"Iraq too dangerous for journalists" -- Robert Fisk

[ourmaninBusan]

If you watch the Iraq coverage on CNNi, you might think Iraq was
settling down and people were starting to squabble the normal
way -- with shouts instead of bullets.

Then along comes veteran journalist Robert Fisk, a staunch anti-
war critic who reports that Baghdad is still in chaos:

link: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/articl..._journalism_is

He calls it 'mouse journalism' because he's like a mouse that only
runs out of his hole for 10 minutes at a time before he has to
retreat back into his 'hole' for fear of being mobbed.

Excerpt: Civilian Deaths

"The Ministry of Health, which is partly run by Americans, will not give out
any figures for civilian casualties; staff are just not allowed to give us
these figures.

"When I went to the city morgue in Baghdad one day nearly four weeks ago,
I arrived at 9am and there were nine violent-death corpses there.

"By midday there were 26 corpses. When I managed to get access to the
computer system of the mortuary, I discovered that in July 1,100 Iraqis had
been killed in Baghdad alone.

"Multiply that across Iraq and you are talking about 3,000 a month or more,
which means 36,000 a year.

"So these figures claiming 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties are not
necessarily conservative at all. But no-one wants to report on this.

Excerpt: Violence Helps Bush-Cheney junta control the press

"One of the delights of the occupying powers is that the journalists cannot
move. When I travel outside Baghdad by road it takes me two weeks to
plan it, because the roads are infested with insurgents, checkpoints, hooded
men and throat-cutters. That's what it's like.

"It is almost impossible to get access to free information outside Baghdad or
Basra. Most of the reporters who can travel are doing so as members of
military convoys with armour to protect them.


"The last time I travelled to Najaf, the road was littered with burned-out
American vehicles, smashed police vehicles, abandoned checkpoints and
armed men. That's Iraq today — it's in a state of anarchy,
and many areas of
Baghdad are in fact now in insurgent hands."

The Verdict

"Over and over again, we are escaping with our lives because we are lucky.

And it is getting much worse, not better — don't believe what Blair is telling
you.

"It is very sad to have to say that I don't know if we can go on reporting
in Iraq. I don't know if I can personally keep on going back."

[Grimmlok]

Whoah...

This could tie in with those CIA guys planting bombs in cars and instigating more violence.. to keep the media in their foxholes from reporting what's really going on because they're too damn scared of being offed...information control at its source!

[Hazeleyed_Honey]

Yup,this is what "freedom" for the Iraqis is.

[pacific breeze]

Iraq and Bosnia have been the most dangerous places for journalists in the last decade or so.

[buttmunch]

Well, the bombings of the hotels yesterday seem to bear this out.

[ourmaninBusan]

As I write this,
the U.S. war dead is now at 2,000 soldiers.
And CNNi is showing footage of a HUGE truck bomb
explosion.

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

[Grimmlok]

Thanks, CIA, for pushing the US over the milestone

[buttmunch]

Good work, men. Now go torture someone.