The Guardian reported this week that U.S. troops stormed into the home of an Iraqi journalist and took him and tapes he made for a Guardian film.
American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children.Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He was released hours later.
Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.
The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not yet been returned.
This is troubling in its own right but it also appeared to touch bloggers, for this is the name of a Baghdad blogger and OhMyNews said they are one and the same but I saw nothing about this on his blog or on that of his brother or others.
So I checked with the editor of Guardian Unlimited, who in turn checked with the head of the films unit, who said it is hard to get hold of their Dr. Fadhil at the moment but that he had never discussed blogging. Besides, this Dr. Fadhil is described as a journalist; the blogger is a medical or dental doctor. And this is a common name. So I’m not 100 percent confirmed but it appears these are different people and I thought I should pass this along.
The journalist can’t sue to get his video returned.
US soldiers and private contractors are exempt from Iraqi law in what they do during their duties.
One of the first steps towards normalcy in Iraq should be making US soldiers and private contractors subject to Iraqi law, as they are subject to the law in most countries where they are stationed.
Freedom!
But not of the press. And not of the people.
Just of the gubmint, to rape and pillage the nation.
I wrote the story for OhmyNews and apologise for the mistake in quoting from a blog not written by the journalist Ali Fadhil detained by US troops. I wanted to include something about him as part of the story. There is now his own report on the Guardain website as an mp3.
The mistake was noticed by Bill Willi who added a comment to the story. I apologised in another comment and in a note for the follow up story.