Kevin Sites holding camera
Posted on 11/22/2004 4:05:26 AM PST by johnny7
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The NBC correspondent who filmed the fatal shooting by a Marine of an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi by a U.S. Marine inside a Fallujah mosque has written on his Web site that the wounded man made no sudden movements before the Marine opened fire on him.
Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on the rebel-held city, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.
In a posting on his Web blog dated Sunday, Kevin Sites, a freelancer on assignment for NBC, wrote that he didn't see the wounded Iraqi make any movement before the Marine shot him - but that only the Marine can explain his mental state before the shooting. "Through my viewfinder I can see him (Marine) raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging," Sites writes. "However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons. Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down," Sites writes. "'Well he's dead now,'" says another Marine in the background. "I was not watching from a hundred feet away. I was in the same room," Sites writes. "Aside from breathing, I did not observe any movement at all." "I can't know what was in the mind of that Marine," the posting reads. "He is the only one who does."
The U.S. military is investigating the Nov. 13 incident by a member of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, footage of which has been broadcast worldwide, inflaming anti-American passions in the Arab world and among Iraq's Sunni minority. Military investigators also are looking into whether more than one wounded insurgent was shot in the mosque. Two other men visible on the NBC video appear to be suffering from what the network described in a broadcast as fresh and fatal gunshot wounds.
The shooting occurred when a Marine unit entered the mosque and found five men wounded in fighting at the site the day before, when another Marine unit clashed with gunmen apparently using the mosque to fire from, according to Sites' broadcast. In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead. The Marine then raises his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shoots the man. Two other men are seen slumped by a wall. Sites' account said the men, who were hurt in the previous day's attack, had been shot again by the Marines. Earlier in the footage, as the Marine unit that Sites was accompanying approached the mosque, gunfire can be heard from inside.
Sites writes in his Web diary that the Marine, angry moments before firing, quickly became apologetic when he realized the incident had been caught on camera. "The Marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room. He came up to me and said, 'I didn't know sir - I didn't know.' The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread." Sites - a well-built, goateed man who jogged around U.S. military bases near Fallujah that frequently come under mortar and rocket attack - wrote that perceptions of him as an agitator for peace are incorrect. "This week I've even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this Web site is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle - not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right."
Sites wrote that he considered destroying tape of the incident, rather than sharing it with the pool that shared footage among networks covering the fight in Fallujah. "I considered not feeding the tape to the pool - or even, for a moment, destroying it. But that thought created the same pit in my stomach that witnessing the shooting had ... I would be faced with the fact that I had betrayed truth as well as a life supposedly spent in pursuit of it."
He has a website?
If the man didn't move, he must have already been DEAD, case closed.
Shocking, breaking news: "MARINES HAD MILK & COOKIES, BUT DIDN'T OFFER ANY TO INSURGENTS"
Barf bags at 11:00...
He's a pariah right now and surrounded by marines, he's reaching for every excuse imaginable.
"If he stands still, he's a well-disciplined VC" Shoot them all, Marines.
OR, if you are faking death you don't move. Boom-case closed.
Spoken like a leftist. You never hear someone from the right talking of "the lengths" they've gone to "play it straight." What scum Sites is.
He thinks being nuetral is going to buy him a pass.
We need journalists who are Americans first and publicists for terrorists second.
Right, if you are faking death than you have bad intent and deserve to be SHOT, case closed.
Oh, I get complaints that I'm biased to the left and complaints that I'm biased to the right so that means I'm objective.
LOLOL.....sure it does!
I will take this reporters word on this, because if he didn't move he was already dead! This reporter just let this MArine off the hook!
If he was faking death he had bad intent, and deserved to be shot!
Why all the fuss about this, and nothing about John F. Kerry pursuing a wounded Viet Cong and executing him?
Can't see what?
Not defending Sites but many professional videographers (of which I was one once) shoot with the right eye in the viewfinder and the left eye open taking in the whole scene in order not to miss an event. Easy to do with practice.
Thanks!
Kevin Sites holding camera
No you can't Mr. Sites, but you do know what was in your mind. You do know whether or not you felt trepidation, whether you worried that one of the Iraqi terrorists might blow everyone in that room to smithereens. You do know if you were concerned about booby trapped bodies. And you know, and I know you were. As an imbed you know how concerned the marines were as well. That you make no reference to these concerns lets us all know you a hiding things, are being less than honest, are promoting something you'd rather we not know.
Kevin Sites, the NBC cameraman who shot video of the controversial shooting of a Fallujah insurgent by a U.S. Marine, is an anti-war activist whose photographs of Iraqi prisoners are featured on at least one anti-war website.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41506
I don't think from 20 feet away he culd tell the man was breathing!
And you can see every movement from both sides? BS
He assumes his viewpoint is the only one. His first verbal reaction was "it was murder".
Them man had an agenda from the get go.
Bullseye.
The marine did the right thing. Now leave him alone.
Sites is not now, nor has he ever been, neutral.
I'm surprised that Sites hasn't claimed the dead terrorist was a member of a wedding party.
(I mean, other than that he's really special and morally superior to the rest of us.)
The first thing out of every leftist's mouth: they're getting death threats from the brutish right. News flash to the left, especially to somebody like Sites who thinks he's "passin," as soon as you drag out the "death threats" (notice it's never one death threat, always plural) we KNOW your a lefty. It's a dead (get it) give away. Ha Ha. You've been outed.
"I can't know what was in the mind of that Marine," the posting reads. "He is the only one who does."
Horse hockey. The video makes if very clear the marine thought the guy was faking death - that was the motive plain and clear and he did the right thing by removing a possible threat. The video CLEARS him - case closed.
The asswipe is playing this for all it's worth, pure scumbag!
Someone should tell Mr. Sites that "down the middle" means he's not on our side. And if he is not on the side of his own country, what is he doing hanging around, listening to our strategies and plans? How dare he expect the soldiers who he does not support to defend him?
You want to prove your "middle of the road coverage" Mr. Sites? Let's see some of these pictures, then MAYBE we'll listening to your whining.
Kevin sites.
***Sites writes in his Web diary that the Marine, angry moments before firing, quickly became apologetic when he realized the incident had been caught on camera.***
This is from AP, the liars!!!!!!!! What Sites said is that HE yelled that the man was a prisoner from a previous raid, and that was when the Marine said, "I didn't know, sir." He did NOT say that the Marine apologized when he realized the incident had been caught on camera."
Rush is right. The AP is just an extension of the DNC.
However, what this article didn't say is that Sites claims the man was breathing. If that's correct (WE ONLY HAVE SITES WORD FOR IT), then he wasn't dead.
And why does a Marine have to call a reporter "sir"? Sites is a maggot.
My guess is that the Marine was probably thinking, "Not only do I have to secure this f%#king building a second time, but I also have to protect this candy-assed press parasite from getting a boo boo."
Traitor NBC photographer email addresses:
kevinsites@hotmail.com
kevin@kevinsites.net
http://www.kevinsites.net/
Fine. Now Kevin Sites can be the one to go in and check every body and wounded person. If he refuses to do it, he admits the danger.
Kevin Sites is also a Talking Head, has worked for CNN, MSNBC, and ABC. Not just a photographer, but a writer.
And you are right, the MSM is also our enemy, and the closer it comes to election time in Iraq, the more the terrorists and the MSM are going to try to derail our progress and the elections. Our MSM and the terrorists have the same goal - our defeat in Iraq.
Right! Remember how many of those "innocent" Afgans that we had to release from the Gitmo facility that were later greased fighting in Afganistan.
Kevin Sites talking to Paula Zahn at CNN from Iraq http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/08/btsc.sites/
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