Iraqi cameraman weighs in on his video of Marine shooting insurgent

[vulturesrow]

Click here (http://www.kevinsites.net/)

To Devil Dogs of the 3.1:

Since the shooting in the Mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

This week I've even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle -- not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

But I find myself a lightning rod for controversy in reporting what I saw occur in front of me, camera rolling.

It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw -- without imposing on that Marine -- guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong. All the other armchair analysts don't mean a damn to me.

Here it goes.

[sam h]

Thanks Vulture, that was very interesting.

[vulturesrow]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Vulture, that was very interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. Regardless of whether you agree with him or not, I do appreciate the fact that he took the time to write that piece. It certainly helps bring some perspective to the matter. I have no problem with him shooting or even releasing that video. My beef is with those who are so quick to judge the Marine that did the shooting.

[PITTM]

i agree with the part that the cameraman did no wrong. But in the following days we saw people say, "there is no doubt that the marine should be absolved of any responsibility for this". statements like that were shocking to me. while they were on a battlefield, shooting and killing an unarmed, hardly concious person is a HUGE mistake. I feel badly for everyone involved, but saying that that marine is innocent is insane. Hopefully the courts will take care of it.

rj

[vulturesrow]

It is also wrong to immediately cast him to the wolves and say he is definitely guilty of a war crime. Context is key here, something which many people are guilty of ignoring.

[Boris]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle -- not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

[/ QUOTE ]

What a joke. Anyone with a shred of common sense knows that incidents like this are invevitable in a war. There is no need to release the footage. There is zero gain to the American public and it hurts tremendously the American troops in Iraq.

[sam h]

I agree. Part of it is just the nature of the beast with film footage. People think that because it documents an event it provides some sort of truth. But documentation is meaningless without context, a point I think this photographer was smart enough to emphasize in his narrative of the events.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I can't imagine how much not releasing it would weigh on his conscious.

[Boris]

Are you being serious?

[ThaSaltCracka]

of course, because it sounds like the cameraman doesn't know what to think of the situation. He sees valid arguments for both sides.

[degenerategambler]

Didnt John Kerry get his Silver Star for shooting a wounded man? This Marine should receive the same, IMO...

[ACPlayer]

Would you say the same thing if an American soldier had been similarly shot?

[lastchance]

This guy is an Iraqi cameraman. There is no reason why an Iraqi cameraman should not release this tape.

People do get judgmental on these issues, but journalists have a job too, and it'd be a real danger if news organizations stopped releasing tapes that they felt were harmful to the war effort.