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Reporters From Portuguese Television Tortured By US Military Police
KUWAIT CITY, 3 April 2003 — Two Western journalists have arrived safely back in Kuwait City after being arrested, beaten up and deprived of food and water in Iraq — by members of the US Army’s military police
Arab News has learned that Luis Castro and Victor Silva, both reporters working for RTP Portuguese television, were held for four days, had their equipment, vehicle and video tapes confiscated, and were then escorted out of Iraq by the 101st Airborne Division.
Despite possessing the proper “Unilateral Journalist” accreditation issued by the Coalition Forces Central Command, both journalists were detained.
Their ordeal at the hands of the Americans is in stark contrast to that received by Newsday journalists in Baghdad, who yesterday in Jordan described as “humane” their treatment at the hands of their Iraqi interrogators despite suffering various indignities. “I have covered 10 wars in the past six years — in Angola, Afghanistan, Zaire, and East Timor. I have been arrested three times in Africa, but have never been subjected to such treatment or been physically beaten before,” Castro said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
“The Americans call themselves liberators and freedom fighters, but look what they have done to us,” he added.
Castro and Silva entered Iraq 10 days ago. They had been to Umm Qasr and Basra and were traveling to Najaf when they were stopped by the military police.
According to Castro, their accredited identification was checked and they were given the all clear to proceed.
“Suddenly, for no reason, the situation changed,” Castro told Arab News. “We were ordered down on the ground by the soldiers. They stepped on our hands and backs and handcuffed us.
“We were put in our own car. The soldiers used our satellite phones to call their families at home. I begged them to allow me to use my own phone to call my family, but they refused. When I protested, they pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the ribs and legs.”
“I believe the reason we were detained was because we are not embedded with the US forces,” he continued. “Embedded journalists are always escorted by military minders. What they write is controlled and, through them, the military feeds its own version of the facts to the world. When independent journalists such as us come around, we pose a threat because they cannot control what we write.”
After being held for four days, they were transported to the 101st Airborne Division to be escorted out of Iraq.
Castro told Arab News: “A lieutenant in charge of the military police told me, ‘My men are like dogs, they are trained only to attack, please try to understand’.”
The journalists were then transported by truck to Camp Udairi to await a helicopter transfer out of Iraq. At Camp Udairi, they told their stories to members of the US Marines.
One soldier, who Castro asked not be identified, wrote out a note, which was shown to Arab News. The note said: “I am so sorry that you had to endure such bad conditions, but remember that I care and pray you can forgive.”
“The Americans in Iraq are totally crazy and are afraid of everything that moves. I would have expected this to happen to us at the hands of the Iraqis, but not at the hands of the Americans. This is typical of the American attitude, as related to us by British forces. The attitude is ‘shoot first and ask questions later’”, Castro added.
Castro, a veteran journalist, has had all his tapes and equipment returned to him, but not his jeep.
When asked by Arab News what he intends to do next, he replied: “Return to Iraq as soon as possible to tell the truth to the world about what is happening there.”
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24644
Despite possessing the proper “Unilateral Journalist” accreditation issued by the Coalition Forces Central Command, both journalists were detained.
Their ordeal at the hands of the Americans is in stark contrast to that received by Newsday journalists in Baghdad, who yesterday in Jordan described as “humane” their treatment at the hands of their Iraqi interrogators despite suffering various indignities. “I have covered 10 wars in the past six years — in Angola, Afghanistan, Zaire, and East Timor. I have been arrested three times in Africa, but have never been subjected to such treatment or been physically beaten before,” Castro said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
“The Americans call themselves liberators and freedom fighters, but look what they have done to us,” he added.
Castro and Silva entered Iraq 10 days ago. They had been to Umm Qasr and Basra and were traveling to Najaf when they were stopped by the military police.
According to Castro, their accredited identification was checked and they were given the all clear to proceed.
“Suddenly, for no reason, the situation changed,” Castro told Arab News. “We were ordered down on the ground by the soldiers. They stepped on our hands and backs and handcuffed us.
“We were put in our own car. The soldiers used our satellite phones to call their families at home. I begged them to allow me to use my own phone to call my family, but they refused. When I protested, they pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the ribs and legs.”
“I believe the reason we were detained was because we are not embedded with the US forces,” he continued. “Embedded journalists are always escorted by military minders. What they write is controlled and, through them, the military feeds its own version of the facts to the world. When independent journalists such as us come around, we pose a threat because they cannot control what we write.”
After being held for four days, they were transported to the 101st Airborne Division to be escorted out of Iraq.
Castro told Arab News: “A lieutenant in charge of the military police told me, ‘My men are like dogs, they are trained only to attack, please try to understand’.”
The journalists were then transported by truck to Camp Udairi to await a helicopter transfer out of Iraq. At Camp Udairi, they told their stories to members of the US Marines.
One soldier, who Castro asked not be identified, wrote out a note, which was shown to Arab News. The note said: “I am so sorry that you had to endure such bad conditions, but remember that I care and pray you can forgive.”
“The Americans in Iraq are totally crazy and are afraid of everything that moves. I would have expected this to happen to us at the hands of the Iraqis, but not at the hands of the Americans. This is typical of the American attitude, as related to us by British forces. The attitude is ‘shoot first and ask questions later’”, Castro added.
Castro, a veteran journalist, has had all his tapes and equipment returned to him, but not his jeep.
When asked by Arab News what he intends to do next, he replied: “Return to Iraq as soon as possible to tell the truth to the world about what is happening there.”
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24644
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The international press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres has accused US and British coalition forces in Iraq of displaying "contempt" for journalists covering the conflict who are not embedded with troops.
The criticism comes after a group of four "unilateral" or roving reporters revealed how they were arrested by US military police as they slept near an American unit 100 miles south of Baghdad and held overnight.
They described their ordeal as "the worst 48 hours in our lives".
"Many journalists have come under fire, others have been detained and questioned for several hours and some have been mistreated, beaten and humiliated by coalition forces," said the RSF secretary general, Robert Menard.
The four journalists - Israeli Dan Scemama and Boaz Bismuth and Portugese Luis Castro and Victor Silva - entered Iraq in a jeep and followed a US convoy but were not officially attached to the troops.
US military police seized the journalists outside their base and detained them even though they were carrying international press cards.
The group claimed they were mistreated and denied contact with their families.
It is thought that the fact the two Israelis held dual French nationality exacerbated the situation.
"The US soldiers said we were terrorists and spies and treated us as such," said Scemama, who works for the broadcaster Israel Channel One.
"They want all the journalists in Iraq to have one of their liaison officers with them to supervise the footage they are broadcasting. There is no doubt that this is why they treated us so cruelly," he added.
He recounted how "five gorillas" jumped on one of his Portuguese colleagues, who is "small, thin and gentle", after he begged to be allowed to speak to his wife and children to tell them he was still alive.
"They knocked him to the ground, kicked him, stepped on him, tied him up and threw him back into the camp. He came back half an hour later. He was crying like a child," Scemama told the Independent.
"There was one captain who wanted us to lie on the ground with our faces in the sand and dust. 'Stick your head in the sand and don't look,' he shouted at us. I told him I was 55 years old. He replied, 'Do it, or I'll shoot you," Scemama added.
RSF has also criticised coalition forces over the bombing of the ministry of information in Baghdad, which was the centre for the international media.
The complex has been bombed twice - on March 29 and 30 - destroying the international media "tent village" on the roof.
The watchdog said journalists had left the building just one hour before the missile strikes.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the BBC's Andrew Gilligan said journalists will no longer go to the ministry of information so Iraqi officials instead visit the Hotel Palestine, where all foreign journalists are staying.
In a lengthy account, Gilligan described how fraught reporting has become in the midst of the bombings and tight Iraqi controls on the movement of the press.
"After dark, no one will go to the press centre, a likely target which has now been attacked. Udai's [Saddam Hussein's chief spin doctor] bid to throw a grand rooftop party there on the second night of bombing was swiftly shot down by the hacks" Gilligan said.
"So the ministers come to the Palestine too. They shift their press conferences to another room at the last minute in case the Americans should try a lucky shot.
"Then they lock us in. Not just to make sure we take down every syllable of overblown rhetoric, but as another safeguard against that inconvenient cruise missile strike - and to stop us seeing the way they leave."
He described how the floor of the hotel "feels like Stalag Luft V with the Goons shaking down the hut for escape equipment as the plucky officers throw it from balcony to balcony".
He added: "But on the roof, it's all a bit more serious. Several TV stations have set up cameras. The Iraqis throw them off. Literally. Eighteen storeys down. The crews themselves are beaten and kicked."
According to RSF, many journalists in Kuwait have reported cases of non-embedded colleagues who have tried to cross the border into Iraq being questioned, threatened and sent back by the British or US military.
US freelance journalist Phil Smucker, who works for the Daily Telegraph and the Christian Science Monitor of Boston, was forced to return to Kuwait by the US military on March 27, RSF reported.
Smucker was accused of jeopardising the safety of a unit by being too specific in the information he gave in a CNN interview.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,927322,00.html
The criticism comes after a group of four "unilateral" or roving reporters revealed how they were arrested by US military police as they slept near an American unit 100 miles south of Baghdad and held overnight.
They described their ordeal as "the worst 48 hours in our lives".
"Many journalists have come under fire, others have been detained and questioned for several hours and some have been mistreated, beaten and humiliated by coalition forces," said the RSF secretary general, Robert Menard.
The four journalists - Israeli Dan Scemama and Boaz Bismuth and Portugese Luis Castro and Victor Silva - entered Iraq in a jeep and followed a US convoy but were not officially attached to the troops.
US military police seized the journalists outside their base and detained them even though they were carrying international press cards.
The group claimed they were mistreated and denied contact with their families.
It is thought that the fact the two Israelis held dual French nationality exacerbated the situation.
"The US soldiers said we were terrorists and spies and treated us as such," said Scemama, who works for the broadcaster Israel Channel One.
"They want all the journalists in Iraq to have one of their liaison officers with them to supervise the footage they are broadcasting. There is no doubt that this is why they treated us so cruelly," he added.
He recounted how "five gorillas" jumped on one of his Portuguese colleagues, who is "small, thin and gentle", after he begged to be allowed to speak to his wife and children to tell them he was still alive.
"They knocked him to the ground, kicked him, stepped on him, tied him up and threw him back into the camp. He came back half an hour later. He was crying like a child," Scemama told the Independent.
"There was one captain who wanted us to lie on the ground with our faces in the sand and dust. 'Stick your head in the sand and don't look,' he shouted at us. I told him I was 55 years old. He replied, 'Do it, or I'll shoot you," Scemama added.
RSF has also criticised coalition forces over the bombing of the ministry of information in Baghdad, which was the centre for the international media.
The complex has been bombed twice - on March 29 and 30 - destroying the international media "tent village" on the roof.
The watchdog said journalists had left the building just one hour before the missile strikes.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the BBC's Andrew Gilligan said journalists will no longer go to the ministry of information so Iraqi officials instead visit the Hotel Palestine, where all foreign journalists are staying.
In a lengthy account, Gilligan described how fraught reporting has become in the midst of the bombings and tight Iraqi controls on the movement of the press.
"After dark, no one will go to the press centre, a likely target which has now been attacked. Udai's [Saddam Hussein's chief spin doctor] bid to throw a grand rooftop party there on the second night of bombing was swiftly shot down by the hacks" Gilligan said.
"So the ministers come to the Palestine too. They shift their press conferences to another room at the last minute in case the Americans should try a lucky shot.
"Then they lock us in. Not just to make sure we take down every syllable of overblown rhetoric, but as another safeguard against that inconvenient cruise missile strike - and to stop us seeing the way they leave."
He described how the floor of the hotel "feels like Stalag Luft V with the Goons shaking down the hut for escape equipment as the plucky officers throw it from balcony to balcony".
He added: "But on the roof, it's all a bit more serious. Several TV stations have set up cameras. The Iraqis throw them off. Literally. Eighteen storeys down. The crews themselves are beaten and kicked."
According to RSF, many journalists in Kuwait have reported cases of non-embedded colleagues who have tried to cross the border into Iraq being questioned, threatened and sent back by the British or US military.
US freelance journalist Phil Smucker, who works for the Daily Telegraph and the Christian Science Monitor of Boston, was forced to return to Kuwait by the US military on March 27, RSF reported.
Smucker was accused of jeopardising the safety of a unit by being too specific in the information he gave in a CNN interview.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,927322,00.html
Israeli Journalists Claim Mistreatment
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
JERUSALEM -- Two Israeli journalists expelled from Iraq by the U.S. military said Sunday that American troops mistreated them during 72 hours of detention, denying them food and water and making them stand overnight in the cold.
Dan Scemama of Israel TV's Channel One and Boaz Bismuth of the Yediot Ahronot daily were traveling without accreditation with U.S. forces and two Portuguese journalists when they were taken into custody Tuesday night about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Scemama said Sunday that the four were denied food and water for extended periods, forced to stand in a cold tent in silence for an entire night and said one of the Portuguese journalists was beaten by five U.S. soldiers.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=War%20Israel%20Journalists
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
JERUSALEM -- Two Israeli journalists expelled from Iraq by the U.S. military said Sunday that American troops mistreated them during 72 hours of detention, denying them food and water and making them stand overnight in the cold.
Dan Scemama of Israel TV's Channel One and Boaz Bismuth of the Yediot Ahronot daily were traveling without accreditation with U.S. forces and two Portuguese journalists when they were taken into custody Tuesday night about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Scemama said Sunday that the four were denied food and water for extended periods, forced to stand in a cold tent in silence for an entire night and said one of the Portuguese journalists was beaten by five U.S. soldiers.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=War%20Israel%20Journalists
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