Arab Journalists Walked Out of Colin Powell's News Conference in Baghdad To Protest Killing of Arab Journalists by US Troops
By Glenn Kessler and Karl Vick Correspondent Sewell Chan in Baghdad contributed to this report
Washington Post
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Iraqi journalists confronted Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Friday over the deaths of two of their colleagues, disrupting an unannounced, lightning visit designed to highlight progress in Iraq on the first anniversary of the war.
As Powell and Iraq's civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer, strode into a briefing room for a news conference, the Iraqi journalists -- joined by foreign reporters -- stood and called for a moment of silence for a reporter and a cameraman from al-Arabiya television who allegedly were shot by U.S. troops Thursday as they tried to report on a rocket attack.
After the moment of silence, Najem Rubaie, an editor at the daily newspaper al-Distoor, read a statement that 50 Iraqi journalists had signed. Charging that the United States "has proved its failure in eliminating terrorism and the creation of a secure environment after a year of occupation," Rubaie said the journalists demanded "an open investigation, before all of the media, of the entity that committed this murder of journalists."
After demanding greater security for journalists and a "full and open investigation into the murders," more than two dozen Arab journalists walked out of the conference. Rubaie and two dozen other journalists then stood up and left.
After the protest, Bremer called the walkout "a celebration of democracy."
"I said to the secretary in the car as we left, 'That's what we came here to fight for. More than 500 Americans have died so that those guys could organize themselves and stand up and walk out of a press conference,' " Bremer told reporters after Powell had departed Baghdad for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and talks with Crown Prince Abdullah and other Saudi officials on U.S. efforts to promote reform in the Middle East.
Numerous Arab journalists say they have been arrested by U.S. forces while reporting, a practice they contend amounts to intimidation.
Ahmed Samraee, a producer with al-Jazeera who helped organize Friday's walkout, said: "We sat down and decided to show them we will not take this abuse anymore. The occupation promised to provide a free and democratic society in Iraq, but the American soldiers hit us and put us in jail."
Powell said he regretted the deaths but was "confident it wasn't deliberate." A senior official with the U.S.-led occupation authority said that the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, had ordered an "urgent review" of the journalists' deaths.
Shooting of Journalists by US Troops
Descriptions of the shooting released so far by the military have not mentioned the journalists. A military spokeswoman said Friday that one Iraqi driver was shot and killed Thursday after he struck a Humvee at 30 mph "while trying to run a checkpoint near the al-Hayat Hotel." She said the military was not aware of any other deaths in the incident.
But when the encounter was over, Ali Abdel-Aziz, 36, an al-Arabiya cameraman, was dead, and reporter Ali Khatib, 30, was critically wounded; Khatib died Friday
The driver for the two slain journalists, Ahmed Abdul Ameer, said they were shot while driving away from a U.S. military checkpoint, where both had spent 10 minutes trying to talk their way past pickets to film the aftermath of a rocket attack on the al-Hayat Hotel a block away.
"What happened yesterday, it's a homicide," said Abdul Ameer, 41, who survived the incident with bruises and a lacerated scalp. "It was not a random shooting."
Ameer said the reporter and photographer approached the checkpoint gingerly, as journalists in Iraq routinely do. He said he stopped their Kia sedan about 30 yards short of the two Humvees that blocked the four-lane street. Khatid and Abdel-Aziz then approached the soldiers on foot and asked for permission to film the hotel. The soldiers refused.
"Ali [Khatid] talked to them about 10 minutes and he comes back and says, 'Let's go to another place' or 'Let's try another way,' " Abdul Ameer said. He said he then made a U-turn over the low median. At the same time, he said, he noticed a white Volvo sedan approaching the checkpoint at a speed that suggested it would not stop at the roadblock just ahead.
Fearful that the approaching vehicle was a car bomb, Abdul Ameer said he responded by hitting the gas. "I wasn't afraid of the Americans. I was afraid of the Volvo. It could bomb us," he said.
He heard shooting after traveling about 50 yards. "I don't believe they're attacking me until I find my friend's head on my shoulder," he said. Khatib, who was in the front passenger seat, was slumped over with a bullet in his brain; he lived until morning. Abdel-Aziz, who was in the back seat beside his camera, died immediately, also from a round to the back of the head.
The Volvo crashed at 30 mph into a Humvee, but it contained no explosives.
The incident occurred against a backdrop of often antagonistic relations between Arab news channels and occupation officials, who have openly accused the channels of encouraging -- and even collaborating with -- violent resistance to the occupation. The Governing Council has banned both al-Arabiya, which is based in Dubai, and Qatar-based al-Jazeera from its official functions for weeks at a time, complaining that both have broadcast segments encouraging attacks.
Meanwhile Friday, the military announced that two troops with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Wednesday "as a result of enemy action" in Anbar province, in western Iraq. No further details were provided. A soldier with the Army's 1st Infantry Division died Friday, two days after his Bradley Fighting Vehicle overturned near Baji, north of Baghdad. Another soldier was killed in the accident.
Powell's Visit
The last event on Powell's agenda was the news conference. He was informed shortly beforehand that a protest was likely, according to one of his aides.
The news conference was the final event of Powell's visit to Baghdad, which took place under heavy security and tight secrecy. Powell arrived in Kuwait City Thursday for what were described as talks on Middle East reform, but instead he boarded a C-130 military transport plane for the trip to Baghdad's airport, followed by a ride in a Black Hawk helicopter to the headquarters of the occupation authority.
Powell stayed in the heavily guarded section of Baghdad known as the Green Zone for his six-hour visit. Even within the zone, his motorcade was shadowed by a circling Black Hawk with soldiers leaning out the sides with sniper rifles.
Powell met first with Bremer to discuss the handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, scheduled for June 30, and the subsequent creation of the United States' biggest embassy.
Later, in the vast dining room of one of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palaces, Powell spoke to a group of about 300 soldiers and civilians working for the U.S.-led occupation authority. He said their "noble work" was appreciated and supported in the United States.
"You and your buddies have removed a horrible dictatorial regime that was a threat to its own citizens, that was a threat to the world," Powell said. "You can be proud of what you and your buddies have done, and let no one ever tell you otherwise."
To loud applause and shouts of "Hooha," Powell declared: "You hear a lot of chatter back home and there are debates about it, [but] what we are doing is right."
Powell also met with seven members of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council in an effort to resolve questions over the shape of the government that will administer Iraq until elections can be held.
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