Below is an excerpt of that on-air conversation in 2003

BRAHIMI: Carol, this is a very sad day for us in the journalistic community. Two journalists have been killed. I was talking, indeed, to somebody who was just at the Palestine Hotel literally minutes before this ... hit the 15th floor of the building, where the Reuters journalists had an office.

One of the journalists [from Reuters who] was hit was killed. I understand three or four of his colleagues at least have been injured, and we're hoping to hear more news on their status a little later. I understand from the person I spoke to that had just left the building that it seemed to be coming from a tank, possibly one of the two ... U.S. tanks advancing on the nearby al-Jumhuriya Bridge. There's been an exchange of fire between those tanks and some buildings across the river from there. It's possible that one of these tanks may have been the one to hit the Palestine Hotel.

Another journalist was killed earlier [Tuesday], Carol, as you know, a journalist from Al-Jazeera, when the building that houses Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network, was hit.

The office seemed to have been bombed. The journalist in question, Tareq Ayoub, is somebody who also worked for CNN at one point, a very dear colleague. He leaves behind a 6-month-old baby and a wife. He was taken away immediately as part of the two injured journalists from Al-Jazeera but seemed to have died pretty soon after the house that hosts Al-Jazeera was hit.

Al-Jazeera, as you know, is on the banks of the Tigris River, not far from the other TV, Abu Dhabi, the other Arabic satellite television that was also hit and was taken off air briefly at one point. It's a very, very sad moment, Carol, for all of us. Tareq Ayoub was someone who was very hard-working, an extremely helpful colleague, and we have all had very close ties to Al-Jazeera, to our colleagues there. We've worked very closely on the field with them. They've always been extremely helpful, and it's a very difficult situation. As you know, in these times of war, solidarity takes over competition.

COSTELLO: Yes.

BRAHIMI: And it's a very, very hard moment for everybody.

COSTELLO: Definitely so. Let's go back to the Palestine Hotel because government sources say the media certainly is not being targeted. But we do understand that someone saw snipers on the roof and maybe that's why this explosion occurred.

BRAHIMI: I can't comment on that. I don't know, I can't say whether or not that is accurate. I know that the Palestine Hotel, from the beginning of the war, was the hotel where all the journalists were staying. There were very few journalists -- in fact, I don't know of any journalists who at the eve of the war, when the war began, were still anywhere else but at the Palestine Hotel.

In fact, the Ministry of Information had been hit a couple of times, and this is where we used to work out of before the war. In the first few days of the war, some journalists were still going back there to attend press briefings. But when that was, that building was hit, then the press center from the Ministry of Information moved into the Palestine Hotel.

So that was clearly -- it's a big tower. It's quite visible, Carol, and it was a place that was known for all journalists to be there and to work out of the Palestine Hotel, especially as they were restricted in their movements and it would be very difficult for journalists to go anywhere else than that building.

COSTELLO: Right. And we see activity on the roof there. Satellite dishes are located up there, and possibly photographers go up there and shoot some pictures. Tell us about that because, you know, there's some confusion over what forces on the ground were seeing on the roof of that hotel right now.

BRAHIMI: Well, yes, one would have to really wonder. This hotel had been, as I say, the place where journalists were going to be covering the war from basically. It took awhile for journalists to get permission from the Ministry of Information to be able to bring all of their equipment and the gear that comes with live TV coverage to the hotel from the Ministry of Information. But eventually that permission was given, and a lot of satellite dishes were set up on various areas on the roof of that building.

So definitely, I'm not sure what anyone could have seen from a distance. But, again, I would imagine that this was a place that -- it's a tall, it's a very high building, and it kind of sticks out in the center of Baghdad. - CNN

Why Journalists Are Being Murdered In Iraq

Finian Cunningham | March 19 2006

THE saying goes that the first casualty of war is the truth. Included in this category in Iraq it seems are the people who endeavour to tell the truth, the journalists.

To date, some 65 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US/UK invasion in March 2003, according to the internationally respected Committee to Protect Journalists. Iraq, says the CPJ, has become the deadliest recent conflict for journalists to work in.

This death toll in the space of three years compares with 66 journalists killed during the Vietnam War spanning two decades (1955-75).

In World War II (1939-45), 68 journalists were killed covering perhaps the worst conflagration in history which spread across three continents.

And in World War I (1914-18), in which the military death toll ran to 14 million, only two journalists are listed as being killed.

However, it seems that Iraq is merely reflecting a trend seen in other recent conflicts where journalists are being deliberately targeted by combatants. It almost seems like an antiquated notion now, that in war the journalist should be viewed in the same way as clerics and medics, that is, as being outside the rules of engagement.

Thus journalist casualty figures for conflicts in Argentina (1976-83) were 98; Central America (1979-89) 89; Algeria (1993-96) 58; Colombia (1986-present) 52; Balkans (1991-95) 36; and the Philippines (1983-87) 36.

Again, these figures reflect a wider and even more disturbing trend. The truth is that the first casualty of modern war and conflict is innocent civilians, men, women and children. Journalists, in trying to report this, are therefore considered legitimate targets by combatants who would want to conceal their heinous crimes.

Where did this debased morality stem from in which civilians are now deliberately thrown into the line of fire?

One significant reference point is the concept devised and deployed by the Americans and the British during World War II whereby whole areas of civilian population were deliberately targeted in bombing raids. The idea was to terrorise the enemy's people and corrode their morale. This saturation, carpet bombing of cities like Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo annihilated millions of civilians. It was an unprecedented innovation in the tactical prosecution of war. Perhaps the nadir of this heinous logic was the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki where some 300,000 people were vapourised in seconds.

These are gargantuan war crimes and crimes against humanity for which the US and British governments and military have never been held to account. And these crimes make modern-day despots like Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein seem like street corner thugs by comparison.

The travesty perpetrated on international law and justice by the Americans and the British was like the unleashing of a psychopathic monster on the world.

Henceforth, the terrorising and murder of innocent men, women and children (the ultimate crime) became a legitimised method for states and other groups to pursue their military and political objectives. This corrosion in the standards of military conduct and respect for international laws like the Geneva Convention and UN Treaty on Torture, is now commonplace in conflicts since World War II.

To get back to Iraq, here we have an illegal war committed by the US and UK. In legal terms, it qualifies as the crime of "war of aggression", the very same crime that Nazi leaders were convicted of at the Nuremburg.

More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US and UK invaded that country. The same number of people have been imprisoned, many of them tortured.

Since hostilities officially halted in March 2004, it is well documented that Washington and London have now shifted their military tactics to that of a massive counterinsurgency operation. The idea is to weaken Iraq by a process of "Balkanisation" - that is, dividing and weakening the country into Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions.

One way of achieving this is to foment sectarian hatred and fear in the population. Since the US and British established the Special Police Commandos, by reconstituting the remnants of Saddam's military, there has been a torrent of "death squad executions" among the civilian population. Many of the victims, who are often found dumped on roadsides showing signs of torture before being killed with a bullet to the head, were last seen by relatives being taken away by these US/British death squads.

To get back to the death of journalists in Iraq, the majority of them have been Iraqis out on the streets trying to independently report on what is happening in their country. None of the deaths have involved those embedded journalists who ride along in US/British army humvees and helicopters.

One of those killed was Yasser Salihee. He was shot dead as he approached a US checkpoint on June 24 last year. In the previous weeks, Salihee had documented, for the Knight-Ridder news agency, dozens of cases of men being dumped at morgues after having been detained by the Wolf Brigade, the most notorious unit among the Special Police Commandos, and under the direct command of a US officer.

More recently, Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat was murdered while reporting on the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra on February 22 this year. Bahjat was a well known female television reporter working for Bahrain-based Al-Arabiya. She and her news crew, Khalid Mahmoud Al-Falahi and Adnan Khairallah, were interviewing local witnesses who claimed that they had seen what looked like police commandos entering the Mosque prior to the explosion. There were also claims that US military forces had been heavily deployed in the vicinity the previous night.

Bahjat never got to complete her investigation. She and her news crew were apprehended by what appeared to be commandos, shouting: "We want the anchorwoman." The bodies of Bahjat and her two colleagues were found hours later. They had been shot dead.

In this context, it becomes clear why journalists are now just another casualty of war, the victims of foul crime. Especially when they attempt to report the extent of those foul crimes perpetrated on the civilian population and more so when the perpetrators of these foul crimes are the master architects of dirty war, the US and Britain.

Finian Cunningham is a journalist based in Ireland finianpcunningham@yahoo.ie

Iraqi court throws out charges against CBS cameraman

(Reuters) 5 April 2006 - BAGHDAD -

An Iraqi court on Wednesday threw out terrorism charges against a cameraman for U.S. network CBS who has been held in jail for a year, saying there was no evidence against him.

Iraqi security forces fired warning shots into the air as journalists tried to speak to cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein's American lawyer outside the court. The guards told Reuters they fired because journalists refused to turn off their cameras.

Lawyer Scott Horton and a CBS TV crew were held for at least 15 minutes, Horton said. "The security guards began screaming, then they drew their guns and began firing," Horton told Reuters, adding he had received permission from court authorities for cameras to be used in the car park, where the incident happened.

Hussein, a 26-year-old Iraqi, was shot by U.S. troops and arrested exactly a year ago, on April 5, as he filmed clashes in the northern city of Mosul. He was accused of inciting a crowd and of recruiting Iraqis for the anti-U.S. insurgency, but the exact charges were never made public. Although the court threw out the charges, Hussein was again taken back to Abu Ghraib prison and is not expected to be freed for several days, pending paperwork.

Basic rules of warfare

"One of the basic rules of warfare is that reporters are not supposed to be targeted," Horton said. "People here don't seem to understand that. "This case is a complete travesty. This man was shot by a soldier who had no grounds whatsoever to shoot him."

The U.S. military was not immediately available for comment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the United States of stonewalling investigations into allegations against journalists, often detained for months without charge. The committee ranks the United States as the sixth worst jailer of journalists, along with Burma.

"For the lack of evidence ... the court orders that all charges be dropped and the accused be released," Judge Kamil Al Shweli said.

Hussein's lawyer Horton said outside the court, before the shooting: "Justice has been administered in Iraq. I am very happy with that."

In January, U.S. forces freed three Reuters journalists who has also been held for months without charge. - khaleejtimes.com

Kimberly Dozier Undergoes Surgery

CBS Correspondent Off Respirator, Talking

Jun 2, 2006 5:26 pm US/Central (CBS News)

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier underwent an operation Friday to begin repairing her legs. Dozier is being sedated to lessen the discomfort, but is still able to talk to her family.

Earlier Friday, she was taken off her respirator and was breathing on her own.

Dozier remains in critical but stable condition at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where she is resting comfortably.

"She is talking well, hasn't lost her sense of humor, and was disappointed that we had to meet in Landstuhl, Germany, instead of over a drink in New York City," CBS News President Sean McManus said in a message to CBS employees.

"She's sharp as a tack. Really," Dozier's father, Benjamin, told CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar on Thursday. "She knows where she is. She knows the questions to ask."

Her first question Thursday was: "What (happened to the) crew?" Her family and doctors agreed, if she asked, that she should be told what happened that James Brolan and Paul Douglas died in the attack.

The coffins with the bodies of Brolan and Douglas were flown on Thursday from Kuwait to London's Heathrow Airport, where a ceremony was held with their families and close friends. Their arrival was honored in a simple, moving ceremony; their plain wooden coffins draped in the Union Jack, CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

When Dozier heard the news, "You could tell it upset her. She kind of closed her eyes," Dozier's mother, Dorothy, told MacVicar. "I know how deeply she feels, and when she can voice her feelings it will be much easier for her."

On Thursday a young American soldier gave his Purple Heart to Dozier's brother, Michael, to give to Dozier. He told Michael that he wanted Kimberly to have it because, he said, she'd suffered as much as any soldier. That Purple Heart is now beside Kimberly's bed, reports MacVicar.

Dozier was seriously wounded Monday by a car bomb in Iraq that killed Douglas and Brolan. Her mother said Dozier is "going to have to have rods in her legs; they were pretty badly injured."

It is expected that Dozier will be stable in the next couple of days and she will be transported to an appropriate medical facility in the United States on Sunday.

"She has to be stable enough to sustain the flight," Shaw said.

The three journalists, who were embedded with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were doing a Memorial Day story about what life is like for the troops in Baghdad when an explosives-packed car blew up nearby.

Dozier, Douglas and Brolan had been riding in an armored Humvee. But at the time of the blast in the Karada section of Baghdad, they were outside on the street, accompanying troops who had stopped to inspect a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi Army. They were wearing helmets, flak jackets and protective eyeglasses when the bomb went off.

Douglas, 48, and Brolan, 42, died at the scene of the explosion, which also killed a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded six U.S. soldiers. The soldier has been identified as Army Capt. James Funkhouser, 35, who had been in Iraq only a few months, and leaves behind a wife, Jennifer, and two daughters, Caitlyn and Allison.

Dozier, 39, was flown to the closest U.S. military hospital, which was about a mile away, where she underwent two operations.

Douglas, who was British, leaves a wife, Linda; two daughters, Kelly, 29, and Joanne, 26; and three grandchildren. Brolan, who was also British, leaves a wife, Geraldine, and two children, Sam, 18, and Agatha, 12.

Douglas had worked for CBS News in many countries since the early 1990s, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rwanda and Bosnia

Brolan was a freelancer who had worked with CBS News in Baghdad and Afghanistan during the past year. He was part of the CBS News team that had received a 2006 Overseas Press Club Award for its reporting on the Pakistan earthquake.

Dozier has been a CBS News correspondent reporting from Iraq for the past three years. Her previous assignments include the post of London bureau chief and chief European correspondent for CBS Radio News from 1996-2002, and chief correspondent for WCBS-TV's Middle East bureau. She has won three American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Gracie Awards for her radio reports on Mideast violence, Kosovo and the Afghan war.

Scores of journalists nearly 75 percent of them Iraqis have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the government of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.