| Author |
Message |
Captain Sulla
Ensign, Junior Grade
Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 42
|
 Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:53 pm 880 Civilians die in Fullujah Iraq |
|
| Quote: |
The US military has snipers watching the hospitals in Falluja. Their orders are to shoot dead anybody who tries to enter or leave. In the past eight days at least 880 Iraqi civilians have been killed by US forces, as always including hundreds of innocent women and children.
They called the invasion "Operation Iraqi freedom", but politicians are rarely motivated by what they can do for other people, so much as what they can do for themselves, and least of all what they can do for an estranged Arab people in a distant third-world country like Iraq.
A British aid worker described a typical encounter with an Iraqi recently liberated in Falluja. The old man must have suffered through years of sanctions and decades of conflict, but now, at long last, he is free:
"We went and found an old man lying outside his house. He was unarmed and he was dead, shot in the back."
SOURCES
The Guardian, "'Getting aid past US snipers is impossible'", 17 April 2004.
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1193729,00.html ]
Jo Wilding, 29, is a human rights campaigner and trainee lawyer from Bristol. She and two other foreign nationals have been inside Falluja for the past week, providing medical and humanitarian aid
Everybody in Falluja has lost someone. There is not a person here who doesn't have a close friend or relative who has been killed, and a lot of them have lost several. We are hearing that the death toll is around 880 civilians, and that within the first few days 86 children were killed.
People have been under bombardment for the last eight days. A lot of people are trapped in their houses still - despite the ceasefire - without food, without water and terrified to leave. Food and medical aid is now arriving but the problem is getting the aid around the city. A lot of it is delivered to the mosque, but then getting it to the hospitals, past the American snipers, is proving to be impossible.
The main hospital apparently has been destroyed by bombing and the second largest is covered by US snipers - the Iraqis call it sniper alley. So Iraqi people are not able to get to and from the hospitals. I was working from a private clinic that had been turned into a hospital, and there was also one other improvised hospital in a car garage.
Nobody could give us a figure for injuries but there was an enormous stream of people going to this clinic, this makeshift facility. It comes in bursts. There is a lull in fighting and then more people start coming into the clinic. We saw two kids arriving with their grandmother, they had all been wounded by gunfire, they said by American snipers, while they were trying to leave their house to flee to Baghdad.
An elderly woman with a wound to the head was still carrying the white flag she had been holding when she was shot. They were all saying it was American snipers shooting - and we know that the US is using armed marines on rooftops to hold the parts of city they are controlling.
The times I have been shot at - once in an ambulance and once on foot trying to deliver medical supplies - it was US snipers in both cases. It is so unacceptable to stop medical aid getting through. They could have just asked to search us.
We saw mainly bullet wounds for the majority of civilians. Families are getting injured when they try to leave the house, trying to escape for Baghdad. A bullet goes astray or it gets them in their house. Then a lot of people are injured from shelling. They get hit by shrapnel that gets into the house.
Now the people you see on the streets of Falluja are the fighters. Everyone else is staying indoors. We were able to evacuate some women and children from their houses. We were asked to go and pick up some people close to a marine line.
We went and found an old man lying outside his house. He was unarmed and he was dead, shot in the back. I don't know how long he had been there, but his family were still inside the house, too terrified even to go and get him, even though to leave a body in the street for Muslims is just not possible. They were trapped in the no man's land between the mojahedin line and the marine line.
When the children came out of the house, they were crying and screaming "Baba, Baba" [Daddy, Daddy]. They were so frightened. We got this family out and also other families on the same street, including one where the marines were occupying their roof.
There is this terrible sadness in Falluja but also a strong community feeling. People are making every effort to help evacuate others, to distribute food, to negotiate for a ceasefire. There is a huge number of unqualified volunteers at the clinic.
There is much outrage too, at what the Americans have done. One of the doctors said to us he was happy when Saddam was got rid of, but then everything that had gone on since was worse.
Both sides have been firing, despite the ceasefire. On Wednesday night some mojahedin were trying to shoot down a drone plane. There are young children involved in the fighting. I saw boys, about 11 years old, masked up and holding AK-47s.
There is nowhere in Falluja that is safe . The only place people can go is Baghdad. At the checkpoint leaving Falluja towards Baghdad, women and children have been trying to leave, but in cars driven by men (women don't drive here) so they weren't allowed out. They are not letting men aged 14 to 45 - of "fighting age" - leave the city.
We negotiated so that one male driver was allowed per car through the checkpoint. But people fear that once a large proportion of women and children leave, the Americans will destroy the city.
The Guardian, "Reality television", 21 April 2004.
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1197288,00.html ]
Al-Jazeera has a track record of accurate reporting - which is why its journalists have been criminalised and its offices bombed
When US forces recently demanded that a team from the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera leave Falluja as a condition for reaching a ceasefire with the local resistance, it came as no surprise at the network's headquarters in Doha. Reliable sources there say that coalition officials threatened to close down the al-Jazeera bureau in Baghdad earlier this year and last week sent a letter accusing the network of violating the Geneva convention and the principles of a free press.
Since the "war on terror" began, al-Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the Pentagon. "My solution is to change the channel," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said this month in Baghdad, "to a legitimate, authoritative, honest news station. The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources."
The trouble for Kimmitt is that millions of people in the Middle East disagree. Al-Jazeera has become the most popular TV network in the region - with a daily audience of 35 million - precisely because it has shown the human carnage that US military onslaughts leave in their wake. If it became a "legitimate, authoritative, honest news station" of the kind that routinely censors the realities of US military operations, it would lose its audience.
The al-Jazeera reports of US snipers firing at women and children in the streets of Falluja have now been corroborated by international observers in the city. Perhaps it is natural that a military force should seek to suppress evidence that could be used against it in future war crimes trials. But it is equally natural that a free media should resist.
Democratising the Middle East may have been the neo-cons' case for the conquest of Iraq. But on the ground, the US is acting against the flowering of Middle East media freedom, which al-Jazeera initiated.
The station was launched in 1996, by disenchanted BBC journalists, after Saudi investors pulled the plug on the Arabic TV division of the BBC News service. Since then, it has spawned a plethora of competitors such as EDTV, Abu Dhabi TV, the Lebanese Broadcasting Company and, most significantly, al-Arabiya. Like al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya has been banned by the US-appointed Iraqi governing council for weeks at a time for "incitement to murder", after airing tapes of Saddam Hussein. Two of its journalists were shot dead by US forces at a US checkpoint in March.
Last November, George Bush declared that successful societies "limit the power of the state and the military ... and allow room for independent newspapers and broadcast media". But three days earlier, an al-Jazeera camera man, Salah Hassan, had been arrested in Iraq, held incommunicado in a chicken-coup-sized cell and forced to stand hooded, bound and naked for up to 11 hours at a time. He was beaten by US soldiers who would address him only as "al-Jazeera" or "bitch". Finally, after a month, he was dumped on a street just outside Baghdad, in the same vomit-stained red jumpsuit that he had been detained in.
Twenty other al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested and jailed by US forces in Iraq and one, Tariq Ayoub, was killed last April when a US tank fired a shell at the al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad's Palestine hotel. It was an accident, the Pentagon said, even though al-Jazeera had given the Pentagon the coordinates of its Baghdad offices before the war began.
As the invasion was getting underway, aljazeera.net was taken offline by a hacker attack mounted from California by John William Racine III. With a maximum tariff of 25 years available, the US attorney's office agreed a sentence of 1,000 hours community service.
Ever since al-Jazeera broadcast videotapes of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Washington has treated it like a fifth column. There have been allegations that intense pressure from the White House led the network to silence some of its more outspoken journalists, such as aljazeera.net's senior website editor, Yvonne Ridley, who was dismissed in November 2003.
In the weeks following 9/11, Colin Powell visited Emir al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar - and financier of al-Jazeera - to request that he rein in his country's free press. The emir went public about Powell's mission and, during the subsequent war in Afghanistan, al-Jazeera's offices in Kabul were bombed - by accident, the Pentagon said.
Sami al-Haj, an al-Jazeera cameraman seized in Afghanistan, remains detained in Guant�namo Bay to this day, and al-Jazeera's journalists in the west have been singled out. After attending the European social forum in Paris, I myself was detained for an hour by British special branch officers at Waterloo station. The questioning focused on my employer. The officers also wanted information about other al-Jazeera journalists in Paris and London, and asked if I would speak to someone in their office on a regular basis about my work contacts. I declined both requests.
The targeting of al-Jazeera is all the more remarkable, given that it is the only Arab TV network to routinely offer Israeli, US and British officials a platform to argue their case. The Israeli cabinet minister Gideon Ezra famously told the Jerusalem Post: "I wish all Arab media were like al-Jazeera". Kenton Keith, the former US ambassador to Qatar, commented: "You have to be a supporter of al-Jazeera, even if you have to hold your nose sometimes."
Al-Jazeera has a track record of honest and accurate reporting, and has maintained a principled pluralism in the face of brutal and authoritarian regimes within the region, and increasingly from those without. This is why it has been vilified, criminalised and bombed. It is also why it should be defended by those who genuinely believe that successful societies depend upon an independent media
|
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:25 pm |
|
1st: This source seemed very biased.
2nd: This is the way the war should be run, with an iron fist. This is the only way to actually bring order to some of these places.
|
|
|
Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
|
| Wed Apr 21, 2004 5:36 pm |
|
| JanewayIsHott wrote: | 1st: This source seemed very biased.
2nd: This is the way the war should be run, with an iron fist. This is the only way to actually bring order to some of these places. |
1st: OF COURSE it's biased--it's British.
2nd: I agree.
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:17 am |
|
^Ok, really not acceptable. You can't make such a broad, biased statement. Don't do it again.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
jbering69
Lieutenant
Joined: 09 Mar 2004
Posts: 137
Location: Canada
|
| Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:20 am |
|
Not including Theresa, but I hope that the other two posters in this forum, never, ever attempt to take a moral high ground on any issue. You have sanctioned the brutal butchering of admittedley innocent people, and the wounded. You, JanewayIsHott, state that "This is the only way to actually bring order to some of these places", have you forgotten that the chaos in these places is a result of the invasion? Rather paradoxical isn't it? Iraq is invaded, Iraq is in chaos, Iraq needs order. Your assent and encouragement to these war crimes repulses me.
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:26 pm |
|
I do apologize, I had just got done reading about the middle-east and was very angry at the time I wrote this to say the least. I know that is not an excuse, but it is an explanation and an apology. I also should have clarified this statement more to explain what I had in mind at the time I wrote this.
|
|
|
Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
|
| Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:49 pm |
|
| Theresa wrote: | | ^Ok, really not acceptable. You can't make such a broad, biased statement. Don't do it again. |
That's not what I meant, an I appologize WHOLE-HEARTEDLY. I meant that the British Press as a whole pretty much hates President Bush more than that of the American, and they take every chance they can to swipe at Bush...but I DO appologize.
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
|
|
|
Monkey
Captain
Joined: 05 Feb 2004
Posts: 833
Location: On a quest you probably wouldn't believe.
|
| Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:54 pm |
|
Well I think it's digusting there no excuse for such behavior (the troops not the 2 posters although I disagree with there statements as well)
|
|
|
jbering69
Lieutenant
Joined: 09 Mar 2004
Posts: 137
Location: Canada
|
| Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:31 pm |
|
No hard feelings. That both of you apologized demonstrates to me much more of your character. I should apologize too, after reading that article I admit I was horrified and angry. At the time it never occured to me that perhaps other people may not have completely absorbed the article in full. A mistake I have made myself before.
|
|
|
Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
|
| Fri Apr 23, 2004 6:48 pm |
|
One thing: I don't spin, meaning that I usually admit to mistakes and appogize for them and other wrong actions, and I tell the truth, and make judgements on facts laid out to me...That's what I do.
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:12 pm |
|
| jbering69 wrote: | | No hard feelings. That both of you apologized demonstrates to me much more of your character. I should apologize too, after reading that article I admit I was horrified and angry. At the time it never occured to me that perhaps other people may not have completely absorbed the article in full. A mistake I have made myself before. |
No need for you to apologize, I was actually kind of thankful after reading this post, to see that you accepted the apology so gracefully, sometimes people dont let it go, but I thank you for doing so. 
-Kevin
|
|
|
Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
|
| Sat Apr 24, 2004 10:45 am |
|
| JanewayIsHott wrote: | | jbering69 wrote: | | No hard feelings. That both of you apologized demonstrates to me much more of your character. I should apologize too, after reading that article I admit I was horrified and angry. At the time it never occured to me that perhaps other people may not have completely absorbed the article in full. A mistake I have made myself before. |
No need for you to apologize, I was actually kind of thankful after reading this post, to see that you accepted the apology so gracefully, sometimes people dont let it go, but I thank you for doing so.
-Kevin |
I agree. That is to say, same here.
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:10 am |
|
I do agree about the bias, though. Any publication that could say : | Quote: | | Al-Jazeera has a track record of accurate reporting |
that, when we clearly saw that wasn't the case during the time leading up to the coalitions arrival, and the "shock and awe" campaign. Hell, they were running statements by that moron, saying that the Americans will get nowhere near Baghdad, and that we were being turned back.
Not to mention, that article, and several others I read from the same publication were entirely one sided. Looked repeatedly for a story that wasn't such, no such luck.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
|
| Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:37 am |
|
| Theresa wrote: | I do agree about the bias, though. Any publication that could say : | Quote: | | Al-Jazeera has a track record of accurate reporting |
that, when we clearly saw that wasn't the case during the time leading up to the coalitions arrival, and the "shock and awe" campaign. Hell, they were running statements by that moron, saying that the Americans will get nowhere near Baghdad, and that we were being turned back.
Not to mention, that article, and several others I read from the same publication were entirely one sided. Looked repeatedly for a story that wasn't such, no such luck. |
Exactly, Theresa...They show pretty much NO GOOD THINGS IN AFGANHISTAN AND IRAQ!
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
