wrote in message
...
On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:22:57 +0000, Lazarus Cooke
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:


And the view of his friend and cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, who was
there and survived:

" I think it was a tragic accident."

Was it? I don't know, but I'd offer the word of a "friendly witness"
carries more weight than that of a politically-motivated contract
coroner (and for those who don't know, Mr. - NOT Dr. - Webster, the
coroner, is a barrister, not a medical doctor).


Well at least, RDean, you've done your homework, which as far as I'm
concerned is 95% of the problem. On the whole, I'm happy to disagree
with anyone who's bothered to check the facts.

On the other hand - you're not a lawyer or anything, are you?

Cos that quote was very selective.

I wasn't trying to be "selective" and I think that is evidenced by my
also not including what is, if we are going to get in the minutiae of
the event, perhaps the most telling part: the u-turn information.

You quoted 'I think it was a tragic accident.'

The full quote is:

I think it was a tragic accident. But why weren¹t they (the Americans)
professional enough to hit the right cars? They kept firing at our car-
I¹m angry about that now. But they must have been able to see the TV
markings. We were visible the whole time, we were only a few hundred
metres away.
The French ambassador in Kuwait told me he thinks the Americans kept
shooting at me because they wanted to eliminate the evidence. That
could mean they have deliberately buried the bodies of the others if
they were hit too. .

The _full_ quote, huh? Er, no...

The _FULL_ quote is:

"I think it was a tragic accident. But why weren't they (the Americans)
professional enough to hit the right cars? They kept firing at our car-
I'm angry about that now. But they must have been able to see the TV
markings. We were visible the whole time, we were only a few hundred
metres away.
The French ambassador in Kuwait told me he thinks the Americans kept
shooting at me because they wanted to eliminate the evidence. That
could mean they have deliberately buried the bodies of the others if
they were hit too.
_Did we make any mistakes? The only thing I keep thinking about is that
we should not have made the U-turn. Maybe that was a mistake, but at the
time it seemed the sensible thing to do._" (Emp. add.)

IOW, these guys turned around with armed vehicles and not only appeared
to be, but actually were traveling right with enemy combatants openly
displaying and firing weapons. Moreover, they were doing it after
choosing to be unilateral rather than embedded, so no field troops, US,
UK, or otherwise knew anything about them being in the sector. Even if
the US forces could see the "TV markings," and he didn't say they
_could_, only that he thought "they must have been able to" do so. I'd
offer that under the circumstances, they certainly didn't appear to
legit journalists, especially considering that Saddam/Baathist forces
were even using Red Cross/Crescent markings in attempts to get to
coalition forces.

Simply put, his assessment that it was "a tragic accident" seems right
on the money. His speculation on what the US forces may or may not have
seen and what they should have done if they had, in fact, seen certain
things, while certainly worthy of consideration, doesn't offer a
complete view of the overall situation.

I'm sure I speak for everyone in this group (and, oh that it were the rest
of the world as well!) in reaffirming that we have come to rely so heavily
on you for the complete view of EVERY overall situation, that we can hardly
remember a time when we muddled through on our own.......or how.

Moron.

Wolfgang