US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist

January 9, 2006 12:28 PM

US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalistli 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. Question: Coincidence or Coercion?
posted by Mr Bluesky (21 comments total)

What did and who is Ali (scroll down)

Ali Fadhil’s piece, praised for its intensity, honesty and bravery, was the first independent witness account in the aftermath of the battle of Fallujah. It questioned the US military’s claims that the city was getting back to normal by confirming that no aid agencies were operating inside Fallujah, and showed images of bodies rotting in the streets, open sewers and refugees living in tents.

Looking around for the article
posted by elpapacito at 12:41 PM on January 9, 2006

If true....GODDAMMIT!
posted by Smedleyman at 1:04 PM on January 9, 2006

"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."

They then set flame to a large cross on his lawn, didn't they?
posted by Citizen Premier at 1:19 PM on January 9, 2006

this what you're looking for?
posted by marvin at 1:24 PM on January 9, 2006

So... that's pretty much a normal everyday occurance for an Iraqi then?
posted by Artw at 1:36 PM on January 9, 2006

So... that's pretty much a normal everyday occurance for an Iraqi then?

Yep, just another day of peace and security.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 2:30 PM on January 9, 2006

So... that's pretty much a normal everyday occurance for an Iraqi then?


Yeah..except for the whole research that he did on " claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated."

Yup, but asides from that just another day in paradise.
posted by Mr Bluesky at 2:55 PM on January 9, 2006

this makes me want to puke.
posted by exlotuseater at 3:28 PM on January 9, 2006

Can I order one of these for my home? A home invasion featuring bullets and hoods and the taking of the tapes and dis and dat?

Heck, let's all do it. Because that would make for one heck of a protest: rather than the ever-so-passive sit in, let's all get actively interrogated here in our own homes, on American soil, en masse. That *might* make this this War on Terr-r look as patently pathetic as it really is.
posted by diastematic at 3:33 PM on January 9, 2006

The nations' finest, firing at journalists in their beds and seizing their material to protect you from terrorists, since 2005 by appointment of his majesty the Bush.

Support the troops!
posted by funambulist at 4:05 PM on January 9, 2006

Wow. I wonder what he did.
posted by esquire at 5:35 PM on January 9, 2006

Okay. Either...

1) It's normal for US troops to break into Iraqi homes without cause, while firing weapons, and they just happened to get this guys house today, or...

2) They were ordered to bust this house. Note that they confiscated the tapes he'd shot, or...

3) It was just a misunderstanding, and they shouldn't have busted the house, guns blazing, searched it, and taken all of his work.

Hmm. Seems to me the only difference is who gets court martialled.

This is very clearly an attempt to intimidate journalists. They're asking too many questions, and unlike US journalists, where a quick call to the owner gets results, the US has to take more proactive steps to knock "investigative journalists" into line.
posted by eriko at 6:29 PM on January 9, 2006

It's called sleeping while brown.
posted by bardic at 7:23 PM on January 9, 2006

How dare he question Dear Leader!!
posted by nofundy at 6:53 AM on January 10, 2006

Question: Coincidence or Coercion?</I


Eh, a little from column A, a little from column B...
posted by darkstar at 9:11 AM on January 10, 2006

dagblarbit.
posted by darkstar at 9:17 AM on January 10, 2006

Coercion.

Otherwise, why seize the video tapes?
posted by FormlessOne at 3:10 PM on January 10, 2006

The story from Ali Fadhil.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:21 PM on January 10, 2006

"Do you know why you are here, Mr Fadhil?" they asked me.

I replied: "To be interrogated?"

With a broad smile, one of them said: "No. There was a mistake in the address and we apologise for the damage."

So that's it. They blew three doors apart with explosives, smashed the house windows, trashed all our furniture, damaged the car, risked our lives by shooting inside rooms aimlessly, hooded me and took me from my family who didn't know if they would ever see me again - and then, with a smile, they dismissed it as a small mistake.

But they're still keeping the tapes. Interesting "mistake", no?
posted by funambulist at 12:51 AM on January 11, 2006

What amazes me is that if it was an effort to shut him up then why couldn't anyone in the chain of command see that it was clearly going to backfire on them.

They've just focussed a spotlight on a forthcoming story about the misappropriation of Iraqi funds by the British and Americans that beforehand probably would have caused a minor furore and then died.

Plus they've created a whole new story which is either yet another case of US military incompetence or a case of the US military being used to inhibit the freedom of the press and stifle dissent.

Surely one of the pillars of a free democracy that they are trying to bring to Iraq is the freedom to speak out against those in power.

Did no one in the planning stages foresee this eventuality?
posted by electricinca at 6:19 AM on January 11, 2006

Nothing ever backfires, electricinca, nothing...

The war itself, Abu Ghraib, the whole WMD intelligence fabrications, civilian deaths, Afghanistan back to the talebans, terrorism and kidnappings on the rise in Iraq, journalists and foreign intelligence agents killed 'by mistake', do you think a rough treatment of a Channel 4 journalist is going to have more of an effect than all that?

They do it because they can. There's never any consequences.
posted by funambulist at 6:38 AM on January 11, 2006