Sep 06 2009
Is the CIA and Blackwater trying to get more journalists killed?
In a 2008 interview Patrick Cockburn, a veteran Iraq war correspondent, describes an incident in which he was one step away of being shot by insurgents. He was traveling from Baghdad to Najaf where Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia was resisting the U.S. Marines. Believing that a serious threat would come from the Sunni Arabs, he chose to wear a red and white kufia in order to be perceived as an Arab from the distance and not be shot at while on the road. However, he had the misfortune of running directly into a militia-controlled checkpoint. Once he was spotted, the heavily armed men dragged him out of the car, ripped of his kufia and started shouting “American spy!”
“They dragged me and two Iraqis out of the car. I and the Iraqis thought: That’s it. They’re going to kill us. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died in this way.” Fortunately, at the last moment one gunman suggested that the captives should be taken to the Sheikh at the Mosque and let him decide their fate.
“They took us there and then things gradually became better,” Patrick Cockburn said when interviewed by James Zogby on After Words.
Next time, he might not be so lucky.
The general image of journalists as perceived by the insurgents both in Iraq and Afghanistan is that they work for the invaders and are not impartial. In many cases, insurgents feel threaten by journalists, both foreign and local, and are deliberately targeted, killing many of them. According to statistics offered by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 1992 and 18 in Afghanistan.
To make matters worst, the CIA has employed two veterans of the U.S. Special Forces with close links to Blackwater to pose as journalists. They were involved in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations in 2003 to 2005. Both individuals worked as fake UPI journalists in CIA-approved operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Iran. This episode may have two serious consequences, it will hurt the credibility of the United Press International and put journalist at a far greater risk.
First, it is unknown if the UPI has approved the CIA operations or if the company had any knowledge of it at all. Since these were covert operations we might be inclined to believe the second assumption. However, further UPI reports on the Middle East may be viewed by readers and the independent media with a mild suspicion. Overall, this may have slightly tousled the newswire’s reputation.
But the real damage was done to the image of Iraq and Afghanistan correspondents who work in high danger situations. Some could have gotten away with the fact that they work for various publications, or the word PRESS on their vehicles or Kevlar may have offered relatively small protection, but it is better than no protection at all. Furthermore, journalists have to work closely with Iraqis and sometime earn the trust of various leaders with the goal of obtaining information or an interview. However, the word PRESS becomes meaningless in Iraq and Afghanistan when associated with private security firms, especially with Blackwater.
Blackwater (known today as Xe) has a special reputation in both the United States and with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. On Christmas Eve 2006, a company employee got drunk and killed the guard of the Iraqi vice president. Furthermore, Blackwater employees spread fear in Pakistan. In the city of Peshawar they are known to “point guns at people without provocations” or to “behave rudely with the passers-by.” In other words, Blackwater contractors treat allies of the United States with absolutely no respect.
The list of abuses can go on forever. It comes as no surprise that military specialists have labeled Blackwater and private military firms in general as “counterproductive.” Indeed, their actions turn the people against the United States, thus seriously hurting the military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If the reputation of Blackwater is associated with journalists, the consequences will be tragic. At the end of 2007, the Pew Research Center has conducted a survey to investigate the conditions of journalists active in Iraq. No more than 57% of the journalists surveyed said that at least one of their Iraqi staff has been kidnapped or murdered. The situation has apparently improved, as for 2009 the Committee to Protect Journalists reports only 3 deaths of their fellow media workers. The situation is, however, fragile. The locals hate private military firms and they can turn against the media as well.
If this happens journalists will, yet again, receive little or no support from the people, they will be viewed with suspicion by their leaders and insurgents will increase their efforts in killing the press.
