Posted on 11/18/2004 12:59:19 PM PST by Pikamax
Newsman Who Taped Marine Shooting Captive Keeps Silent By ROBERT F. WORTH
EAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 18 - The American photographer whose videotape of what appears to be a marine shooting a wounded Iraqi is generating a storm of outrage in the Arab world maintained his steadfast silence on Wednesday, saying he wanted to continue reporting on the incident before commenting.
"As sensitive as this is, we want to make sure the world has an accurate picture of the events," the photographer, Kevin Sites, a freelance cameraman working for NBC News, told a reporter at the military base near Falluja where he is staying.
The videotape shows a group of marines on Saturday entering a mosque in Falluja, where several wounded Iraqi prisoners lay on the floor. One marine is shown shooting and apparently killing one Iraqis. The marines were members of the Third Battalion, First Regiment, with whom Mr. Sites was embedded.
An unedited version of the videotape, which was distributed to other news agencies as part of a pool report, was being broadcast several times an hour on Arab satellite television stations on Wednesday, and American commanders have said it has already yielded a huge propaganda victory for the anti-American insurgency. Some Arab commentators have even compared it to the scandal surrounding mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
Yet many questions about the shooting remain unanswered, human rights advocates and senior military officials agree. In the videotape, the soldier, before firing at the prone body, can be heard yelling that the Iraqi prisoner was only pretending to be dead, suggesting that he may have believed he was acting in self-defense. It is unclear from watching it whether the prisoner was moving before the shot.
Mr. Sites would appear to be in a unique position to shed some light on what happened, but he declined repeatedly to comment on Wednesday.
He did say he had received hate mail and threats since the broadcast, in edited form, on the initial NBC News report. A comment section on a Web site he maintains has been shut down because of death threats.
A lanky man with shoulder-length hair and a goatee, Mr. Sites has maintained a low profile since emerging from the fighting in Falluja, avoiding the area where other reporters on the base are billeted.
Several other reporters said he might be concerned about legal or other complications stemming from the shooting, and was staying silent for that reason. Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are conducting an inquiry, and the marine who fired the shot has been removed from the battlefield.
A spokeswoman for NBC News, Allison Gollust, said by e-mail, "Given that there is an investigation on behalf of the marines into this incident, it just doesn't make sense for Kevin to be commenting on it at this point."
On www.kevinsites.net, his Web site, Mr. Sites has posted photographs and writings from the days he spent with the marines in Falluja. In one journal, he wrote, "The marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement."
It goes on to quote a marine saying everything to the west of his position in Falluja was "weapons free." It continues, "Weapons free means the marines can shoot whatever they see - it's all considered hostile."
His entries on the site say nothing about the shooting or the videotape. But the site has links to a comment page maintained by a Web administrator, with a fierce exchange of views about the tape. Some viewers support his videotaping of the shooting, while others criticize it, some using obscene language. A number of comments have been deleted by the administrator.
His Web site describes Mr. Sites as a "pioneering, multimedia journalist" who has worked in Afghanistan, Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East. It features a photograph of him in a black T-shirt sitting next to a machine gun, gesturing, with the words, "Dispatches from a life in conflict." It recounts an incident in which he and his team were abducted outside Tikrit by members of the fedayeen, Saddam Hussein's paramilitary troops, and threatened with death, before their Kurdish interpreter negotiated their release after four hours.
Mr. Sites has worked for several networks and has a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, according to the site.
good idea
He knew what he was doing. I hope the bastard gets what he deserves.
There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites. The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong. Clear the Marine and return him to duty.
"The marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement."
I guess Mr. Sites prefers our marines to be SHOT AT...rather than our marines doing the shooting. He's keeping quiet because he's done what he intended to do...to make our marines look like heartless murderers. He needs to crawl under a rock and stay there.
What, he is still breathing?
Is this creep still doing reporting with our soldiers? I hope our soldiers kick his ASS out of Iraq!
MSM stench cowering in the corner. Glad to see he is getting the credit he deserves. He should consider doing surveillance photos for John Edwards when his is chasing ambulances.
he obviously supports terrorists!
My question is:
If sites was working for NBC---How did Al-Jazeera get the film so fast?
Maybe that was one of the conditions they set for releasing him instead of beheading him. Any way you look at it, this guy is a traitor.
I bet he does!
Yeah...it appears that the Marine shot the wrong guy. It should have been the reporter who tried to set him up.
[There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites.]
You've got to be kidding me....he knew EXACTLY what he was doing by releasing that clip. He wanted to portray our marines as murderers.
That film should never have been released. I thought the military screens any footage before it is released. There was no reason to release this. They could have conducted an internal investigation.
nick
If he thought that there was a war crime of some sort, he should have turned the tape over to the military authorities.
I wish he would have a fatal accident.
This guy Sites obviously sent the video over to Al Jazeera - that is like sending a copy to every anti-american Arab in the world. He know the backlash against the U.S. was going to resonate in the ARAB WORLD! Instead of giving it to the Miltary to annalyze he sent it to Al Jazeera the plague of the Arab World!
There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites. The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong. Clear the Marine and return him to duty.
I agree. If the pointy head libs & the Arab world are traumatized, I say that's a good thing.
I can think of one reason. How was that pool video handled? Did we ever find out how and when Reuters got it?
I suspect he will be silent untill he is well out of country and back in his plush appartment and well away from anyone with a short haircut and an M16.
Then he will no doubt start flapping his yap.
But I doubt this guy is getting much help anymore, and probably fears he will just be accidentally left behind in the next fire-fight. I'm sure our guys wouldn't hurt him, but I doubt they would risk their life for him either.
He's suddenly found himself in a war zone, with no friends anywhere in site.
As to what Sites did with the tape, my impression is that an embed and pool reporter his work goes to any media outlet who wants it. Again, no need to be mad at Sites; the Marine did NOTHING wrong.
Bet he didn't like the email I sent him...
That's called the "either/or" fallacy.
Either our guys shoot anything that breathes or they should just lie down and let the enemy kill them.
Clearly, there is a third option.
Have you seen the video? 'Cause I saw it. An Iraqi guy was shot through the chest slumped against a wall inside a mosque. There's a big blood stain on his chest and he's breathing heavily. He's not moving.
A marine starts yelling that "he's faking like he's dead--he's faking!" Then he shoots the muj. "He's dead now," he says.
*****
I don't know how you can blame any of that on the photographer . . .
The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong<<<
Was it sites voice I heard in describing what was on the film as "possible human rights violations" by this Marine? Thats not an exact quote, but I heard it, so if it was sites, he has not shut his mouth soon enough.
SItes should be dropped in the middle of falluja wearing a diaper - then he can comment on human rights violations at his leisure.
I hope the next time we see him he is in an orange jumpsuit begging Al Zarqawi not to saw off his head.
Thank you. Let the Arab world know that the Marine had no choice but to do what he did and that the reason he had no choice is because of the wholesale war crimes being committed by these "insurgents."
I agree. If the pointy head libs & the Arab world are traumatized, I say that's a good thing.
Wrong again. Sites was working for NBC, but the film ran first on AlJazerra. How did THAT happen?
This guy went over there with an agenda, and finally got the film he was looking for.
Why was he in there filming dead bodies (CLOSE UP) anyway? That stuff is never aired on US TV as it violates the Geneva Conventions. He was filming for AlJazerra on the sly.
i guess he's not worried about getting fragged...
I know the marine did NOTHING wrong. Don't twist my words. The journalist released that kind of clip for ONE reason and ONE reason only....he wanted to sensationalize the killing of an Iraqi.
"It goes on to quote a marine saying everything to the west of his position in Falluja was "weapons free." It continues, "Weapons free means the marines can shoot whatever they see - it's all considered hostile."
and in Fallujah, after all the women and children and elderly men were given time to evacuate, isn't that a pretty safe assumption?
"I hope the next time we see him he is in an orange jumpsuit begging Al Zarqawi not to saw off his head."
That's something that shouldn't be wished upon any American, period.
It's amazing to me how rabid some have gotten over this story....
So what as to WHY Sites did it. The Marine did NOTHING wrong and when people like you aim your anger at Sites you are acting like the Marine DID commit a crime. Forget about Sites; spend your time defending the Marine and WHY he did what he did.
There is no reason for anyone to be mad at Sites. The Marine did nothing wrong and all Sites did was film the Marine doing nothing wrong. Clear the Marine and return him to duty.
I agree. All this hype that Sites is anti-war can't be proven, even by going to his website. He is and has been reporting on the war and by taking two of his statements over the long period of his photog career and using them as anti-war is wrong. The guy is filming war, all sides. Give the guy a break unless you can come up with something tangible that links him directly to anti-war. His films have been going out to other branches of the media and they are the ones who took this issue and blew it up. Blame them, the liberal press. They are the scapegoats in this and Sites is their patsy.
Pretty suspicious character. Why was he allowed to be an embedded reporter? Why don't they just allow Al Jazeera to send in embeddeds?
Kevin Sites is a anti-war, anti-American, free-lance journalist, under contract to NBC, whose purpose is to undermind the U.S.'s objectives in this war.
The journalist has an established web page dedicated to showing anti-war photos.
Our Pentagon should withdraw all imbedded journalists, and the person responsible for giving the video to the Iraqi TV should be arrested for aiding and abetting the enemy. Period.
Mr. Sites should be scared to death because he is a traitor.
I wonder how many thousands of videos/photos he has taken, showing our soldiers assisting civilians and killing the enemy. It took this long before he got a video of what he was looking for.
[people like you aim your anger at Sites you are acting like the Marine DID commit a crime]
Ok....I don't get that? How?
Oh sure, that's why he released it to the world without any context!
No, we are not implying the Marine did anything wrong.
The LAPD was crucified for Rodney King. Have you ever seen the ENTIRE video. If you did, you would know that LAPD was justified. Those guys were sacrifiiced for PC.
Site needs to be removed too, IMO.
As I said earlier, Sites filmed a Marine who did NOTHING wrong. The only LOGICAL reason for you or anyone else to be mad at Sites would be if in fact the Marine did do something wrong. Being mad at Sites because he filmed a Marine doing NOTHING wrong is illogical. Don't make Sites the story; take the opportunity to defend the Marine by explaining WHY he did what he did.
I don't blame the Newsman specifically. It's really the fault of the media in general. It illustrates that the media has a problem with the truth.
[take the opportunity to defend the Marine by explaining WHY he did what he did]
Defend? The reason the marine needs to be defended because Sites released a clip that is taken out of context. This is not journalism..it is sensationalized propaganda.
Well said, IDC!
No, the LAPD was WRONG. Some of the first hits were certainly justified. After that, however, it just became POed cops using King for target practice. If you think the cops were justified to continue hitting him [after the first few hits] then you have a serious problem.
Don't do that. It is too late except for more possible damage to the situation.
Then place it in context.
take the opportunity to defend the Marine by explaining WHY he did what he did.<<
WE dont need to be defending OUR MARINES! Not because of some panty-wasted, anti-american, terrorist-loving, POS like SIKES. SIKES PRESENTED THIS AS PROPOGANDA.
SIKES THE TRAITOR IS THE STORY - MARINES TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN _ WE THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE CARE OF SIKES.
if this is true, then why in the world did he release the film in the first place? i think he knows the marine acted in self defense, but is afraid to say so because it would make his boss and corporation look silly. (as if they need help)
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