The U.S. Department of Defense is investigating at least two video clips that appear to show American soldiers in an unfavorable light during contacts with Iraqi children, according to a report in the British newspaper, the Metro.
A clip found on YouTube titled “Iraqi Kid Runs For Water” appears to show U.S. soldiers amusing themselves by watching children chase their truck in the hope the soldiers will make good on their offer of a water bottle.
“You want some water? Keep running,” shouts a soldier, who laughs at the scampering boys. He asks, presumably whoever is taping the scene “Are you getting this?”
Another video features a soldier complaining about orders forbidding him from using deadly force against rock-throwing youngsters.
The Internet has spread uncensored images of war to the public like never before. Donald Rumsfeld, the outgoing U.S. Secretary of Defense, has suggested the U.S. military is not well prepared to fight a propaganda war in the Internet age.
Perhaps the most famous example of how images circulated on the Internet has hurt the U.S. mission in Iraq are the photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison. The pictures of naked men being led around on leashes and stacked up on top of each other like cordwood was denounced by even the closest U.S. allies.
To be sure, none of the videos that have cropped up in the past couple of months on video-sharing sites indicate any wrongdoing on the level of Abu Gharaib.
The video of the truck-chasing children shows them racing to keep up with the soldiers until one by one they begin to give up. A single child continues the pursuit and appears to be rewarded when the soldier tosses the bottle out.
The water, however, is snatched away at the last second by another group of children who happen to be standing nearby.
In the YouTube clip of the truck driver, titled “U.S. military pelted by rocks” a truck convoy is traveling in Iraq while children throw rocks at the vehicles.
“Here is the corner where little (expletive) like to throw rocks at us,” says a voice on the profanity-laced video. “According to our first sergeant, we’re not allowed to engage these little (expletive). So I’m not going to have my weapon out the window. We’re just going to videotape these little (expletive) basically destroying our vehicles.”
Source: Report: Pentagon investigates YouTube video of U.S. troops | News.blog | CNET News.com
The long awaited Al Jazeera English has launched! This is the official launch video through to the first story.
Enjoy:
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Syria and Iran - two of the most vilified nations in the Bush administration’s political atlas - could hold the key to saving American plans in their neighbour Iraq.
Washington may need the two regional allies to help stabilise Iraq in order to pull its own troops back from an increasingly unpopular commitment there.
But given its fraught relations with Tehran and Damascus, Washington is only likely to secure active Iranian and Syrian co-operation by paying a high price diplomatically from two countries known for their hard bargaining.
IRANIAN WISHES
Iran wants a wholesale transformation of is relationship with the United States, which is one of the most antagonistic in the world.
At the moment attention of the US and its allies is on Iran’s nuclear programme which they say is intended to produce a non-conventional military capability.
Iran wants to be allowed to continue its programme - including uranium enrichment - which it says is completely peaceful as well as its right under the international non-proliferation regime.
That means an end to the threat of UN sanctions - which Tehran has been able to avoid so far - and an end to US and Israeli threats of military action to destroy its nuclear facilities.
In the past, Tehran has had its fingers burnt by trying to open a dialogue with this most hawkish of US administrations.
In May 2003, for example, it offered to open up its nuclear programme, rein in Hezbollah and co-operate against al-Qaeda, but was reportedly rebuffed as the insistence of former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Since then, a right-wing Iranian president has been elected, although overall executive power lies with the religious revolutionary leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei.
From its past experience, Iran is likely to reject any overtures from the US or its allies for talks on limited issues.
It wants to be absolved completely from Washington’s designation of it as part of the “axis of evil” - a state to be shunned by Western allies.
It is not clear how much of a greater role it wants to be given in Iraq.
It already enjoys a close relationship with the government dominated by religious Shia Muslims, but a greater role may cause greater friction with the Sunni Muslim community.
SYRIAN WISHES
The regime in Damascus finds itself on much shakier ground than its Iranian ally at the moment.
It is under great pressure over the investigation into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
So far a UN-backed tribunal has implicated Syria in the bombing that killed Mr Hariri in February 2005, but Damascus denies involvement.
It may hope that its current diplomatic isolation over Lebanon may be relieved if if can play a more positive role in Iraq.
Damascus is condemned as a “state sponsor of terrorism” by Washington because it hosts Palestinian militant groups sworn to Israel’s destruction.
It may see this as an opportunity to change that designation - perhaps in a wider effort to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict, including a chance to reopen its own negotiations with Israel on the return of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.
Finally, Damascus needs commercial co-operation and support with the West as its political isolation is made worse by a chronic weakness in the country’s economy.
Source: BBC.CO.UK
With the Israeli’s invasion, 30 deaths among of them children and women, and the US veto to license Israel their criminal actions…things are getting worse.
Everyone is speculating the world will no longer stand still, specially the Arab regimes, but in my opinion…HA! dream on! Here is a reason of why I am being pessimistic, during Gulf war 1 in 1991, more than 1 million people died in Rwanda in just three months… and no one in the world cared because the oil was over Kuwait and not Rwanda.
So why would they care about this? Anyway…
Once I saw this video about a Japanese inventor showing his eco-friendly energy battery I was totally shocked, since then I knew things will end up differently regarding energy and so on. You never know, cold fusion might end up our way as well.
Basically what this invention is that with one single drop of water or liquid it can regenerate or recharge a battery. Tell me that is not unique…
Click here to see the video
I thought I should add this short video regarding us & weird moments or such. Here it is, enjoy:
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Source: Sabbah.biz
In the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, in between 168 indexed countries, our beloved Arab countries makes sure to be among the worst.
Here is the list in order from “best” to “worst“:
Kuwait - 73
United Arab Emirates - 77
Mauritania - 77
Qatar - 80
Morocco - 97
Lebanon - 107
Jordan - 109
Bahrain - 111
Algeria - 126
Egypt - 133
Palestine - 134
Sudan - 139
Tunisia - 148
Yemen - 149
Libya - 152
Iraq -154
Syria - 153
Saudi Arabia - 161
Oman - ?
Yemen (149th) slipped four places, mainly because of the arrest of several journalists and closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists were harassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th).
But except for Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Arab peninsula countries considerably improved their rank. Kuwait (73rd) kept its place at the top of the group, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates (77th) and Qatar (80th).
[…]
Lebanon has fallen from 56th to 107th place in five years, as the country’s media continues to suffer from the region’s poisonous political atmosphere, with a series of bomb attacks in 2005 and Israeli military attacks this year. The Lebanese media - some of the freest and most experienced in the Arab world - desperately need peace and guarantees of security. The inability of the Palestinian Authority (134th) to maintain stability in its territories and the behaviour of Israel (135th) outside its borders seriously threaten freedom of expression in the Middle East.
Reporters Without Borders compiled the Index by asking the 14 freedom of expression organisations that are its partners worldwide, its network of 130 correspondents, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 50 questions about press freedom in their countries. The Index covers 168 nations. Others were not included for lack of data about them.
- Questionnaire for compiling a 2006 world press freedom index
- How the index was compiled
Evaluation of Middle East can be found here (and Middle East Index - PDF).
