Indymedia e' un collettivo di organizzazioni, centri sociali, radio, media, giornalisti, videomaker che offre una copertura degli eventi italiani indipendente dall'informazione istituzionale e commerciale e dalle organizzazioni politiche.
toolbar di navigazione
toolbar di navigazione home | chi siamo · contatti · aiuto · partecipa | pubblica | agenda · forum · newswire · archivi | cerca · traduzioni · xml | classic toolbar di navigazione old style toolbarr di navigazione old style toolbarr di navigazione Versione solo testo toolbar di navigazione
Campagne

CD GE2001 - un'idea di Supporto Legale per raccogliere fondi sufficienti a finanziare la Segreteria Legale del Genoa Legal Forum


IMC Italia
Ultime features in categoria
[biowar] La sindrome di Quirra
[sardegna] Ripensare Indymedia
[lombardia] AgainstTheirPeace
[lombardia] ((( i )))
[lombardia] Sentenza 11 Marzo
[calabria] Processo al Sud Ribelle
[guerreglobali] Raid israeliani su Gaza
[guerreglobali] Barricate e morte a Oaxaca
[roma] Superwalter
[napoli] repressione a Benevento
[piemunt] Rbo cambia sede
[economie] il sangue di roma
Archivio completo delle feature »
toolbarr di navigazione
IMC Locali
Abruzzo
Bologna
Calabria
Genova
Lombardia
Napoli
Nordest
Puglia
Roma
Sardegna
Sicilia
Piemonte
Toscana
Umbria
toolbar di navigazione
Categorie
Antifa
Antimafie
Antipro
Culture
Carcere
Dicono di noi
Diritti digitali
Ecologie
Economie/Lavoro
Guerre globali
Mediascape
Migranti/Cittadinanza
Repressione/Controllo
Saperi/Filosofie
Sex & Gender
Psiche
toolbar di navigazione
Dossier
Sicurezza e privacy in rete
Euskadi: le liberta' negate
Antenna Sicilia: di chi e' l'informazione
Diritti Umani in Pakistan
CPT - Storie di un lager
Antifa - destra romana
Scarceranda
Tecniche di disinformazione
Palestina
Argentina
Karachaganak
La sindrome di Quirra
toolbar di navigazione
Autoproduzioni

Video
Radio
Print
Strumenti

Network

www.indymedia.org

Projects
oceania
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa
ambazonia
canarias
estrecho / madiaq
nigeria
south africa

Canada
alberta
hamilton
maritimes
montreal
ontario
ottawa
quebec
thunder bay
vancouver
victoria
windsor
winnipeg

East Asia
japan
manila
qc

Europe
andorra
antwerp
athens
austria
barcelona
belgium
belgrade
bristol
croatia
cyprus
estrecho / madiaq
euskal herria
galiza
germany
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
lille
madrid
nantes
netherlands
nice
norway
oost-vlaanderen
paris
poland
portugal
prague
russia
sweden
switzerland
thessaloniki
united kingdom
west vlaanderen

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
brasil
chiapas
chile
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
sonora
tijuana
uruguay

Oceania
adelaide
aotearoa
brisbane
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india
mumbai

United States
arizona
arkansas
atlanta
austin
baltimore
boston
buffalo
charlottesville
chicago
cleveland
colorado
danbury, ct
dc
hawaii
houston
idaho
ithaca
la
madison
maine
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
ny capital
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa cruz, ca
seattle
st louis
tallahassee-red hills
tennessee
urbana-champaign
utah
vermont
western mass

West Asia
beirut
israel
palestine

Process
discussion
fbi/legal updates
indymedia faq
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech
volunteer
In Iraq gli USA eliminano chi osa contare i morti
by Researcher Monday, Mar. 07, 2005 at 5:43 PM mail:

Ecco qui le prove

You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is

In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead

Naomi Klein
Saturday December 4, 2004
The Guardian

David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London

Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating".

The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the Guardian either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy officials to openly involve themselves in the free press of a foreign country, so I took the letter extremely seriously. But while I agree that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.

In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the gruesome killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a failure, with US troops eventually handing the city back to resistance forces. The reason for the withdrawal was that the siege had sparked uprisings across the country, triggered by reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed. This information came from three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11 that "Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics. With unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed footage of mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-speaking world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties coming from journalists and doctors were seized upon by prominent clerics in Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack, turning their congregants against US forces and igniting the uprising that forced US troops to withdraw.

US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this time the attack included a new tactic: eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian casualties last time around.

Eliminating doctors
The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under military control. The New York Times reported that "the hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumours about heavy casual ties", noting that "this time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons". The Los Angeles Times quoted a doctor as saying that the soldiers "stole the mobile phones" at the hospital - preventing doctors from communicating with the outside world.

But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as well as a medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami al-Jumaili, who was working in the clinic, says the bombs took the lives of 15 medics, four nurses and 35 patients. The Los Angeles Times reported that the manager of Falluja general hospital "had told a US general the location of the downtown makeshift medical centre" before it was hit.

Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war zone. As Dr Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There is not a single surgeon in Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a similar tactic was used: on entering the city, US and Iraqi forces immediately seized control of the al-Zaharawi hospital.

Eliminating journalists
The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he is being intimidated for just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.

It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US Central Command urged all unembedded journalists to leave the city. Some insisted on staying and at least three paid with their lives. On April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces.

On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing José Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that journalists were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a war crime.

Eliminating clerics
Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many of the clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings in Falluja. On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On November 19, AP reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a prominent Sunni mosque, the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three people and arresting 40, including the chief cleric - another opponent of the Falluja siege. On the same day, Fox News reported that "US troops also raided a Sunni mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian border". The report described the arrests as "retaliation for opposing the Falluja offensive". Two Shia clerics associated with Moqtada al-Sadr have also been arrested in recent weeks; according to AP, "both had spoken out against the Falluja attack".

"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is mounting that these voices are being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained physical attacks.

Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a war on witnesses.

· Additional research by Aaron Maté

http://www.nologo.org

versione stampabile | invia ad un amico | aggiungi un commento | apri un dibattito sul forum
Ci sono 2 commenti visibili (su 3) a questo articolo
Lista degli ultimi 10 commenti, pubblicati in modo anonimo da chi partecipa al newswire di Indymedia italia.
Cliccando su uno di essi si accede alla pagina che li contiene tutti.
Titolo Autore Data
tu sei un animale altro che don Monday, Mar. 07, 2005 at 7:48 PM
la traduzione io:) Monday, Mar. 07, 2005 at 7:18 PM
©opyright :: Independent Media Center
Tutti i materiali presenti sul sito sono distribuiti sotto Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.
All content is under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 .
.: Disclaimer :.

Questo sito gira su SF-Active 0.9