US military tries to censor coverage of Saddam's hearing

[350HP930]

So much for freedom of the press and this being an 'iraqi' trial.

It apprears preparations are being made so that if Saddam blurts out any interesting info about his relationship with or dirt on our own government it will be caught before it gets out to the public.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=537630

US military tried to censor coverage of Saddam hearing

A team of US military officers acted as censors over all coverage of the hearings of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen on Thursday, destroying videotape of Saddam in chains and deleting the entire recorded legal submissions of 11 senior members of his former regime.

An American network cameraman who demanded the return of his tapes, which contained audios of the hearings, said he was told by a US officer: "No. They belong to us now. And anyway, we don't trust you guys."

According to American journalists present at the 30-minute hearing of Saddam and 11 former ministers at Baghdad airport, an American admiral in civilian clothes told camera crews that the judge had demanded that there should be no sound recording of the initial hearing. He ordered crews to unplug their sound wires. Several of the six crews present pretended to obey the instruction. "We learnt later," one of them said, "that the judge didn't order us to turn off our sound. The Americans lied - it was they who wanted no sound. The judge wanted sound and pictures."

Initially, crews were told that a US Department of Defence camera crew would provide the sound for their silent tapes. But when CNN and CBS crews went to the former occupation authority headquarters - now the US embassy - they found that three US officers ordered the censorship of tape which showed Saddam being led into the courtroom with a chain round his waist which was connected to handcuffs round his wrists. The Americans gave no reason for this censorship.

"They were rude and they didn't care," another American television crew member said. "They were running the show. The Americans decided what the world could and could not see of this trial - and it was meant to be an Iraqi trial. There was a British official in the courtroom whom we were not allowed to take pictures of. The other men were US troops who had been ordered to wear ordinary clothes so that they were civilians' in the court."

Three US officers viewed the tapes taken by two CNN cameras, Al-Djezaira' (a local, American-funded Iraqi channel), and the US government. "Fortunately, they were lazy and they didn't check all the tapes properly so we got our audio' through in the satellite to London," one of the crew members told The Independent yesterday. "I had pretended to unplug the sound from the camera but the man who claimed he was a US admiral didn't understand cameras and we were able to record sound. The American censors at the embassy were inattentive - that's how we got the sound out."

The only thing the Americans managed to censor from most of the tapes was Saddam's comment that "this is theatre - Bush is the real criminal."

Television stations throughout the world were astonished yesterday when the first tapes of Saddam's trial arrived without sound and have still not been informed that the Americans censored the material. "What can we do when an American official tells us the judge doesn't want sound - and then we find out that they lied and the judge does want the sound?" an American camera operator asked.

Video showed the face - and audiotape revealed the voice - of Judge Raid Juhi, whose name was widely reported in the Arab press yesterday. According to the camera crews, Judge Juhi wanted the world to hear Saddam's voice. Nevertheless the Americans erased the entire audiotape of the hearings of the 11 former Saddam ministers, including that of Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, and "Chemical" Ali, Saddam's cousin accused of gassing the Kurds at Halabja. The US Department of Defence tape of their hearings has been taken by the US authorities so there is now no technical record of the words of these 11 men, save for the notebooks of "pool" reporters - four Americans and two Iraqis - who were present.

Judge Juhi said not long ago that "I have no secrets - a judge must not be ashamed of the decisions he takes."

The Americans apparently think differently.

[Mulholland]

What is your point?...We should shove American ideology down their throats?...The left just wants a show-trial and some soundbites that they can use to show American guilt. That is all they care about.

Just sickening.

[350HP930]

So you are for censorship? Why am I not suprised.

A person like yourself who does not believe people should be able to question their leaders or know what their government is really up to would probably be a lot happier someplace like china instead of the US.

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by 350HP930
So you are for censorship? Why am I not suprised.

A person like yourself who does not believe people should be able to question their leaders or know what their government is really up to would probably be a lot happier someplace like china instead of the US.

Please...The far-right doesn't suppress Christian thought, try to get crosses burned off county seals or push through attacks on free speech like "campaign finance reform" (McCain is no Conservative)...Let's say I don't trust American media, nor do I feel that our form of perverted media justice should be imposed on them...

Eason Jordan writes this, about his "work" for CNN...

ATLANTA — "Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

For example, in the mid-1990's one of our Iraqi cameramen was abducted.For weeks he was beaten and subjected to electroshock torture in the basement of a secret police headquarters because he refused to confirm the government's ludicrous suspicion that I was the Central Intelligence Agency's Iraq station chief. CNN had been in Baghdad long enough to know that telling the world about the torture of one of its employees would almost certainly have gotten him killed and put his family and co-workers at grave risk.

Working for a foreign news organization provided Iraqi citizens no protection. The secret police terrorized Iraqis working for international press services who were courageous enough to try to provide accurate reporting. Some vanished, never to be heard from again. Others disappeared and then surfaced later with whispered tales of being hauled off and tortured in unimaginable ways. Obviously, other news organizations were in the same bind we were when it came to reporting on their own workers."



Long and short, CNN covered for Saddam to get access to Baghdad...They painted a false picture for simply "the story."

[350HP930]

The above article just goes to prove the points laid out in the following articles about the dangers posed by the CIA using reporters as spies in foriegn lands.

http://www.cpj.org/attacks96/sreports/cia.html

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by 350HP930
The above article just goes to prove the points laid out in the following articles about the dangers posed by the CIA using reporters as spies in foriegn lands.

Your above article proves squat, backed up with non-sourced quotations...It is sloppy journalism that appears agenda driven. It draws conclusions with no substantiantion, intentionally leading the reading audience to a false premise, all wrapped up in a false premise.

False premise - American military disallowing left-wing media sharks from having a feeding frenzy.

False premise wrapping - The media has a right to have the feeding frenzy in a sovereign country.

Intermingled false premise - Media is good and pure, Bush/Military is bad and corrupt.

[Mulholland]

Damn right wing media...wait......hmmmmmm...Maybe the media is a left-wing propaganda tool...nahhhhhhh

[on-ramp]

350HP930 ,

you're absolutely right.... i was watching the coverage the other day on CNN and the video had a heading labelled: CLEARED BY US MILITARY

hmmm, screams censorship....let's see everything or nothing. why censor and filter out only what's in your favour in an attempt to manipulate the media and the news.

but you have to be careful around here, though, some will be quick to label you Unamerican or Unpatriotic if you have an opposing view.

[kach22i]

I only know, what they let me know.

This kind of reminds me of NASA not doing live feeds of space walks anymore....................too many UFO's.

[fintstone]

Guess it would never cross one's mind that censorship might be to ensure that no classified information might be passed during the trial that would endanger soldiers or Iraqi civilians? Of course, why would reporters care since most rooted for the other side.

[350HP930]

Oh yes, we all know how concerned our military is about the life and safety of the civilians in iraq.

I should have known they were doing this for our own good. I mean, if the world saw saddam wearing chains in the courtroom or heard him denouncing bush as a criminal that could have been a secret signal to his minions to unleash the hidden WMD upon his captors . . .

[kach22i]

I thought they censored it just incase Saddam was abducted by aliens.

It’s not like Saddam would ever have embarrassing dirt on the Bush’s or uncle Dick, right?

All kidding aside, I just read that pro-Saddam rally's have already started to crop up. They really don't need images of Saddam in chains to help them get worked up, do they? It's a fine line, but the Iraqi's deserve to start out with a free press, we once had it......................I miss it.

[djmcmath]

To believe that our soldiers on the ground are unconcerned about civilian life is a blatently disrespectful view. These guys are normal people, like you and I, who have gone to serve their country. There are always a few bad apples, same as with any society. For the most part, most of the guys on the ground are pretty reasonable people, and the lives of Iraqi civilians matter.

FWIW, military types are often very sensitive about classified stuff. In the submarine world, we've gone so far as to classify most of differential equations and electrical engineering, on the off-chance anyone else figures out that nuclear engineering requires these things. If asked, I'm supposed to tell you I don't know how a diode works. :rolleyes Sometimes it seems pretty stupid, but I can't think of a time that I've personally seen something classified for the purpose of political agenda.

Now if you're talking news media, that's a different story -- somehow, these guys are allowed to tell whatever story they want, regardless of what they did or did not see. We'll tell about Abu Ghraib over and over again, despite the fact that it was over a year ago, and everyone involved has rotated to other duty stations. Nevermind the fact that our soldiers are helping rebuild mosques, that's not inflamatory or anti-bush.

(sigh)

Dan

[kach22i]

Originally posted by djmcmath
Now if you're talking news media, that's a different story -- somehow, these guys are allowed to tell whatever story they want, regardless of what they did or did not see. We'll tell about Abu Ghraib over and over again, despite the fact that it was over a year ago, and everyone involved has rotated to other duty stations. Nevermind the fact that our soldiers are helping rebuild mosques, that's not inflamatory or anti-bush.

(sigh)

Dan

You mean like this story?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0704-03.htm
Abu Ghraib General Says Israeli Worked at Prison


LONDON - The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib prison says there are signs that Israelis were involved in interrogating Iraqi detainees at another facility.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, suspended in May over allegations of prisoner abuse, said she met a man who told her he was Israeli during a visit to a Baghdad intelligence center with a senior coalition general.

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East," Karpinski told British Broadcasting Corp. radio in an interview broadcast yesterday. "He said, 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic, but I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'

"I was really kind of surprised by that. ... He didn't elaborate any more than to say he was working with them, and there were people from lots of different places that were involved in the operation," Karpinski added.

Israel's Foreign Ministry told the BBC that reports of Israeli troops or interrogators in Iraq were "completely untrue."

The allegations were also denied in a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office.

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by 350HP930
Oh yes, we all know how concerned our military is about the life and safety of the civilians in iraq.

Oh yes, we all know how concerned the Democrats are about the life and safety of the civilians of iraq.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Mulholland
Oh yes, we all know how concerned the Democrats are about the life and safety of the civilians of iraq.

I know the first few mass graves found were the bodies of Iraqi soldiers from the first Gulf War..................anyone remember the highway of death?

More but older mass graves turned out to be from the decade long conflict with Iran......................recall that the US (Reagan/Bush the elder) supplied both sides weapons.

There were the Kurdish villages in the north.................but they were nothing compared to what the Turks were doing to the Kurds on the other side of the border.

Funny cartoon, but where are these mass graves, when were they created and who is in them?

[Superman]

350, the distinction between truth and information is lost on some people. As you can see by their posts over the weeks and months here on this forum. Eventually, truth comes out. This could be a very interesting Fall. We may see quite a fall this Fall, pun intended. Again, because of the natural tendency of the truth to rise to the surface.

Right now, our friends here are comfortable with censorship as long as it delays the day of reckoning that I think even they know is imminent.

[bigrubberjeep]

Originally posted by 350HP930
So you are for censorship? Why am I not suprised.

A person like yourself who does not believe people should be able to question their leaders or know what their government is really up to would probably be a lot happier someplace like china instead of the US.

This is too funny - I was bombarded with emails just a month or so ago when I even "mentioned" any hints of questioning the war it self.

[Mulholland]

Originally posted by kach22i
Funny cartoon, but where are these mass graves, when were they created and who is in them?

Since the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown in May, 270 mass graves have been reported. By mid-January, 2004, the number of confirmed sites climbed to fifty-three. Some graves hold a few dozen bodies—their arms lashed together and the bullet holes in the backs of skulls testimony to their execution. Other graves go on for hundreds of meters, densely packed with thousands of bodies.

"We've already discovered just so far the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair on November 20 in London. The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people. "Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 290,000 Iraqis have been 'disappeared' by the Iraqi government over the past two decades," said the group in a statement in May. "Many of these 'disappeared' are those whose remains are now being unearthed in mass graves all over Iraq."

Let's repeat this for your own clarity..."The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people"

USAid.gov

Supe, 350, kach...pull yer heads out...It really is unbecoming.

[bigrubberjeep]

Originally posted by Mulholland
Since the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown in May, 270 mass graves have been reported. By mid-January, 2004, the number of confirmed sites climbed to fifty-three. Some graves hold a few dozen bodies—their arms lashed together and the bullet holes in the backs of skulls testimony to their execution. Other graves go on for hundreds of meters, densely packed with thousands of bodies.

"We've already discovered just so far the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair on November 20 in London. The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people. "Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 290,000 Iraqis have been 'disappeared' by the Iraqi government over the past two decades," said the group in a statement in May. "Many of these 'disappeared' are those whose remains are now being unearthed in mass graves all over Iraq."

Let's repeat this for your own clarity..."The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people"

USAid.gov

Supe, 350, kach...pull yer heads out...It really is unbecoming.

Did you know? 13,000 Colombians are killed by Guerilla groups every year - If you add that times 2 dacades, thats 260,000 almost as many Killed under Saddam's regime

Why no focus here? Lack of oil maybe? What happened to the war on Drugs?