Posted 11:18 PM by steve

Eason, you're full of it....

From Captain Ed, we learn that Eason Jordan , in support of his (somewhat modified) claim that journalists are being killed by the US military "on purpose", says that "three of my CNN colleagues, and many other journalists have been killed on purpose in Iraq"....

Yet a review of these two websites, which purport to list the names and circumstances of journalists killed in the line of duty during 2003 and 2004, shows only ONE CNN journalist being killed in Iraq during 2004 and NONE in 2003. How does one plus zero add up to three? Are you referring to non-journalist CNN-employees?

And, far from supporting your (at the very least, implied) claim that the US military is responsible for these deaths, the report on the single CNN journalist who was killed in Iraq in 2004, Duraid Isa Mohammed, says that he was killed by "unidentified assailants (who) fired on the two-car convoy the men were traveling in...". Not exactly a smoking gun, is it, Eason? Or is your hatred for the US military so pervasive that 'unidentified assailant' is probably just a code word for a US serviceman?

Nor does your implication that the US military is responsible for the deaths of 'many other journalists' hold water. Of the 23 journalists listed as being killed in 2004, 17 deaths are attributable to either unknown causes, "a single gunman with an AK-47", "twin suicide bombings", "unidentified armed assailants"", "armed gunmen, presumably Iraqi insurgents" and other similarly described incidents. No mention of the US military in any of these. Are you blaming the US military for these deaths?

And, for what it's worth, of the six who were killed in action involving US forces, at least one was with the enemy as they engaged US forces and was killed when the US forces returned fire, and another had gone to report on the downing of a US helicopter and was killed when US forces bombed the wreckage - not exactly the kind of situation one would think of when thinking about journalists being "killed on purpose".

Want to try again????


UPDATE: Is it possible that Jordan got his idea from this Robert Fisk column from back in 2003?

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