CBC News: DEADLINE IRAQ - Uncensored Stories of the War

It pays to not just read your own country's media. That holds true especially for the American media in general, with noted exceptions of course. During the aftermath of 9/11, my husband and I would watch C-span broadcasting CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) to get the more interesting and not repetitive stories on those days in New York City.
CBC is fairly well recognized as excellence in journalism. The organization also doesn't shy away from issues that would prove to be considered more controversial here (US). Dealine Iraq, uncensored stories is one of those issues. For this documentary, 3 years ago, they interviewed 50 journalists from all over the world, each representing different media affiliations. These are a few of their stories:
DAVID CHATER, CORRESPONDENT, SKY NEWS

Just 100km south of Baghdad, Chater traveled through a residential neighbourhood that had been hit with cluster bombs. At the hospital he witnessed the usual horrific scenes of the dead and dying.

But this time he met an eloquent doctor that had been trained in Britian and could speak very good English. The doctor took him to a woman who had been badly injured by a cluster bomb. He explained that she had already lost the rest of her family.

"He had yet to tell her that her husband was dead, her children were dead and he said her chances of survival were only 50:50 anyway, so he wasn't going to tell her. And then he stood up and he said, 'I want to give a message to the British people' and he went on for about 20 minutes about cluster bombs, about what they did to people and how they should be stopped."

SAMIA NAKHOUL, GULF BUREAU CHIEF, REUTERS

Nakhoul was about to become part of the story herself. She was with her crew on the 15th floor balcony of the Palestine Hotel the morning it was struck by shells from an American tank.

"I went to the balcony and our cameraman gave me his camera because I was looking to see close up. The photographer told me 'Samia, look.' There was an orange glow in the sky and we looked left for a second. This is the one that exploded in our office. I felt a lid of fire hit my head and we're all on the floor screaming and shouting in pain."
The scene of the 15th floor balcony of the Palestine Hotel as shot by FR3.
Shrapnel from the bomb pierced through the Reuters room on
the 15th floor. Nakhoul suffered brain injuries and some of her colleagues were seriously wounded. But tragically her cameraman, Taras Protsyuk was killed.

"The minute I knew that Taras died for me life would never be the same. We were all waiting for the end of the war and he'd tell me about his son. He had a wife and he was young, he's full of life. It told me that life can change in one second."

CAROLINE SINZ, REPORTER, FR3

Caroline Sinz was in the Palestine hotel when it was bombed by the American troops. A shell ripped into her floor two rooms over. She was on the phone about to file a report and witnessed the mayhem firsthand.

"I let the phone drop in the waste basket and I ran in the hallway to see what happened. I entered the room and I saw the Spanish cameraman that had been on the balcony filming like us. He was lying on the floor with his leg blown off. We tried to evacuate him to the hospital but it was total panic because the elevators didn't work anymore. We had to come down 14 floors and nobody was there."
The FR3 footage clearly showed how the American tank aimed and fired at the Palestine Hotel.
Incredibly her cameraman filmed the attack itself and was able to document that the shot came from an American tank. When she showed other journalists the videotape, they were shocked.

"I was so surprised because in Baghdad we thought we were in danger from the Iraqis. And it was a shock that the Americans shot against journalists, against freedom of the press. And I think they wanted to do it like that. They wanted to shoot against the press to say, we are in Baghdad now and everything is possible so be careful."

Click on title for the website that includes, film, and 12 of the interviews.
Check out the CBC for a different perspective.


Now I wonder what the next deadline should be. It would seem that pulling out of Iraq would leave the country more in danger. I know the Democrats want to do a 'get out of Iraq now' scenario, but where were they when it counted? Where were they when Kerry refused to make it an election issue along with most of the Democrats running for office? It is a little too late now, and now, they need to provide a safe alternative for not only the people in Iraq (whom we owe this big time), but for the tired US soldiers. Give this country a sound plan people, pulling out of Iraq would put the Iraqis in greater peril.