Patrick Barrett
Friday April 23, 2004
Controversy over the extent to which the US military has been responsible for the deaths of media employees operating in Iraq comes as reports surface of mistreatment meted out to employees of al-Jazeera by the US
military.In one case, al-Jazeera cameraman Salah Hassan has accused the US of detaining him for a month, during which he claims he was beaten, verbally abused and kept in solitary confinement.
Hassan, who was arrested in November last year following an attack on an American convoy, claims he was addressed only as “al-Jazeera” or “bitch” by US soldiers and at one stage was forced to stand hooded, bound and naked for 11 hours and repeatedly kicked when he collapsed.
He was eventually released on a street outside Baghdad still dressed in the vomit-stained jump suit US guards had forced him to wear during his incarceration.
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All of the 14 journalists and media employees to die in Iraq this year have been Iraqi or Arabs working for Middle Eastern or western media companies.
The latest journalist to die, Asaad Kadhim, and his driver Hussein Saleh worked for al-Iraqiya, the TV station set up by the coalition to help promote press freedom in the country.
Mr Kadhim and Mr Saleh were shot on Monday by American soldiers as they
drove away from an interview with Iraqi police. Jassem Kamel, an al-Iraqiya cameraman who was wounded in the shooting, claimed a US soldier punched him in the face before he was given first aid.
Abuse is meted by a twisted minority, the ‘rogue element’? It’s so pathetic for heads of state and complicit generals to say these incidents are the exceptions, not the rule.
Frederick says Americans came into the prison: “We had military intelligence, we had all kinds of other government agencies, FBI, CIA … All those that I didn’t even know or recognize.”