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The report, entitled "Indo-US Military Relations: Expectations and 7. Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers Perceptions", was distributed amongst high-ranking US officials and ccording to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a handful of senior members within the Indian Government. It refers 2004 was the deadliest year for reporters since 1980 when to the Defense Department's desire to have "access closer to areas of — records began to be kept. Over a 12-month span, 129 media instability". workers were killed; 49 of those deaths occurred in the Iraq Post-tsunami actions in the Indian Ocean illustrate the US intention _ conflict. to move this agenda forward sooner rather than later. According to independent journalist Dahr Jamail, writing for Inter (Sources: Jane's Foreign Report, February 15, 2005, Press Service, journalists are increasingly being detained and threat- http://frp.janes.com; The Irish Times, February 8, 2005) ened by the US-installed interim government in Iraq. When the only safety for a reporter is being embedded with the US military, the 6. The Real Oil-for-Food Scam reported stories tend to have a positive spin. Non-embedded he US has accused UN officials of corruption in the Iraq "oil- reporters suffer the great risk of being identified as enemy targets by for-food" program. According to Joy Gordon in Harper's the military. Magazine and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in the The most blatant attack on journalists occurred the morning of UK Independent, the charge was actually an attempt to disguise April 8, 2003, when the US Third Infantry fired on the Palestine and cover up long-term US Government complicity in this Hotel in Baghdad, killing cameramen José Couso and Taras Protsyuk corruption. and injuring three others. The hotel served as headquarters for some Ritter says that "this posturing is nothing more than a hypocritical 100 reporters and other media workers. The Pentagon officials knew charade, designed to shift attention away from the debacle of George _ that the Palestine Hotel was full of journalists and had assured Bush's self-made quagmire in Iraq, and legitimise the invasion of Iraq __ Associated Press that the US would not target the building. by using Iraqi corruption, and not the According to Truthout, the US Army now-missing weapons of mass destruc- had refused to release the records of its tion, as the excuse". investigation. The US Committee to According to Gordon, the charges laid Protect Journalists, created in 1981 to by the US [General] Accounting Office There is plenty of evidence of protect colleagues abroad from govern- are bogus. qhee 's plenty of evidence of corruption in the oil-for-food ments and others who have no se for corruption in the oil-for-food program, . ree and independent media, filed suit but the trail leads not to the United program, but the trail leads under the Freedom of Information Act to Nations ut to the United States, “The fi not to the United Nations force the army to elease its results The een members of the Security Council— . sanitised copy of the releasable results of which the United States was by far the but to the United States. showed nothing more than a commander most influential—determined how inquiry. income from oil proceeds would be han- Unsatisfied with the US military's dled, and what the funds could be used investigation, Reporters Without Borders for." (RWB), an international organisation Contrary to popular understanding, the Security Council is not the that works to improve the legal and physical safety of journalists same thing as the UN. It is part of it, but operates mostly indepen- worldwide, conducted its own investigation and gathered evidence dently of the larger body. The UN's personnel "simply executed the from journalists in the Palestine Hotel at the time of the attacks. program that was designed by the members of the Security Council". These were eyewitness accounts that the military neglected to include The claim in the corporate media was that the UN allowed Saddam _inits report. The RWB report also provided information disclosed by Hussein to steal billions of dollars from oil sales. If we look at who others embedded within the US Army, including the US soldiers and actually had control over the oil and whose hands held the money,a _ officers directly involved in the attack. The report stated that US very different picture emerges. "If Hussein did indeed smuggle $6 _ officials first lied about what had happened during the Palestine Hotel billion worth of oil in 'the richest rip-off in world history’, he didn't do attack and then, in an official statement four months later, exonerated it with the complicity of the UN. He did it on the watch of the US the US Army from any mistake or error in judgement. The Navy," claims Gordon. investigation found that the soldiers in the field did not know that the Every monetary transaction was approved by the US through its hotel was full of journalists. dominant role on the Security Council. Ritter explains that "the Olga Rodriguez, a journalist present at the Palestine Hotel during Americans were able to authorise a $1 bn exemption concerning the _ the attack, stated on KPFA's Democracy Now! that the soldiers and export of Iraqi oil for Jordan, as well as legitimise the billion-dollar _ tanks were present at the hotel 36 hours before the firing and that illegal oil smuggling trade over the Turkish border". In another —_ journalists had even communicated with the soldiers. instance, a Russian oil company "...bought oil from Iraq under ‘oil for There have been several other unusual attacks on journalists. In all food’ at a heavy discount, and then sold it at full market value to pri- cases, little investigation has been conducted, no findings have been marily US companies, splitting the difference evenly with [the released and all soldiers involved have been exonerated. Russian company] and the Iraqis. (Sources: International Federation of Journalists media release, 18 This US-sponsored deal resulted in profits of hundreds of millions — January 2005, http://www. ifj.org; Inter Press Service, November 18, of dollars for both the Russians and the Iraqis, outside the control of | 2004; Truthout, February 28, 2005, http://www.truthout.org; ‘oil for food’. It has been estimated that 80 per cent of the oil illegally |= Democracy Now!, March 23, 2005) smuggled out of Iraq under ‘oil for food' ended up in the United States." 8. Iraqi Farmers Threatened by Bremer's Mandates (Sources: Harper's, December 2004, http://www.harpers.org/ [: his article "Adventure Capitalism", Greg Palast exposes the TheUNisUS.html; The Independent, UK, December 12, 2004, contents of a secret plan for "imposing a new regime of low Common Dreams.org) taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and The report, entitled "Indo-US Military Relations: Expectations and Perceptions", was distributed amongst high-ranking US officials and a handful of senior members within the Indian Government. It refers to the Defense Department's desire to have "access closer to areas of instability". Post-tsunami actions in the Indian Ocean illustrate the US intention to move this agenda forward sooner rather than later. (Sources: Jane's Foreign Report, February 15, 2005, http://frp.janes.com; The Irish Times, February 8, 2005) program, but the trail leads not to the United Nations 8. Iraqi Farmers Threatened by Bremer's Mandates [: his article "Adventure Capitalism", Greg Palast exposes the contents of a secret plan for "imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and NEXUS #15 but to the United States. DECEMBER 2005 — JANUARY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com