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Unworthy Victims?
149/Julie-ann Davies
DATELINE: 11/1/06
The American-led siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah began on November 7, 2004. It continued for two weeks with estimates of over 1,200 insurgents killed and up to 250,000 civilians displaced. Hospitals, schools, power supplies and water lines were destroyed in the city. Reports filed from the area were scant. Most journalists present were embedded with troops and their movements were tightly controlled. Allegations that American forces were using chemical weapons in Fallujah were widely ignored by the mainstream media.
On November 8, 2005, a year and a day after the US military entered Fallujah, Italian state broadcaster RAI aired Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre. The programme claimed the Americans had used a substance similar to Napalm and white phosphorus shells against civilians. The footage included harrowing images of women and children who had been burned alive.
The United States denied the allegations. On November 15 the American Ambassador in London, Robert Tuttle, wrote to The Independent claiming: ‘US forces participating in operation Iraqi Freedom continue to use appropriate, lawful and legitimate weapons against legitimate targets. US forces do not use Napalm or phosphorus as weapons.’
The time-honoured technique of smearing the messenger was deployed. Pentagon spokesman Todd Vician emphatically denied the use of chemical weapons in Iraq and said ‘People seeking to discredit the US find it useful to invent the false accusation that the US is using weapons of this sort.’
However, the US was forced into an abrupt climb-down when presented with evidence from one of its own publications. An article published in the March 2005 issue of Field Artillery gave a detailed account of white phosphorus being used directly against insurgents in Fallujah. This directly contradicted the statements made by the US military that white phosphorus was only been used as a flare to illuminate the battlefield.
The story, dormant for over a year, reignited and lit up the internet. On November 16 Lieutenant-Colonel Venable told the BBC that white phosphorus was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.’ This is not the first time that the US has been forced to defend its use of incendiary or chemical weapons in Iraq.
On March 22, 2003 CNN carried reports that American forces had used Napalm at Safwan Hill, close to the Iraqi border. Initially, the US denied these claims but later admitted to their use of Mark 77 firebombs.
Facing an outcry the US was taking refuge in semantics. Napalm and the firebombs are virtually identical. The only difference is that petrol, used in Napalm, has been replaced with jet fuel in the Mark 77’s. The effects remain horrific.
It is obvious that the US government has been deliberately misleading the media and the public about its conduct in Iraq. It is undeniable that this makes it more difficult for journalists to discover the truth. But this is only part of the problem. The mainstream media appears, in this case, to be extremely reluctant to deviate from the official, governmental line.
Early in 2005 a medical team sent to Fallujah by the Iraqi interim government held a press conference to publicise their findings. They confirmed that ‘burning chemicals’ were used by American forces during the attack. That conference was attended by over 20 major national and international news organisations but none of these reported on the event.
On 20 November 2005, in an article in the Sunday Telegraph, Toby Harnden revealed he witnessed US forces using white phosphorus to target insurgents in Fallujah. Yet his original report of the event reads somewhat differently. Written on November 9, 2004 the piece ‘All-out assault on Fallujah’ says: ‘White phosphorus shells lit up the sky as armour drove through the breach and sent flaming material on to suspect insurgent haunts.’
The use of white phosphorus to illuminate battle-zones or to generate smoke-screen to cover troop movements is uncontroversial. It is only when it is used against human targets, as revealed in Harnden’s second article, that the legality of its use becomes questionable. Harnden’s initial account of the event, written while embedded with US forces, was unlikely to upset the military.
The real scandal behind this story is that it has taken so long for the mainstream media to cover it. We were told it was necessary to go to war with Iraq because Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons that he could use against us. Saddam was, rightly, portrayed as monstrous for gassing the Kurds in Halabja, a fact that was widely reported. Yet America’s use of Napalm-like weapons that can burn to the bone has, so far, received significantly less coverage.
Weapons make no distinction between civilians and combatants - they treat all their victims with equal cruelty. However, the international mainstream media seems, in this case at least, to believe that some victims are more worthy of their attention than others.
Last modified: Wednesday, January 11, 2006
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
War Reporting
World journalists condemn “stooge journalism”
MPs raise questions on Aljazeera-gate
'Iraq memo leak' accused in court
So Who is Behind Planting Stories in Iraqi Press?
IFJ accuses US over killing of Aljazeera journalist
Basra and the British Army
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The news - responsible for war and terrorism?
Nigeria- The Next Gulf?
Baghdad Bulletin: The Real Story of the War in Iraq – Reporting from Beyond the Green Zone
Hard hitting media exposé to launch 'Everyman Exposé'
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Pentagon rejects Reuters' torture allegations
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Relish and fervour at the Telegraph
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Media killings cast shadow on Human Rights Day
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Mediawar: Covering conflicts after Iraq
Media Culpa? - the media and Iraq
Make peace not war at the Labour Party Conference
Guardian report "Iraqi police abduct journalists"
CPBF CONDEMNS ISRAELI TREATMENT OF JOURNALIST
IRNA managing director urges speedy release of abducted staff
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