Excerpts article from
UK Independent :
Lloyd was an excellent and brave journalist who chose to work independently of the US and British forces in Iraq. Both the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence wanted reporters to be "embedded" with their forces during the invasion. Embedded journalists were subject to censorship, and it was hard for them to get an independent view of what was going on.
The Pentagon and the MoD disapproved of the so-called unilaterals like Lloyd. By the time this atmosphere of disapproval has filtered down to the front-line soldiers, it can occasionally seem like a licence to kill.
Even the UK Independent isn't cynical enough on this one. Like the shelling of the Palesting Hotel and al Jazeera (especially the offices of the pesky Reuters news staff -- who have become quite a bit more docile in the years since) there were reasons that US and/or UK officials wanted something to happen to a non embedded reporter as shown in the writings above.The basics of the tragedy are:
ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd was injured in crossfire between Iraqi troops and American tanks outside Basra. He was picked up by a makeshift ambulance. As it drove away, the Americans fired on it and Lloyd was killed. His translator, Hussein Osman, and his cameraman, Fred Nerac, whose body has never been found, were also killed.
His family feels:
His daughter, Chelsey, said his death amounted to murder; his widow, Lynn, called it a war crime.
The conclusion of the analysis by a reporter who was involved with another friendly fire incident in Iraq is:
Since the First World War, every war in which the Americans have fought has been marked by unnecessary civilian deaths and wholly avoidable "friendly fire" incidents. Now, it seems, there may be a new distinguishing feature of American wars: the killing of journalists.
This article will be hidden in pay per view archives within a few days. I will attempt to find a usenet copy of it later.