The war on truth

Posted by Isam Rasheed on February 3, 2006. Filed under International,Iraq. Posted with the tags:Iraq
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During the build-up to the 2003 invasion, many journalists came to Iraq to cover events.

Everyone, including the US military, knew they were staying at the Palestine Hotel.

When hostilities began, US troops bombarded these journalists at their hotel, killing Tariq Aywab, from the Al-jazeera news station, and another journalist from the Ukraine. Others were arrested on the road to Baghdad.

This continued throughout the war and for some months after, when the Iraqi people began resisting the occupation forces. By then, journalists were being very badly treated, and were often attacked in the street as they tried to cover the activities of the coalition forces.

I remember one occasion, when I was with my friend Rory McEwan, from Scotland. We were trying to cover an attack by US troops. They arrested us and took us to prison. This happened to me again on several occasions, again when trying to cover coalition activities.

Many journalists have been killed working on the Baghdad streets. As well as Tariq Aywab, Ali Al-Khateeb, from the Al-Arabiya channel Karrada, was killed in Baghdad, as was another Al-jazeera journalist called Rasheed, Mazin Al Tumayzi, from the Al Ikhbariya channel, killed in Haifa Street, and a Reuters journalist called Ali, killed near Abu Ghraib.

Journalists who have been arrested, and therefore not just terrorised by US forces but prevented from doing their jobs, include: Slah Hasan, Suhaib al Baz, Abdul Adhim Mohammed, Atwar Bahgat (female), Laith Mushtaq and Anas Abbud, all from Al-jazeera; Yunis Khuthair and Isam Rasheed, both from British press agencies; Majid Hameed, from Al Arabiya.

Majib was released with other journalists from Abu Ghraib on 15 January. He told how US forces arrested him for no  reason and with no evidence against him.

“They know very well I’m innocent but they kept me for four months in Abu Ghraib anyway. But I won’t be intimidated and will continue in my work as a journalist.”

Journalists are also at risk from kidnappers. A number have been kidnapped by gangs or terrorist groups, who want money or to put pressure on their (the journalists’) governments to withdraw their troops.

Iraq can be a lethal place for journalists.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 79 have been killed here since March 2003.

One reporter, Jawad Khadim, from Al Arabiya, was shot at in the street in Baghdad by unidentified armed men. Fortunately, he escaped unharmed.

Richard Wild, a colleague of mine from the UK, was not so lucky and was shot dead in Baghdad, without

explanation.

Journalists are caught in the middle, between the occupying forces and the Iraqi resistance. Iraq used to be a reasonably safe place for journalists. Now it is the most dangerous place in the world for a reporter to be, yet the work they do, telling the truth about what happens here, has never been more important.

I spoke recently to Suhaib Al-Baz, 26, who works for Al-jazeera as a director. He has been arrested by US troops many times, the latest in 2004, when he was held for 76 days at Abu Ghraib, where he was tortured.

He was never charged with any crime, there was no investigation, no evidence. All he was told was that he faced transfer to Guantanamo Bay because of his work with Al-jazeera. He didn’t care, he told me, because he didn’t think Guantanamo Bay could be any worse than Abu Ghraib, where he was held alongside his colleague Slah Hasan in a special unit reserved for dangerous prisoners.

There, he told me, they were treated brutally.

“They used dogs with us, and they dropped cold water on me in winter. But there was never any charge made against me.

“When we do our jobs, especially when we film in the street, we are treated very violently by US forces, and Iraqi forces too. I’ve had my camera pulled off me, and sometimes they beat and push me, to make me go away.”

He finds that non-Iraqi journalists are treated better than Iraqi ones because “they have more protection than us (from press associations and governments), but I don’t blame them, I think they are very brave for coming to work here in Iraq.”

Suhaib feels that he must continue working, continue showing the truth, as he hopes – in the end – it will help to end the daily suffering of Iraqis. He believes that the brutality shown to journalists serves the occupiers only.

Finally, I spoke to Yunis Khuthair, 38, the editor of Al-Tahaddi newspaper. On 23 September 2003, he was arrested by US troops and held for nine months in Abu Ghraib. He was tortured many times and presented with a series of bizarre charges, including attempting to assassinate Tony Blair, hiding Saddam in his house and cooperating with terrorists. Of course, he denied them!

He knows that this vile treatment was due to his being a journalist because a US guard as good as told him.

“He said that the media hit us (occupation forces) more than the resistance and when I asked him if there were other journalists in Abu Ghraib, he said yes, there were another 17 in at the same time.”

What makes life so dangerous for

journalists, he says, is that Iraqis think that foreign journalists are working in cooperation with the US forces and therefore that any Iraqi journalist

working with a foreign journalist is a spy.

“I remember one day when I was with my friend David Anders, from the USA, and I made him hide his face for his and our safety.”

Yunis would like to see more trust developing between Iraqi and western media.

Through working together “we can show the truth and that can lead us to freedom”.