Post by Hussar on Nov 17, 2004 6:37:30 GMT -5
Somebody should tell them that this may not be the best way to win the propoganda war.
From the The Toronto Globe and Mail
From the The Toronto Globe and Mail
Washington — War crime or self-defence? The new face of war has once again invaded our living rooms with the chilling video of a marine killing a wounded Iraqi insurgent as he lies on the floor of a mosque in Fallujah.
As the Pentagon announced a formal investigation into the bloody incident, Amnesty International warned that the "deliberate shooting of unarmed and wounded soldiers who pose no immediate threat is a war crime under international law," and perpetrators must be held accountable.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour said in a statement that she is "deeply concerned" about the condition of civilians caught up in the fighting in Fallujah, and said that the targeting of civilians, the killing of injured people and the use of human shields by either side in the conflict must be investigated.
The incident, which occurred on Friday as marines cleared the embattled Iraqi city of insurgents, was captured by an NBC camera crew.
It shows a group of marines entering the rubble-strewn mosque where five injured Iraqis are lying on the floor. One of the marines, in full combat gear, can be heard swearing in the background and saying that one of the Iraqis is not really dead.
"He's ..... faking he's dead," the marine says. A comrade adds, "Yeah, he's breathing."
The first marine is heard repeating the same allegation that the wounded man, who lies motionless on the floor, is pretending.
The footage then shows the marine raising his rifle at one of the prisoners. The video provided to the networks then is blacked out, but a shot can be heard.
"He's dead now," one of the marine declares.
Subsequent shots show the wall spattered with blood around the Iraqi's head. The fate of the other four injured Iraqi men remained unclear yesterday.
Al-Jazeera and other Arab news networks showed the uncensored version of the video, complete with the actual firing of the rifle, throughout the day, stirring anger in the Arab world. Commentators compared the impact to that of the grisly photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison earlier this year.
But while showing the Fallujah tape in full, Al-Jazeera said it had decided not to broadcast images of British aid worker Margaret Hassan's slaying, insisting that they were too grisly.
"We don't show acts of killing," said Jihad Ballout, Al-Jazeera spokesman. "We've never done it before, outside war."
In the United States, right-wing talk shows hailed the marines as heroes who were simply defending themselves against dangerous Iraqis.
"Our guys have been blown up by booby-trapped bodies," talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said.
"These are people who have been taking shots at American soldiers since we got there. These are the people that have links and ties to people who blew up 3,000 innocent Americans on Sept. 11."
In Fallujah, fellow marines who have fought house to house with a sometimes-elusive enemy came to the defence of their comrade, saying that they would have been behaved in the same way.
"I would have shot the insurgent, too. Two shots to the head," Sergeant Nicholas Graham of Pittsburgh told Reuters. "You can't trust these people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong."
But experts on military law said the incident may represent a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
"You can never target a combatant who is out of the fighting. He is considered hors de combat," said Mary Ellen O'Connell, an expert on the law of war at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. "If you start having solders shooting to kill for revenge, you've lost control of your army and they're just a marauding band," she said.
That kind of lack of discipline also does nothing for the Americans' goal of winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis, she added.
But getting a conviction if there is a court martial can prove difficult, she noted, recalling a similar case during the 1989 invasion of Panama, where a U.S. soldier was charged after killing a prisoner.
He was acquitted after claiming self-defence.
"It's very difficult for the prosecution to establish that the act was criminal because it's the heat of battle," said Michael Noone, a former judge advocate-general with the U.S. Air Force who now teaches national security at Catholic University in Washington.
As the Pentagon announced a formal investigation into the bloody incident, Amnesty International warned that the "deliberate shooting of unarmed and wounded soldiers who pose no immediate threat is a war crime under international law," and perpetrators must be held accountable.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour said in a statement that she is "deeply concerned" about the condition of civilians caught up in the fighting in Fallujah, and said that the targeting of civilians, the killing of injured people and the use of human shields by either side in the conflict must be investigated.
The incident, which occurred on Friday as marines cleared the embattled Iraqi city of insurgents, was captured by an NBC camera crew.
It shows a group of marines entering the rubble-strewn mosque where five injured Iraqis are lying on the floor. One of the marines, in full combat gear, can be heard swearing in the background and saying that one of the Iraqis is not really dead.
"He's ..... faking he's dead," the marine says. A comrade adds, "Yeah, he's breathing."
The first marine is heard repeating the same allegation that the wounded man, who lies motionless on the floor, is pretending.
The footage then shows the marine raising his rifle at one of the prisoners. The video provided to the networks then is blacked out, but a shot can be heard.
"He's dead now," one of the marine declares.
Subsequent shots show the wall spattered with blood around the Iraqi's head. The fate of the other four injured Iraqi men remained unclear yesterday.
Al-Jazeera and other Arab news networks showed the uncensored version of the video, complete with the actual firing of the rifle, throughout the day, stirring anger in the Arab world. Commentators compared the impact to that of the grisly photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison earlier this year.
But while showing the Fallujah tape in full, Al-Jazeera said it had decided not to broadcast images of British aid worker Margaret Hassan's slaying, insisting that they were too grisly.
"We don't show acts of killing," said Jihad Ballout, Al-Jazeera spokesman. "We've never done it before, outside war."
In the United States, right-wing talk shows hailed the marines as heroes who were simply defending themselves against dangerous Iraqis.
"Our guys have been blown up by booby-trapped bodies," talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said.
"These are people who have been taking shots at American soldiers since we got there. These are the people that have links and ties to people who blew up 3,000 innocent Americans on Sept. 11."
In Fallujah, fellow marines who have fought house to house with a sometimes-elusive enemy came to the defence of their comrade, saying that they would have been behaved in the same way.
"I would have shot the insurgent, too. Two shots to the head," Sergeant Nicholas Graham of Pittsburgh told Reuters. "You can't trust these people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong."
But experts on military law said the incident may represent a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
"You can never target a combatant who is out of the fighting. He is considered hors de combat," said Mary Ellen O'Connell, an expert on the law of war at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. "If you start having solders shooting to kill for revenge, you've lost control of your army and they're just a marauding band," she said.
That kind of lack of discipline also does nothing for the Americans' goal of winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis, she added.
But getting a conviction if there is a court martial can prove difficult, she noted, recalling a similar case during the 1989 invasion of Panama, where a U.S. soldier was charged after killing a prisoner.
He was acquitted after claiming self-defence.
"It's very difficult for the prosecution to establish that the act was criminal because it's the heat of battle," said Michael Noone, a former judge advocate-general with the U.S. Air Force who now teaches national security at Catholic University in Washington.
