British Reporter killed by US gunfire early in Iraq war...

We here at MediaWhoresUSA.blospot.com HATE titling our site "Media Whores" because, #1. there are so many COURAGEOUS writers, reporters, and journalists out there; and #2. the derogatory word "whores" denigrates thousands of women (and men) engaged in the sex trade, many of them legally (Las Vegas), and all of them risking their lives to clients, customers, or pathogens picked up "on the job." "Whore," especially, is one of the most DEHUMANIZING words ever to be applied to humans, somehow implying that they are less than human, apart from "normal society," and of far lesser value than "polite society."

Yet despite these "bleeding heart" impulses, we MUST use the moniker "MediaWhores" for now, because nothing else we can use as a headline or title so captures the PROSTITUTION of today's reporter's pen to the PROPAGANDA, LIES, and Orwellian DOUBLESPEAK of the Radical Right agenda and the corporate, religious, and media handmaidens who propagate those lies and propaganda on behalf of the Bush administration, the Republican party, the dictatorial "morality" of would be theocrats, and of course the tendency of corporate America to spin (or lie) on behalf of its own profits.

IN today's post, we SALUTE those COURAGEOUS wartime reporters, often doing their jobs on hellish and hazardous situations. And make no mistake: the US government is working double-overtime to make sure that they (government agencies) CONTROL THE NEWS as much as humanly possible. Today's media 'handlers" understand the Nazi dictum: "IF NO ONE IS THERE to WITNESS the death of THOUSANDS of "enemies of the state," then NO ONE (but the immediate family and kin of the victims) WILL MOURN those DEATHS."

Without going into the US military's role on the KILLING, by gunfire, of British reporter TERRY LLOYD, we simply SALUTE Mr. Lloyd, and other courageous reporters of the Iraq war, for putting themselves on such hazardous situations to report to us the true "facts on the ground" of the Iraq war.
============================

Coroner: U.S. killed British TV reporter
By MARIA HEGSTAD, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
OXFORD, England - A coroner ruled Friday that U.S. forces unlawfully killed a British television journalist in the opening days of the Iraq war.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_re_eu/britain_reporter_inquest

Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he would ask the attorney general to take steps to bring to justice those responsible for the death of Terry Lloyd, 50, a veteran reporter for the British television network ITN.

Witnesses testified during the weeklong inquest that Lloyd — who was driving with fellow ITN reporters from Kuwait toward Basra, Iraq — was shot in the back by Iraqi troops who overtook his car, then died after U.S. fire hit a civilian minivan being used as an ambulance and struck him in the head.

"Terry Lloyd died following a gunshot wound to the head. The evidence this bullet was fired by the Americans is overwhelming," Walker said. "There is no doubt that the minibus presented no threat to the American forces. There is no doubt it was an unlawful act of fire."

ITN cameraman Daniel Demoustier, the sole survivor of the incident, told the inquest that ITN's pair of four-wheel drive vehicles were overtaken by a truck carrying Iraqi forces and that gunfire erupted.

"The hell broke loose completely. I was absolutely sure I was going to die," Demoustier told the inquest. Driving blindly in smoke, Demoustier said he realized the passenger door was open and Lloyd was gone.

Demoustier, a Belgian, said he jumped from his flaming car and lay in the sand, waiting for the shooting to stop. Demoustier said he tried to stand to signal U.S. tanks in the area but that they resumed firing at the clearly marked ITN vehicles.

Demoustier said he saw a Red Crescent ambulance arrive and pick up people. He was later taken to safety in the car of a British newspaper reporter.

The coroner said Friday that a civilian drove up in a minivan, pulled a U-turn and picked up four wounded Iraqi soldiers, then saw Lloyd with a press card around his neck and helped him into the van. Lloyd was shot in the head as the van drove off toward a hospital, the coroner said.

Demoustier said after the ruling that the inquest had not made clear whether the bullet that killed Lloyd was fired by a U.S. tank or helicopter. He said the forces in a tank would have been able to see that they were firing at a civilian vehicle, but a helicopter would not.

The U.S. Embassy in London said it had no immediate reaction to the ruling.

Lloyd's widow, Lynn, in a statement read by her lawyer, said U.S. forces "allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area in which there were civilians traveling."

She called the killing a war crime — "a despicable, deliberate, vengeful act."

Lloyd and the three other ITN crew members were some of the few Western reporters who covered the fighting on their own, while most others were embedded with U.S. or British forces.

Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman also was killed in the ITN crew, and cameraman Fred Nerac remains missing and presumed dead.

U.S. authorities didn't allow servicemen to testify at the inquest. Several submitted statements that the coroner ruled inadmissible.

The court watched a video Tuesday, filmed by a U.S. serviceman attached to one of the tanks accused of firing at the reporters' cars. The tape opens with images of Lloyd's vehicle and the Iraqi truck burning amid gunfire. The tanks drive to the cars and inspect them. A minivan — possibly the ambulance — appears and more shots are fired.

At the end of the tape, a U.S. soldier shouts, "It's some media personnel! That's media down there!"

A forensic examiner said the first 15 minutes of the tape may have been erased.

In Britain, inquests take place when a person dies violently, unexpectedly, or of unknown causes. In the case of an overseas death, the inquest is held in the first English jurisdiction where the body is returned.