mazen told me by phone few days before his death that he discovered a mass grave dug by U.S. troops to conceal the bodies of their fellow comrades killed in Iraqi resistance attacks," Nazmi told IslamOnline.net in exclusive statements.
"He also told me that he found U.S. troops covered in plastic bags in remote desert areas and he filmed them for a TV program. We are pretty sure that the American forces had killed Mazen knowingly to prevent him from airing his finding."5
In February 2004, Joe Vialls reported that, "According to a well-placed Pentagon source, the White House and corporate media are reporting less than half the actual American military deaths in Iraq. As of 3 February 2004, the 'official' media total stood at 528, while the real total at midnight on the same day was 1,188. This criminal discrepancy in the fatality figures is due to corrupt civilians in the Pentagon working for Paul Wolfowitz Inc." 6
In April 2004 this report appeared on Sky News and then swiftly disappeared:
Arrogantly assuming their actions would not be noticed [or could not be countered] by the Republic Guard, a few thousand U.S. Marines with battle tanks and other armor approached the 300,000 residents of Fallujah from the east and the west, drawn from existing Marine bases in Ar Ramadi and Baghdad. This was an inexcusably stupid tactical error, because as soon as the U.S. Marines closed on Fallujah and started shelling the unarmed women and children within, Republican Guard Special Forces units carried out lightning strikes on the weakened Marine bases in Ar Ramadi and Western Baghdad, destroying fuel dumps and killing 130 Americans in less than 12 hours.7
In December 2003, Captain Eric Holmes May published Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry, describing the strange reporting and lack of reporting about the fall of Baghdad. US troops were being attacked and all the media could talk about was Private Jessica Lynch and, soon after, the photo-op mock demonstration of Iraqis "pulling down" Saddam's statue. The misdirection worked like a charm few asked any questions. Many troops were killed by the Iraqi Republican Guard but Americans were not told.8
Now finally there is evidence of the most grisly cover-up in US military history. Al-Basrah.net reports that eye witnesses in Falluja have claimed this morning (Wednesday, September 22) that some civilians have detected a mass grave in the north western sector of the city containing the bodies of sixteen people of foreign appearance.
The witnesses have informed the correspondent of the German News Agency that the inhabitants of that area have detected a grave this morning at 11 a.m. local time which contained the dead bodies of 16 foreigners who have recently been killed and probably belong to American soldiers who were buried in a ditch in the North West sector of the city.
The witnesses have clarified that the identity of the dead bodies which were hitherto remained unidentified, were found to be dressed in dresses similar to those worn by local Fallujans. The style of their haircut indicated that the dead were military personnel and the color of the hair and the face appearances suggested that they were foreigners.
The way by which these people were killed is so far unclear. An eye witness has said that the grave was detected when the local people have smelled a bad odor in the surrounding which urged them to dig up the place in order to reveal the source of the unpleasant smells.
The witnesses have also added that the local police have arrived to the scene and have prevented the civilians and journalist from approaching the grave and photographing the dead bodies. 9
Another mass grave found in Ramadi earlier this year This statement by the Iraqi Islamic Army.
Baghdad - Iraq on the 7th of March 2004. The photos were taken in the province of Ramadi, Iraq at a site that belongs to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and was used until the end of January 2004 by the U.S. occupation forces as a military base. Due to the continuous attacks by the Iraqi Resistance, the enemy troops were forced to leave. on the 20th of February a scouting group visited the site and it's surrounding area to confirm the lack of enemy activity in this area. During the mission the personnel noticed a lot of dogs & wolves in this desolate area digging and sniffing the grounds. After a closer look, tracks & markings of heavy vehicles were discovered along with trenches and digging area that were left unattended. Further exploration of the site revealed the infamous black body bags that we in Iraq have heard so many rumors about. In these bags we found the dead bodies or body parts of dead soldiers who died as a result of direct hits to the head and chest areas by bullets or shrapnel. These bodies have been buried for a few months only, and are definitely soldiers who belong to the occupying forces. They are soldiers who have been stripped of all their clothes and IDs. in order to avoid their identification if discovered. A large number of bodies have been discovered and have been removed from the sites where they were found and relocated to places only known to our active personnel. These bodies have been relocated for the sole purpose of uncovering the mass deception and lies that the U.S. administration & the British government have carried out since the beginning of this conflict. These bodies will be handed over to the Red Cross at the suitable time in order to be returned to their families for proper burial. The above statement is being released by the Iraqi Islamic Army, one of the active factions that are resisting the occupying forces led by the United States & Britain. Further information will be released at the appropriate time. Now do we have proof of the mass graves that Mazen Dana photographed before his death? Do we have an explanation for the discrepancy in fatalities Joe Vialls reported? Perhaps so. Only a thorough INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION can provide definitive answers. We cannot expect the Pentagon to investigate itself.
We have other questions to consider as well. Is this the way Americans expect their war dead to be treated? Is this disrespect for the dead related to the careless attitude of not providing adequate body armor? Who are our leaders that can so cavalierly send young American men and women off to war with such ringing oratory and patriotic fervor and then leave them behind to rot in the desert? If this is how they treat the "nation's finest", how then do they view you and me? Do you wish for your son or daughter to be buried in an unmarked mass grave in a distant land? What are they trying to hide from us? If this is their attitude toward an American life, how easy would it be to murder 3,000 people on 9-11?
Much has been made of the glory and honor of serving and defending one's nation and the responsibility of never leaving a warrior behind. That must have been another day and another generation of leaders. Consider what lies ahead if these people continue to lead us. 1. Full Metal Jacket: Why must American soldiers in Iraq face death because of outmoded body armor? 29 September 2003 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-turley29sep29,1,3663195.story 2. Maimed in Iraq, then mistreated, neglected, and hidden in America. Feb 18, 2004 http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=654 3. Troops in Iraq face pay cut: Pentagon says tough duty bonuses are budget-buster http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/14/MN94780.DTL 4. Dead Soldiers Come Home behind a Wall of Secrecy 21 Oct 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55816-2003Oct20.html 5. Reuters Cameraman Killed For Filming U.S. Graves: Brother 17 August 2003 http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-08/19/article08.shtml 6. 1,188 Americans Killed in Iraq - Pentagon definition of dead differs 11 February 2004 http://joevialls.altermedia.info/yourson.html 7. Pentagon reports 130 soldiers killed in Iraqi battle 20 miles west of Fallujah April 6, 2004 http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1130577,00.html 8. Ghost Troop 3/7 Cavalry http://www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/ 9. The Detection of Sixteen Dead Bodies in A mass Grave in Falluja 22 September 2004 http://www.albasrah.net/images/3loj/mass-grave-us-soldiers.htm
homepage: http://www.the7thfire.com/Iraq_War/where_have_all_the_young_men_gone.htm
http://cpj.org/awards/2001/dana.php
Excerpt:
MAZEN DANAYeah, yeah, on purpose after we said to them, "We are journalists," they said, "OK, go back!" So we came into our car and went back, then after that they shoot us. You can't see them because succeeds falling out, it is from a magazine 250. And they both are some danger. And this has been treated in the camp from here. After the authority forbid us to enter Hebrom means it's to, it's not under Israeli control and this is not politics, again, this is the freedom of journalists. So, for a few days in this kind of this month, I've got injury in my leg too, but it's like bullets from candles, boom, boom. And I still now, I'm not ready to go to work. And this is the democracy which Israelis said about the freedom of journalists.
INTERVIEWER
Are we to understand that Palestinian journalists are not allowed to move into an area under Israeli control.
MAZEN DANA
Yeah, yeah, they book many, many of them in Palestinian, they said clearly, "You are not allowed if we saw anybody, if anybody's seen a journalist in this Israeli area, you will be arrested and your life will be in danger."
http://www.kawther.info/K20030819A.html
Excerpt:
The Daily Life of Kawther Salam ..: Secret Burials in the Desert :....: Ultimate Disrespect for U.S. Army Personnel and US-Contracted Mercenaries in Iraq :.. August 19, 2003 |
 2000 - Mazen Dana arguing with an Israeli soldier during a demonstration at the entrance of Shuhada street in Hebron Update 20.08.2003 - Made some corrections, added minor details. Update 23.08.2003 - Added links to some websites which copied or linked to this article. Did the Pentagon order the assassination of a journalist in order to cover up secret mass burials of dead U.S. soldiers and U.S.-contracted mercenaries in the deserts around Baghdad? What is really behind the killing of my colleague and friend, the Palestinian Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, in Bagdad? Is the Pentagon really scared of the media telling the U.S public what is really going on in Iraq? Do the criminals in the Pentagon want to cover their crimes against their own soldiers by killing journalists in Iraq? If so, then this is what can be called organized terror. The U.S. troops obviously felt threatened and in big danger due to the Palestinian Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, who was investigating a story about secret burials of U.S. mercenaries and soldiers in mass graves in far-away places in deserts strips around Baghdad, burials which had obviously been authorized by the commanders of the U.S. army. |
http://www.kenhudnall.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=53
Excerpt:
Dirty Dealings
Written by Ken Hudnall
Monday, 29 November 2010 09:58
We are the only remaining superpower and arguably the greatest country in the world. So it is sad to find that not only have we broken the law, but we use the power inherent in our international position to cover up the story. Those who would tell the truth are crushed in the process. I am talking about a story that is now back in the nbews as a result of the release of over 250,000 messages between the State Department and our allies. Understand I am not in favor of such revelations, but I do believe that at times these airing of activity may be necessary to keep this country on track.
I was made aware of a story from August 17, 2003. An award winning Reuters camerman, Mazen Dana, was killed, allegedly by US troops while he was filming near the Abu Gharib prison in Baghdad. According to Nazmi Dana, the brother of the dead camerman, Mazen Dana was murdered for discovering and filming mass graves of US troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks. Accoriding to Nazmi Dana, his brother was wearing his badge identifying him as a newsman, but when he discovered the hidden mass graves, he was shot in cold blood. It seems that our command structure had given orders to cover up the extent of U.S. casualties. Mazen Dana also told his brother that he had found many dead US soldiers covered by plastic bags in remote desert areas and he had filmed those bodies for a television program.
Have we really sunken to such depths?
(Source: Islamonline.net, August 20, 2003)
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/israel.palestine/thestory.html
Excerpt:
The West Bank city of Hebron is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is home to 150,000 Palestinians and an enclave of some 400 Jewish settlers who are guarded by Israeli soldiers. The tensions between the settlers and the Palestinians make Hebron particularly volatile.
While working as a journalist in Israel, Patricia Naylor, a Canadian TV producer, met a number of Palestinian video cameramen and still photographers who cover the frequent clashes in Hebron. These journalists work for Western media companies. Cameramen Mazen Dana and Nael Shyouki of the British news agency, Reuters, and their colleagues are accustomed to the risks of photographing street protests and riots. But displaying their wounds, they all told Naylor they had become targets of Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and even live ammunition.
To document the shootings and other hazards they face, the Palestinian cameramen made a pact: whenever one of them was being attacked, the others would film. Mazen Dana and the others showed this private video collection to Naylor. On one tape she sees Israeli settlers in Hebron, some of them children, throwing stones at the cameramen. On another tape, settlers attack and beat unconscious a cameraman for the French news agency, AFP. There is footage of Mazen Dana being shot twice.
"But of all the videotaped shootings," says Naylor, "the one I found most disturbing was Nael Shyouki's from [March] 1998 before the current intifada."
That night Shyouki and his colleagues had just finished covering a march by Jewish settlers who had been forced to return home by Israeli soldiers. The cameramen were standing around, making plans to leave, when soldiers arrived and started shooting at them. Shyouki was hit by rubber bullets. In graphic footage, we see Shyouki lying on the ground, bleeding, as he is shot a second time. Finally, his colleagues drag him to safety and rush him to the hospital.
Three years later, Shyouki took Naylor to the scene, emphasizing that the soldiers who fired were less than 100 feet away. "The moment they took positions they started firing towards us," recalls Shyouki. "Everybody hid and screamed we are journalists. We spoke in Hebrew, we spoke in English. We shout a lot. I guess this whole mountain heard our voice. Everybody in this area, except these soldiers because they don't want to hear it. They just kept shooting and shooting and shooting."
Shyouki says eight journalists were shot that night, including Mazen Dana. They had been hit by rubber bullets, which are used for crowd control. "But these Israeli-made bullets have a steel core," reports Naylor. "They can be deadly at close range."
At the time, Israeli journalists joined their Palestinian colleagues to protest the shootings, but no one was ever punished. Naylor showed the footage of Shyouki's shooting to Danny Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office. Grimacing at the disturbing videotape, Seaman - speaking as an individual - says, "I'm sorry, I wish he didn't have to go through this." Seaman tells Naylor that Shyouki may receive the official apology he seeks.
When the Palestinian intifada began, shootings of journalists became more frequent. The French group, Reporters Without Borders, documented 40 shootings in the first few months of the uprising, including the case of Bertrand Agierre, who was shot in the chest while covering a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The French TV correspondent was saved thanks to his bulletproof vest. The Israelis investigated the shooting but concluded there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. A freelance Israeli photographer, Avichai Nitzan, was shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier who, he says, confided later that he mistook him for a Palestinian. "I was standing with five or six Palestinian photographers and the soldiers hate Palestinian photographers," Nitzan tells Naylor. An army report, which Nitzan disputes, says he was reckless. Nitzan is now suing the army in which he once served.
In response to all the shootings, Israeli official Danny Seaman announced at a July 2001 press conference: "Threats, injury or harm to members of the media whether intentional or by error are unacceptable. The state of Israel regrets any injury caused to journalists as a result of actions by our forces or individuals within our forces."
But since that declaration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated. Palestinian suicide bombers intensified their deadly campaign. The Israeli army invaded most of the West Bank. More than 600 Israelis and more than 1,700 Palestinians have died. And the situation for journalists has deteriorated.
During the heavy fighting in the spring of 2002, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a BBC crew and an NBC crew, including correspondent Dana Lewis. The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York warns of "a growing animosity in Israel toward the media." At their 20th anniversary ceremony in November 2001, CPJ bestowed a Press Freedom Award upon Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana, but the award has not made his work any less dangerous.
Returning to Israel last summer, Naylor finds that Dana had almost been killed by a bullet as he photographed Israeli bulldozers demolishing a contested area. Dana's boss, Tim Heritage, the Reuters bureau chief in Jerusalem, tells Naylor, "We have an incident a week probably where someone gets shot at. We routinely protest, [but] don't really hear anything back from the army. We demand investigations. Don't really get much."
Asked why he thinks journalists are being shot at by Israeli soldiers, Heritage replies, "Because they don't want us going places, they don't want us doing things. They don't like us...I'm not sure it's deliberate policy or anything...I think it's just more haphazard and there's a lack of control...There's a lack of sense of being punished if you do it. And we regard it at Reuters as a gross violation of media freedoms."
The Israeli army denied Naylor's repeated requests for interviews, so she returns to speak with Danny Seaman, the head of the Israeli press office. "After all the violence of the past year, I found his attitude had hardened," observes Naylor.
"I'm not worried about the press, freedom of the press," Seaman tells her. "If there are any limitations to it, it'll be restored. Any freedom can be restored - the lives of Israelis cannot be restored."
The Israeli government has taken away the press cards that allow Palestinian journalists to move freely. Nael Shyouki is now confined to the city of Bethlehem. He never did get an apology for his 1998 shooting. And Reuters has decided that to safeguard the life of Mazen Dana, their award-winning cameraman, they must take him off the street.
"It has always been hard to report the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hard to tell both sides of the conflict," Naylor says. "Now it's going to be harder still. And the toll on journalists has been profound."
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