Free Republic

Associated Press has admitted that it knowingly put terrorist sympathisers on its payroll in Iraq. This is not the first time that the AP has associated itself with pro-terrorists. It also hired Muhammad Daraghmeh to report on Palestinian affairs knowing that she was an agent of the PLO. This raises a vital question: Is the AP’s treason an isolated incident or has the media in general sided with the enemy? I fear the answer is yes. Considering the one-sided reporting from Iraq that paints terrorists as “freedom fighters”, the “resistance” or simply “insurgents” while the liberators are portrayed as being...

Gerard Jackson BrookesNews.Com Monday 24 January 2005 The idea that Associated Press is in bed with terrorists might not be that far-fetched. On 19 December, 2004, in Baghdad three terrorists dragged three election workers from a car and then murdered them. By the strangest of coincidences an Associated Press photojournalist was present to take a sequence of photographs of this atrocity. Now what are the odds that the Associated Press photojournalist’s presence was a genuine coincidence? Too long in opinion of many people. Let us examine the situation in more detail. The journalist claims not to have had advanced knowledge...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Sunday, December 26, 2004 Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know A Belmont Club reader sent a link to the Associated Press Photo Managers site which contains guidance to editors on When to Run a Chilling Photo. The author, Naomi Halperin, begins by describing her reaction to a schoolteacher who balked at showing photographs of mutilated Americans hanging from the Fallujah bridge to her class. One image, seen in many newspapers including The Morning Call, appeared when violence erupted in Fallujah and four American contractors were killed. ... The single letter that...

From JACK STOKES, director of media relations, Associated Press: [This is a solicited letter regarding Salon's "The Associated Press 'insurgency.'"] Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are not from the area. Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to note, though, that the photographers are...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Friday, December 24, 2004 "Insurgents want their stories told" -- Associated Press Little Green Footballs links to a Poynter Online press release here reproduced verbatim. From JACK STOKES, director of media relations, Associated Press: [This is a solicited letter regarding Salon's "The Associated Press 'insurgency.'"] Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Thursday, December 23, 2004 Haifa Street The execution of Iraqi election workers on Baghdad's Haifa street was probably not, properly speaking, a murder. It was a political act. There has been no suggestion that the killers of the electoral workers had any personal grudge against them. Probably any electoral workers would have done. While most killers seek to hide their faces and plan their attacks so no one can see them, these killers scorned masks and chose a busy street in Baghdad to carry out their work because they wanted to...

Salon claims that "conservative bloggers suggested Monday that an Associated Press photographer was complicit with militants who executed three Iraqi election workers on Baghdad's dangerous Haifa Street on Sunday." A picture taken by the Associated Press photographer is posted on the Salon site. The photo itself raises more questions than any conservative blogger ever could. It shows traffic backed up behind the killers, afraid to proceed further. The attack, according to the Associated Press's own account was carried out by "about 30 armed insurgents, hurling hand grenades and firing guns", but the photograph itself is taken from a fairly...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Monday, December 20, 2004 The Odds Against An Associated Press article describes the execution of two Iraqi electoral officials by insurgents in a Baghdad street.  A series of pictures taken by an AP photographer show three pistol-wielding gunmen, who had earlier stopped a car carrying the election officials and dragged them into the middle of Haifa Street in the midst of morning traffic. ...In the dramatic photo sequence one of the captives is shown lying on his side on the pavement, while a second is on his knees nearby in the...

A series of pictures taken by an AP photographer show three pistol-wielding gunmen, who had earlier stopped a car carrying the election officials and dragged them into the middle of Haifa Street in the midst of morning traffic. ... In the dramatic photo sequence one of the captives is shown lying on his side on the pavement, while a second is on his knees nearby in the street. The gunmen casually display their handguns as they shoot the two men. Both of the victims shown in the sequence wore traditional Arab headscarfs. In contrast, the attackers were bareheaded and apparently...