US army blocks media coverage

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday April 16, 2003 10:03 by James McKenna jimmymac61 at hotmail dot com

Reporters ordered away from protest

In Mosul they shoot a dozen people dead and wound sixty more ,incuding an 11 year old girl, in an incident icredibly similar to Bloody Sunday. In Baghdad they move reporters away from anti-US demonstrations. Where are the welcoming crowds, where is the democracy, where are the weapons of mass destruction (and don't say Syria)?

US forces yesterday tried to stop the media from covering a third day of anti-American protests by Iraqis outside the Palestine Hotel which now houses a US operations base. This is the same hotel where the US murdered two Reuters people a few days ago and from where the pictures revealing the fake nature of the "jubilant scenes" in Fardus Square were taken.

Visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest outside the Palestine Hotel, moving reporters and cameras about 30 metres from the barbed-wired entrance .

"We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marines colonel who would not give his first name or title.

The crowd later moved to the nearby square where a statue of Saddam was toppled last Wednesday, signaling the end of the regime. The Iraqis chanted: "No, no, USA."

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/baghdad.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937669,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937639,00.html