As more information comes to light about the possible atrocities committed by American soldiers in the Iraqi town of Haditha, I thought I would mention that one of the main journalists that helped bring the story to light is Aparisim Ghosh, chief international correspondent for Time magazine. It was back in March of this year that whispers first began to emerge about what may have happened in Haditha:
Since the revelation this [March 2006] week that U.S. Marines may have been responsible for the death of 15 civilians in the western Iraq town of Haditha, first reported by TIME, there has been a major outcry but little action. But now that the Haditha tragedy is out in the open, the U.S. military must act quickly and decisively to reassure Iraqis that the killing of innocents by American arms will not be lost in the fog of war.
In an environment where insurgents and terrorists routinely massacre civilians without remorse or restitution, it is vital that Iraqis know the U.S. military holds itself to a higher standard — that when American soldiers kill (by accident or intention) non-combatants, the military investigates the matter rigorously and punishes anybody guilty of wrongdoing. This is what separates the good guys from the bad guys…It will not be easy to persuade Iraqis that a cover-up is not already under way. After all, the Marines’ first report of the incident claimed that the civilians had been killed by a roadside bomb, and not by the Marines themselves. Nor does it help that the military waited months before launching a serious investigation. But every effort must be made to undo that damage and allay suspicions. [Link]
In the last couple of weeks the words in the article above by Ghosh have been viewed as almost prophetic. He continues to produce outstanding articles from the war zone, such as this insightful one titled Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber:
One day soon, this somber young man plans to offer up a final prayer and then blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. Marwan Abu Ubeida says he has been training for months to carry out a suicide mission. He doesn’t know when or where he will be ordered to climb into a bomb-laden vehicle or strap on an explosives-filled vest but says he is eager for the moment to come. While he waits, he spends much of his time rehearsing that last prayer. “First I will ask Allah to bless my mission with a high rate of casualties among the Americans,” he says, speaking softly in a matter-of-fact monotone, as if dictating a shopping list. [Link]
There is also this most recent one about the savageness of the sectarian violence in Iraq:
To understand just how brutal the war in Iraq has become, spend a day at work with Sheik Jamal al-Sudani. A Baghdad mortician, he travels to the holy city of Najaf every Friday to bury the capital’s unclaimed and unknown dead—the scores of bodies that turn up every day, bearing no identifying characteristics save the method by which they were murdered. On a typical trip to the Wadi al-Salaam cemetery last month, Sheik Jamal and a small band of volunteers unload the grim cargo they have brought 100 miles from the Iraqi capital in an old flatbed truck. Sheathed in powder-blue body bags are the remains of 72 men, many of them bearing signs of terrible torture—holes in the skull made by power drills, mutilated genitals, burns. They are the signature of the shadowy Shi’ite groups that have been kidnapping and murdering hundreds of men and boys, most of them Sunnis, in a campaign that has terrorized Baghdad’s neighborhoods. [Link]
Ghosh was recently interviewed by radio personality Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!:
Aparisim Ghosh: Haditha is a small town northwest of Baghdad, a very, very dangerous place. It’s in the heart of what’s known as the Sunni Triangle, and Marines and soldiers who operate in that area are under constant threat. On the morning of the 19th of November, a four-Humvee patrol going through town was hit by an I.E.D., an improvised explosive device, which sheered off the front of one of the Humvees, killed one of the soldiers inside. What happens next is a matter of some debate, as you pointed out. Initially the Marines claimed that a total of 23 people were killed on the spot, 15 of them innocent civilians, all of whom the Marines said were killed by the I.E.D., and eight of them, enemy combatants who were shot by the Marines.
Amy Goodman: In addition to the 15?
Aparisim Ghosh: In addition to the 15. We looked into this case, and the more we dug, the more we thought that something didn’t quite add up. And when we finally got our hands on this videotape, it became very clear to us that these people could not have been killed outdoors by an explosive device. They were killed in their homes in their night clothes. The night clothes are significant, because Iraqi women and children, especially, are very, very unlikely to go outdoors wearing their night clothes. It is a very conservative society.
When we first approached the Marines with this evidence, they responded in quite a hostile fashion. They accused us of buying into enemy propaganda. That aroused our suspicions even further, because it seemed to be excessively hostile on their part. And we dug even more. We spoke to witnesses. We spoke to survivors of this incident. And then we became quite convinced that these people were killed by the Marines. What is left to be seen is whether they were killed in the course of the Marine operation as collateral damage or by accident, or whether the Marines went on a rampage after one of their own had been killed and killed these people in revenge.
Amy Goodman: You are very graphic in the piece, “One Morning in Haditha.” Describe what the survivors say happened when the U.S. military went into the nearby houses around where the roadside bomb had exploded. [Link]
Of course, reporting about Haditha isn’t going to make everyone happy. Just take a look at the ridiculous title of this article which attempts a character assassination of Ghosh:
Questions Arise About Time “Massacre” Reporter, The Terror Friendly Aparisim Ghosh
June 2, 2006 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As detailed in a cached google entry from the old RedStates website by a poster named GOPINION, Time reporter Aparisim Ghosh, co-author of the article that launched the Haditha “massacre” investigation has an extremely close and questionable working relationship with al-Qaeda and the insurgents.
Time reporter Aparisim Ghosh interviewed suicide bomber in training Marwan Abu Ubeida (a pseudonym) in Baghdad. The Time Magazine World Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber article opens with:
“One day soon, this somber young man plans to offer up a final prayer and then blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. Marwan Abu Ubeida says he has been training for months to carry out a suicide mission. He doesn’t know when or where he will be ordered to climb into a bomb-laden vehicle or strap on an explosives-filled vest but says he is eager for the moment to come.”
So, Aparisim Ghosh managed to track down a suicide bomber who plans to kill as many americans as he can. This bomber claims he is part of al-Zarqawi’s Al Quaeda group in Iraq.
The kicker is not that they interviewed him, but rather that they interviewed him and made no effort to track him down in order to stop him from carrying out his attack or to find out where he trains. [Link]
By the way, for those of you who like me are students of counter-insurgency operations I recommend that you read this article by Sidney Blumenthal in Salon (especially the second half). Particularly in light of what Ghosh helped to uncover you can see how close the edge of the precipice may be.
