Army probe of Reuters death 'flawed'

The Defense Department’s inspector general, the Pentagon’s watchdog agency, found that US soldiers who fired on a Reuters car in west Baghdad in August 2005, killing Reuters Television soundman Waleed Khaled, reasonably responded to what they thought was a threat.

But the inspector general criticised the Army investigator for losing a critical piece of evidence - video from a Reuters cameraman in the car that captured events leading up to and including the shooting.

The Army investigator’s actions rightfully led Reuters to believe the investigation was not thorough or independent, the inspector general’s report said.

“We found that although the (investigating officer) who conducted the Army investigation did not pursue some logical investigative actions, he properly concluded that during an ongoing enemy attack the soldiers thought a video camera and external microphone held out of an indigenous, unmarked vehicle was a rocket propelled grenade,” the inspector general said.

“The soldiers reasonably believed that act constituted a threat to United States forces and as such were obligated to act and did so in accordance with the (rules of engagement).”

The inspector general also faulted Reuters and its safety practices. The car carrying Khaled and cameraman Haider Kadhem was not marked “press”, for example, and Kadhem wrongly stuck his camera out of the car window, according to the military.

That made it difficult for soldiers to distinguish the journalists from combatants, the inspector general said.

Reuters said it disagreed with the Pentagon agency’s findings but appreciated its recommendation that the US military work with news organisations on safety procedures to avoid similar incidents.

“I am never satisfied when a journalist is killed in the course of covering a story,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said. “I am satisfied that the inspector general took this case seriously and came up with useful and positive recommendations.”

Khaled and Kadhem were inside a Reuters car while Kadhem, in the front passenger seat, filmed the aftermath of an insurgent ambush on Iraqi police. The car was not marked “press” due to worries that Iraqi insurgents were targeting reporters, Schlesinger said.

The US military confiscated Kadhem’s camera, which contained video of the shooting. The US military showed the footage to Reuters staff but later lost that video, characterised by Reuters as a “key piece of evidence” and one that corroborated the Reuters version of events.

Reuters’ chief counsel Thomas Kim called the video “the only piece of objective evidence” available in the incident.

An independent inquiry commissioned by Reuters concluded in April 2006 that the shooting appeared “unlawful” and said nothing Khaled or Kadhem did could have been mistaken as hostile.

Iraq is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists. At least 179 reporters and media assistants have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2003, more than in World War II and during fighting in Vietnam, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. ■