Journalist Shooting Was Justified Email This Story Print This Story

The 2005 shooting death of a Reuters journalist in the midst of a firefight in Baghdad was justified because U.S. soldiers believed the camera protruding from an unmarked car was a rocket propelled grenade, the Pentagon’s internal watchdog has concluded. In an 82-page report, the Defense Department’s inspector general also said that Reuters safety practices contributed to the death of sound technician Waleed Khaled, and the wounding of cameraman Haider Kadhem.

Think about it. In an active firefight a unknown person in an unknown car puts an object up and over his shoulder. Do you a) walk over and introduce yourself hoping to get on TV b) ignore it and hope it is reporters, c) identify them as a threat and eliminate with prejudice? The fact that we are wasting resources on this is asinine, journalists take a risk going into war zones to "get the story" that will get them a Pulitzer. From what we have seen on TV reporters in Iraq are not interested in the truth anyways. Most of them just want to try to make our military look bad. Should journalists even be allowed on the front lines?

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posted at 13:18:05 on 06/18/08 - Category: Army

Article Opinions

John wrote:

The guy obviously shouldn't have been where he was. The military did their job. To many reporters think they should be able to go anywhere and no one will touch them. They are more like packs of scavengers than real reporters.
Posted on 07/01/08 08:36:53

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