posted April 12, 2006 at 12:00 p.m.
Report: US soldiers 'unlawfully' shot Reuters cameraman
Independent private investigation comes week after 'firing' of Marine
officers involved in civilian shooting at Haditha.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
US soldiers breached their own rules of engagement when they shot two
members of an Iraqi camera crew working for Reuters last year, an
independent private investigation has determined. Editor & Publisher
reports that the investigation, which was commissioned by Reuters, also
said that the shooting was "prima facie unlawful."
Soundman Waleed Khaled was killed and cameraman Haider Kadhem was
wounded on Aug. 28, 2005, as they covered the aftermath of an insurgent
attack on Iraqi police in western Baghdad.
The investigation by the British risk management consultancy, The Risk
Amanagement Group (TRAG), was led by a former special investigator in
Britain's Royal Military Police, who retired after 23 years of service,
most recently in Iraq. The report said that the use of force was neither
"proportionate nor justified." An earlier invevstigation by the Army had
cleared the soldiers involved, but the TRAG report said "the Army
inquiry conclusions were not supported by the evidence – including the
testimony of the soldiers themselves – and expressed incomprehension
that crucial footage shot by Kadhem had somehow been lost by the military."
"We conclude, based on the independent evidence and the evidence of
Haider Kadhem, that no hostile act took place and no act could have been
legitimately mistaken as indicating hostile intent," said the report.
"The engagement was therefore in breach of US rules of engagement and,
in our opinion, on the current evidence was prima facie unlawful."
One key piece of evidence – video footage filmed by Mr. Kadhem
immediately before and during the shooting – was seized by the US
military after the incident. The military showed the footage to several
Reuters staffers but then said it had been separated from the case file
and subsequently lost.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that of the 67
journalists killed in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, 14 have been
killed by US troops. (Although the CPJ says it has found no evidence to
conclude these journalists were targeted by US forces, it continues to
investigate the shootings.) Four Reuters journalists have been killed,
at least three by US troops. Reuters is currently awaiting an
investigation into the death of the fourth.
US
The Guardian reports that a copy of the TRAG report has been given to
the Pentagon to review. Editor & Publisher writes that Reuters has also
asked the US military to open an independent inquiry into the shooting
death of Khaled.
"The report shows that Waleed Khaled's death was avoidable and his
killing was not justified," said the Reuters global managing editor,
David Schlesinger. "We call upon the US military to order a full,
independent and objective inquiry into this terrible incident."
Schlesinger added: "It is clear that Khaled was a journalist acting
as a professional. He was not a threat, he did nothing hostile, and he
should not have been shot and killed. A tragedy like this must not be
allowed to pass without us truly learning the lessons from it."
In another incident involving the shooting of Iraqi civilians by US
marines in the city of Haditha last November, the Marine Corps Times
reported Tuesday that three Marine officers – including an infantry
Battalion commander and two of his company commanders – were "fired
April 7 for lack of confidence."
Relieved were Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who commanded the Camp
Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines; India Company
commander Capt. James Kimber; and Kilo Company commander Capt. Luke
McConnell, said 2nd Lt. Lawton King, a spokesman for 1st Marine Division
at Camp Pendleton.
Officials previously have confirmed that Chessani’s battalion was
under investigation for an alleged Nov. 19 rampage by the battalion’s
Kilo Company Marines in the Iraqi city of Haditha that left 15 civilians
dead, including seven women and three children. The civilian deaths
occurred after a roadside bomb killed one of 3/1’s Marines during a
combat patrol.
A spokesman for 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton did not explicitly
connect the ongoing investigation of the incident in Haditha to the
firings, but did say that “decision was motivated by multiple incidents
that occurred throughout the entire deployment.”
Originally US troops said the Iraqi civilians had been killed in a
crossfire between them and insurgents attackers. But in a March 19
article, Time magazine published the results of a 10-week investigation
into the incident that contradicted the initial reports. Their
investigation showed the Iraqis killed by the American troops, including
the women and children, were not shot in a crossfire.
After the Time report, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
began an investigation in February, and the Marines also launched a
second investigation into the incident.
Haditha is a particularly violent place. In the weeks before the
incident, several US soldiers had been killed by insurgents. The
Guardian reported last August that the town was controlled by insurgents
and was a "mini-Taliban-like state."
The Associated Press reported Monday that the Marine unit had returned
from Iraq the week before the men were relieved of their commands.
Retired Lt. Col. Ken Martin, a former Marine Corps judge who works as a
military defense attorney in Tampa, Fla., said that it is very serious
for a frontline officer to be relieved of his command during wartime.
Martin said the firefight almost certainly played a role in [the]
decision to relieve the officers.
“Just common sense tells me that would be related,” Martin said.
“The Marine Corps ethos is if you're a commander, you're responsible,
whether your Marines do something good or something bad.”
Finally, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Pakistani
and US forces to release all information about missing journalist
Hayatullah Khan after his brother claimed he was being held by US
forces. Khan had been seized by tribesmen in the North Waziristan tribal
region bordering Afghanistan in early December 2005. Khan's colleagues
believe he was taken prisoner by some Pakistani authorities after he
wrote a story that contradicted an official government version of the
killing on an Al Qaeda commander. Khan has written that the US had been
involved in the shooting.
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