Baghdad protest turns violent [BBC Orwell Alert!]

BBC ^ | 10/1/03 | Unknown

[TastyManatees]

Baghdad protest turns violent
A demonstration by unemployed men in central Baghdad turned into a riot.

Police fired in the air, as protesters threw rocks and set cars ablaze.

Up to 100 men gathered outside a police station, where they said they had been promised jobs after making payments to police officers.

One policeman told Reuters news agency that they opened fire only after demonstrators fired first, and there were unconfirmed reports that several people were wounded.

A BBC correspondent who witnessed the incident says it shows that the situation in Baghdad remains extremely volatile, despite coalition claims that security is improving by the day.

A much larger demonstration took place in Mosul, beginning outside an employment office.

Some stones were thrown, but the march was otherwise peaceful.

Corrupt

The police blamed the fracas in Baghdad on provocateurs, who, they said, incited the men to attack the building.

"We didn't shoot at the beginning. We think this is a democracy and they can express their point of view. But then they started firing," policeman Falah Hassan told Reuters news agency. The violence lasted for about half-an-hour. US troops arrived at the scene later, and firefighters were called in to extinguish burning cars.

"They promised us jobs in July," said one man.

"All these policemen are corrupt," said another. "We gave them money to register our names as candidates [for jobs] and when we returned they said we have no business being here."

Bribes of $100 were mentioned as being demanded in return for a job, with the unemployment rate estimated at 50%.

But the protesters said that, despite being paid, the police authorities had given the posts to their relatives.

The incident happened outside the headquarters of the Facilities Protection Service (FPS), just north of the Palestine Hotel, the main base for foreign journalists in Baghdad.

The FPS provides security guards for Muslim shrines and other sites.

[TastyManatees]

Holy Guacamole! This morning, at 7:00, when I posted the link to the above BBC article on a riot in Baghdad, the first sentence after the headline read:

"A demonstration by unemployed men in central Baghdad turned into a riot after police fired in the air, with protesters throwing explosives and setting cars ablaze."

I came back and checked it an hour later, and now it is:

"Police fired in the air, as protesters threw rocks and set cars ablaze."

Amazing! The BBC changed the substance of this story after publication without a word on its mistake or misreporting on its website. Instead of publishing a retraction or correction, the BBC simply edits the story with no link to the original claims they made! From now on, I will save an original copy of any BBC item I link to or post on.

When I posted my piece on the story, I had originally mocked the BBC headline, saying that "protests" where the participants are carrying explosives at the ready do not suddenly "turn" violent because police fire into the air.

I guess the BBC agrees.

Tasty Manatees

[ConservativeMan55]

I saw people throwing rocks at the police on TV this morning.
All you gotta do is mow down the crowd of rock throwers with a round or two. It won't happen again.

[DeuceTraveler]

Just leave the demonstrators alone and arrest the violent instigators for awhile. Put them in jail for the attempt of physical violence and when their sentence is up let them go.

[martin gibson]

"We gave them money to register our names as candidates [for jobs] and when we returned they said we have no business being here."

har...!

(Apu voice)"After I handed him my 100 dollars I said 'you will now give me my job, please', he said to me "see you in the noodle factory, Ahkmed", then he laughed and walked away".

[OldFriend]

Wow, never heard of people throwing rocks at the police before.

Must be a new Iraqi development!!!!!!!!

Such a thing could never happen in the United States, or Israel either for that matter.

[TastyManatees]

The article is interesting, but almost more interesting is the BBC's original reporting that the protestors were throwing bombs. They just changed the article without acknowledging the correction.

Looks to me like the real issue is the BBC's sly correction.

Tasty Manatees

[OldFriend]

Actually, the NYT and the BBC are sisters under the skin. The Washington comPost is rushing to join the sorority!

[Smile-n-Win]

I guess we should be glad they didn't estimate it at 120%.

[The_Victor]

unemployment rate estimated at 50%

Oh, please!

Estimated my @$$. This number is a WAG (Wild @$$ed Guess)

[Born Conservative]

People rioting because they are unemployed. Maybe some of our Welfare recipients should follow this example.

[pawdoggie]

In terms of inaccuracy, the BBC has clearly surpassed the tabloids they routinely criticize. In terms of bias, BBC has surpassed the alphabet TV networks in this country, the NYT and the Washington Post, and they are creeping up on the (North) Korean Central New Agency.

[Between the Lines]

Estimated my @$$. This number is a WAG (Wild @$$ed Guess)

Unfortunatly they get this number from Paul Bremer. From another article:

Mr. Bremer said there is a staggering unemployment rate in Iraq that may exceed 50 percent and that finding jobs has become his number one task.

[Criminal Number 18F]

UPI did a similar "stealth" correction in 2002, when one of its sources (Keith Idema) in an Afghan war article misidentified himself as a former member of Delta. (In fact, he never even applied to attend selection). UPI was barraged with complaints from people who knew the man, and the reporter (his name was Echevarria, if I recall correctly, or something similar to that) or an editor changed the story on the sly with no word about a correction.

More usually seen on the wires is to move a new story with the same slug but note CORRECTED and a couple of lines like "corrected military record in third graf" or similar. Occasionally a correction only will move on the wires. "correction to story datelined xxx by yyyy". But in this case, the guy didn't want to admit (I think, even to himself) that the sole-source for his story had lied to him about a key detail (probably cause that kinda puts the whole story at risk, doesn't it?) And this from UPI, which is owned by the weird, but conservative, Moonies.

Imagine how much harder it is to rely on the BBC, which is in a fight for survival (licence fees) and must make the UKG look bad in Iraq to beat the rap for [reporter] Gilligan's apparent fabrication of the "dossier was sexed-up" story.

Note that the event took place near the journo's hotel. We have a return to the Peter Arnett Vietnam days, where reporters hang in the hotel bar and report the rumour du jour.

I think your policy of saving an original of stuff you dissect in your blog is a good idea. In this case, you might be able to recover the "explosive" version of the tale from the Gopogle cache.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[mewzilla]

CNN reported on this story thins morning stating that Baghdad was in chaos...

[Redcloak]

People rioting because they are unemployed. Maybe some of our Welfare recipients should follow this example.

Only if the cable TV goes out in the middle of Springer.

[Flint]

Let me see now, there are something between 5 and 7 million people living in Baghdad. One hundred of them start an incident and you can figure that only four or five of them actually were leading the crowd, the rest following.

This is now an excuse to say that things are out of control in Baghdad?

[Yardstick]

A BBC correspondent who witnessed the incident says it shows that the situation in Baghdad remains extremely volatile, despite coalition claims that security is improving by the day.

At least the BBC had an expert on hand to render his opinion.

[pickemuphere]

Wow, never heard of people throwing rocks at the police before.

Irish confetti bump.

[Flyer]

Police fired in the air

They really need to get over this firing their guns in the air. Gun safety issues aside, it really makes it tough to distinguish good guys from bad guys.