This is truly amazing - a major media organization with direct ties to major players in an incident in which 8 American soldiers are charged with murder and/or coverup. Yesterday I exposed the background of Majid Hameed, a Reuters reporter who had been incarcerated in Iraq due to questionable terrorist ties. Hameed wrote the Iraqis demanding justice story for Reuters on Friday 12/22.
Today while reviewing the excellent recap of Haditha reporting over at Euphoric Reality, I stumbled across a blurb about another Reuters reporter that was taken into custody along with Majid Hameed. This other Reuters employee's name is Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani.
Here's part of the post from Euphoric Reality...
"Now, let’s take a little closer look at one of the integral reporters who broke the Haditha story, courtesy of Sweetness and Light. It’s Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who had been detained for five months because of images found on his camera and because of his “ties to the insurgents“. He had only been released a couple of weeks before he “stumbled upon” his big “scoop” on Haditha. (In fact, he had recently been arrested again, and was only released on May 31st.) Conveniently, Ali al-Mashhadani is the reporter who supplied video footage of the corpses that were supposedly killed by the Marines. His video footage is solely responsible for prompting the investigation by the military."
Then there is this tidbit from the awesome Sweetness & Light...
“What is the relationship if any between this news-making journalist Ali al-Mashhadani and Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani of Iraq’s Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy? [Abdel] al-Mashhadani is the person who first brought these “human rights violations” to public attention. And how odd it is that Abdel Rahman al-Mashhadani just happened to be given a video by an “unnamed local”. And that he then turned it over to Ali al-Mashhadani who just happens to make videos for Reuters. And had anyone ever heard of Iraq’s Hammurabi Organisation for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy before this?”
Now keep in mind that Euphoric Reality and Sweetness & Light originally uncovered the al-Mashhadani connections back in June 2006 - six months ago. Yet none of these connections are brought up in the media coverage of the Haditha charges.
Two Reuters' reporters with questionable ties to terrorists, both arrested at the same time and both with their fingers in the Haditha story... Now tell me again why I should believe anything reported in the media concerning Haditha, much less Iraq?
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Let's see, first CNN reveal
December 25, 2006 - 20:15 ET by lnthompLet's see, first CNN reveals they deliberately didn't publish anything critical of Saddam so they could continue reporting from Iraq while he was in power ... Then AP has terrorist ties ... now Reuters ... Is there any major news agency we can trust? Never mind -- silly question.
LNTHOMP previously posting as LEENT. U.S. Navy (ret.)
I have enough money to last me the rest of my life. Unless I buy something.
Ok, so the questions now ar
December 25, 2006 - 22:00 ET by liberal_bug_zapperOk, so the questions now are: What do we do about it? How do we make sure that these obvious shills for the Terrorists are held to account? And how do we make sure we do it while protecting the first amendment?
Does the first amendment need to be more clearly defined? Do our leaders in Washington need to grow stones and start aggressively and quickly prosecuting and incarcerating traitors and enemy propagandists?
I say we make the trials last no more than a week (a right guaranteed by the constitution I might add) and we start sending leakers to deep dark cells where they won't see their families or anyone for that matter for many many years. I say we start jailing journalists who publish enemy propaganda or national security secrets. And just for added fun, I say we set up "Smack a Liberal" booths at county fairs all over the country.
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"These are the times that try men's souls." ~ Thomas Paine
Reuters? You mean Al-Jazeera
December 26, 2006 - 02:16 ET by jonathanandersonReuters? You mean Al-Jazeera in English?
Thank God there was no liberal media in 1776, 1812, 1860-65, 1898, 1914-18, and 1940-45 ... think of what they could have engineered then.
"Conveniently, Ali al-Ma
December 26, 2006 - 06:23 ET by Indiana Joe"Conveniently, Ali al-Mashhadani is the reporter who supplied video footage of the corpses that were supposedly killed by the Marines. His video footage is solely responsible for prompting the investigation by the military."
So apparently, we're now trying 8 of our own soldiers based on reports and video provided by enemy sympathizers?
Why not eliminate the middle-man, and just let Al-Qaida try them directly?
WTF is going on here, anyway???
What is the scoop on that deb
December 26, 2006 - 13:20 ET by Dan The Man 2What is the scoop on that debacle anyway? I mean are we, the military, trying to be too pc and going overboard? Last I heard taht it was a war zone in Haditha and the enemy was hiding among the civilian population trying to kill us. In war things happen and this is really fishy considering the charges were brought many months after the fact and the corpses were not there for inspection and hardly any witnesses.
I say err on the side of our people and damn the rest.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark. -- save my gun, shoot a liberal.
I dunno, Dan... Seems like th
December 26, 2006 - 18:23 ET by Indiana JoeI dunno, Dan...
Seems like they're trying to make our guys almost AFRAID to engage the enemy. Having something like this, all this "after the fact" investigation, especially driven by info provided by THESE guys, and then to be on trial for MURDER? Okay, Viet Nam had it's My Lai, but with this stuff as the source, I can't see how this could have gone as far as it has.
I fear that our troops will take too long thinking... and it may cost some of them DEARLY!
You guys are gonna love this.
December 26, 2006 - 21:12 ET by Robin BoydYou guys are gonna love this... Some ultra leftwing kook-burger is thinking that I'm really an agent for the Pentagon and getting paid by conservative foundations. They will stop at nothing to try to prevent the truth from getting out there. She also claims the same thing about Newsbusters and Euphoric Reality. We musta touched a nerve...
Haditha
December 27, 2006 - 16:24 ET by tomk59As to what can we do, I'm sure that certain bloggers will attempt to hold the media's feet to the fire. However, I don't hold out much hope for that approach, since the only place that I have heard about the problems with this story have been on Internet sites such as this one and "Sweetness and Light".
How's this for an idea? Find out who the Marines lawyers are and inform them about these and other such articles relating to this case. The point being that maybe they're not aware of some of these things. At the very least, it will give them a point of reference to see that there is full disclosure.