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Reuters calls for report on cameraman's death
Jordan Times, Saturday, September 27, 2003
LONDON (Reuters) — Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer has criticised the "haphazard" handling of a US report into the killing of a Reuters cameraman by a US soldier in Iraq and urged the Pentagon to hand it over. Glocer told Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a letter released on Thursday that he was deeply dismayed that neither Reuters nor the family of its cameraman Mazen Dana had been properly informed of the conclusion of a military investigation into Dana's death. The letter was sent on Wednesday.
Dana, an award-winning Palestinian cameraman, was shot by a soldier on a tank as he filmed near Baghdad on Aug. 17.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad told other reporters on Monday that the inquiry had found troops respected their rules of engagement in the incident, but that Washington would not publish the full report.
Reuters found out about the report by subsequently questioning the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo.
"I ask you now to ensure that a full copy of the report is made available to Reuters and Mazen Dana's family," Glocer said.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US-led ground forces in Iraq, told a Baghdad news conference on Thursday that he was aware of the request and that he expected all non-classified material in the investigation to be made available to Reuters in due course.
He said that the findings of military investigations were not made public as a matter of routine.
In his letter to Rumsfeld, Glocer said: "I am writing to you again in order to express my deep dismay that neither Reuters nor Mazen Dana's family were properly informed of further developments in this case.
"Specifically, neither was advised directly of the completion and findings of your investigation, which were instead communicated in a haphazard way by a military spokesman responding to journalist questions in Baghdad."
Krivo, spokesman for Sanchez, declined to divulge the rules of engagement being used by US troops.
Company spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said Reuters had filed a request under the US Freedom of Information Act for a copy of the report.
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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