Do US Troops Target Journalists in Iraq? [Eason Jordan Accuses Troops of Murder]

The World Economic Forum Weblog ^ | 1/28/05 | Rony Abovitz

[Dales]

At a discussion moderated by David R. Gergen, the Director for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, the concept of truth, fairness, and balance in the news was weighed against corporate profit interest, the need for ratings, and how the media can affect democracy. The panel included Richard Sambrook, the worldwide director of BBC radio, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Abdullah Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, and Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN. The audience was a mix of journalists, WEF attendees (many from Arab countries), and a US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.

During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.

Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.

Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". ...

[Dales]

Eason Jordan had better be able to prove what he alleged against our troops. I assume he was talking out of his rear, and if so I consider his slander to be treasonous.

[Dales]

To be fair (and balanced), Eason did backpedal and make a number of statements claiming that he really did not know if what he said was true, and that he did not himself believe it. But when pressed by others, he seemed to waver back and forth between what might have been his beliefs and the realization that he had created a kind of public mess. His statements, his reaction, and the reaction of all in attendance left me perplexed and confused. Many in the crowd, especially those from Arab nations, applauded what he said and called him a "very brave man" for speaking up against the U.S. in a public way amongst a crowd ready to hear anti-US sentiments. I am quite sure that somewhere in the Middle East, right now, his remarks are being printed up in Arab language newspapers as proof that the U.S. is an evil and corrupt nation. That is a real nightmare, because the Arab world is taking something said by a credible leader of the media (CNN!) as the gospel, or koranic truth. What is worse is that I am not really sure what Eason really meant to communicate to us, but I do know that he was quite passionate about it. Members of the audience took away what they wanted to hear, and now they will use it in every vile and twisted way imaginable.

A further excerpt.

[John Lenin]

Fabrication bump

[Mo1]

During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others

That is an outrageous claim

[King Prout]

Excuse me, Mr. Jordan, a question: Remember John Adam?

[thoughtomator]

How many barrels of oil did Eason Jordan get for conducting his cover up of routine Hussein regime atrocities?

[vaudine]

"credible leader of the media...CNN..." NOT!!!!

vaudine

[cripplecreek]

This guy knows that there is an audience for his claims. It doesn't matter if his claims are true or false. Only that someone listens and that there is money to be made.

[atomicpossum]

Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN

...and yet, no story on it? Is CNN so gutless they're spiking the story, or is Mr. Jordan just all mouth and no trousers?

[lonevoice]

Breaking. US soldiers in Iraq caught targeting journalists

[drt1]

I haven't heard this promulgated via any MSM yet but, even if it is spiked, Eason better be prepared to provide some substantiation for this outrageous claim.

[Dales]

Yanokidding.

As I blogged,

One of two things is true– 1) the Chief News Executive at CNN has been slandering our troops in a manor that is treasonous, or 2) our troops have been murdering journalists and the media has been ignoring the subject. And I agree with him that it is extremely important that we, the people, find out which it is.

Either way, justice would only be served by jailtime, for Jordan if the former is the case, or for those involved in the military (including those who gave the orders, if applicable) if it is the latter.

But either way, Jordan should immediately be removed from his position. If he was talking out of his rear, as I both suspect and hope, he should be fired for his treasonous statements. And if he was being truthful, he should be fired for being complicit in not covering the story– especially since, as Jim Geraghty points out, Jordan’s news organization has kept its mouth shut about atrocities before:

Yes, this is the same Eason Jordan who wrote in the New York Times that CNN reporters in Baghdad witnessed abuses, including torture of Iraqis by Saddam’s secret police, and did not report this to viewers in order to to keep CNN’s Baghdad bureau open.

[Publius6961]

At a discussion moderated by David R. Gergen, the Director for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, the concept of truth, fairness, and balance in the news was weighed against corporate profit interest, the need for ratings, and how the media can affect democracy. The panel included Richard Sambrook, the worldwide director of BBC radio, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Abdullah Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, and Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN. The audience was a mix of journalists, WEF attendees (many from Arab countries), and a US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.

Sorry to state the obvious, but this seems clearly as the news driving and making the news, as opposed to reporting it.

Again.

There seems to be additional spiking of the deadly mix by aiding and abetting the enemy just for good measure.

On American soil.

Does "disgusting" cover it?

[stevem]

Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted.

It's an experiment. William T. Sherman said if you killed them all there would be news from hell before breakfast. Someone at the Pentagon just wants to see if that's true.

[steveegg]

But either way, Jordan should immediately be removed from his position. If he was talking out of his rear, as I both suspect and hope, he should be fired for his treasonous statements.

Fired, tried, convicted and executed using post-Revolutionary punishment (hung, but not until dead, then gutted, drawn and quartered).

[JesseJane]

You mean this EASON JORDAN.. The pig that came clean about his MISREPORTING to keep his outpost in Baghdad??

---

Eason Jordan's statement

4/11/03

Source: http://essaysfromexodus.scripting.com/stories/storyReader$1991

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.

We also had to worry that our reporting might endanger Iraqis not on our payroll. I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails).

Still, I felt I had a moral obligation to warn Jordan's monarch, and I did so the next day. King Hussein dismissed the threat as a madman's rant. A few months later Uday lured the brothers-in-law back to Baghdad; they were soon killed.

I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.

Last December, when I told Information Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf that we intended to send reporters to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, he warned me they would "suffer the severest possible consequences." CNN went ahead, and in March, Kurdish officials presented us with evidence that they had thwarted an armed attack on our quarters in Erbil. This included videotaped confessions of two men identifying themselves as Iraqi intelligence agents who said their bosses in Baghdad told them the hotel actually housed C.I.A. and Israeli agents. The Kurds offered to let us interview the suspects on camera, but we refused, for fear of endangering our staff in Baghdad.

Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

Eason Jordan is chief news executive at CNN.

---

The Confessions Of Eason Jordan By Vincent Fiore (04/24/03)

http://www.americandaily.com/article/2145

[msnimje]

If they did, would Eason Jordan or Dan Rather still be alive?

[LowInMo]

OH MY GOD!!!!!

Is this story real?

Get the guns out, boys. And brew up another pot of coffee, it's gonna be a long war.

[Dales]

Well, yes. I said earlier in that post that I considered it to be treason if he was talking out his rear. In that one paragraph, I was just making the point that either way he should be out of a job, yesterday if not sooner.

[Dales]

Yes, that Eason Jordan.

[Zacs Mom]

does the name Pete Arnett ring a bell?

[mbraynard]

I expect he will be tendering his resignation soon.

[shellshocked]

We can only hope.

[Darkwolf377]

He should be selling Grit.

[OldFriend]

The CSPIN crazies will be swearing to this by this evening.

[King Prout]

"Remember John Adam!"

I want this to become an ubiquitous response when conservatives must deal with the LSM and/or lunatic Left.

[ChinaThreat]

The US Army's 3 Infantry Division's Assassin brigade were indeed responsible for firing a tank shell into the Palestine hotel killing two foreign journalists. This brigade was involved with the "Thunder Run" armored strike into Baghdad and were the first US boots in Baghdad. They fought valiantly and were involved in some very intense battles along HWY 8 at 3 separate objectives. The heroics of these men is beyond belief during these battles.

Cpt. Woolford, who was responsible for securing a major bridge over the Euphrates was responsible for approving the shot at the hotel. Some pundit jockey who has never seen a battle may think that this is "targeting journalists". In reality this is absurd.

At the time the Captain was taking artillery fire and fighting off incessant suicidal dismounted attacks. These journalists were standing on a balcony of the Palestine Hotel trying to get some film of the ongoing battle to their west. The Palestine Hotel was technically outside of the Army brigade's AOR (this had been designated to the Marines who were fighting their way through the slums of eastern Baghdad) and they were not aware the Palestine Hotel had been housing foreign journalists.

Meanwhile, an intelligence officer with the brigade was relaying to the unit that there was a spotter guiding in mortars and artillery shells onto Cpt Woolford's armor and personnel. A phone had been recovered from a captured bunker in a previous battle and they were listening to an Iraqi spotter guide artillery on the Assassin units.

Capt. Woolford's men spotted a man on the balcony and wrongly assumed that it was the Iraqi forward artillery observers. They tried as best as they could to positively identify the target as hostile and got clearance from the Brigade commander. The first and foremost task at hand when facing an artillery attack is to locate and kill the spotter. They fired a HEAT round into the balcony injuring the two journalists who later died.

These monday morning QBs who have never been fired at or attacked with taxi loads of C-4 have no business making commentary or accusatory statements about our fine soldiers. Our soldiers are not untrained murderers. They have a responsibility to protect their men and they do the best job they can while people are trying to kill them. I'd like to see Mr. Jordan make clear decisions while 100s of suicidal Fedeyeen are trying to kill him.

[MplsSteve]

Sherman said that?!

LOL

I guess journalists were not well regarded back then either.

My God, can you imagine what Sherman would have done with Geraldo Rivera or Peter Jennings?!

[bill1952]

I strongly feel that some people, including a few infamous lawyers and tenured college professors, that openly call for or contribute to, the death of Americans, need to be beaten, shaved, stripped, tarred and feathered, and then run right out of town on a rail.

I'm inclined to think this guy is a prospect...

[Howlin]

The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/890515/posts

The Access of Evil-- CNN's Duplicity
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/893150/posts

[Maynerd]

Mr. Jordan will be eaten alive by the blogs, then Drudge, then talk radio, then Fox news . . . .

I don't care if he resigns in disgrace. He has once again revealed the true nature and core values of himself and his network (CNN). AMF

[SpeakingUp]

U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN, and a US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.

Anyone there we can trust?

[Stopislamnow]

Whats the big deal?

Seditious and treasonous reporters should be concerned, frankly, after the way the media has treated the whole WoT, I'm suprised there are any overseas reporters left.

Fragging went out of vogue in Vietnam, sadly.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Since the journalists are on the side of the terrorists, I'm not sure why anyone would object if this were true.

[popdonnelly]

Twelve journalists killed by U.S. troops? Eason Jordan, meet Joe McCarthy.

[Howlin]

Just when you thought CNN couldn't be more duplicitous.

[RobbyS]

Let us take it case by case, or is Anderson not into facts? No doubt that if a reporter--especially an Arab--chooses to consort with these thugs, then he is fair game in a firefight. But if Anderson is taking about assassination, then he should do more than play to the paranoia of the Arab press.He has to give particulars,

[Howlin]

[UpHereEh]

How do these people face themselves in the mirror after spewing this garbage?

[danno3150]

What a surprise that Representative Hotbottom (D-MA) and Senator Stewardess Sandwich (D-CT) didn't jump to the defense of our armed forces. /s

What a disgusting display by that dipwad Jordan and the rest of the spineless weasels that didn't immediately b***h slap him.

[RetiredArmy]

If that is true, then they did not target #13 here it seems to me. Dereliction in duty?

[Roses0508]

Bookmark

[nothingnew]

Yeah! What you said! Gettin' pretty tired of the slander and bullshit these self-important blowhards shriek...especially when they're overseas. They seem to think they're untouchable. Well, ask "Dan-the-Man" Blather.

Bring'em down out of their rarified air up there on Mount Olympus.

FMCDH(BITS)

[ichabod1]

Eason Jordan admitted that what CNN reported out of Iraq before the war was exactly what Saddam Hussein told them to report out of Iraq. The man has no credibility, and his network CNN has no credibility as a serious news gathering organization.

[treeclimber]

Our troops have been called 'occupiers', 'part of the problem' and countless other things and now murderers...

The freedoms that this Eason Jordan enjoys comes from the sacrifices made on his behalf by those he so shamelessly denigrates.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Our troops only target the enemies of our country. :)

[guitfiddlist]

In light of how certain news organizations cooperate with terrorists to get in-action photos - I think the REVERSE is much closer to the truth.

In previous wars they would have been shot for treason or fighting out of uniform - as were the German soldiers dressed as American MP's in WWII.

[rip033]

Eason Jordon can get together with Dan Rather and go over their sources together.

[ichabod1]

How Dare He go to Treason Manor to Slander Our Troops.

(Is that anywhere near Gunpoint?)

[Flightdeck]

I know we dropped a bomb on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya's Baghdad station on the initial "shock and awe" day killing on guy from Al-Jazeera. I consider them enemy combatants though and applaud that action.