Iraqi police raid Najaf hotel, round up journalists at gunpoint

[Barrett808]

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi policemen rounded up dozens of journalists at gunpoint in a Najaf hotel and took them to police headquarters before later releasing them, an AFP correspondent said.

Firing their guns in the air, the dozen odd policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists in the Najaf Sea hotel and forced them into vans and a truck.

An AFP correspondent, who was also forced into a van, said the police pushed and pulled many reporters at gunpoint.

After a two-minute drive from the hotel, where journalists from across the world are based while covering the battle between Shiite militiamen and US-led Iraqi forces in the holy city, the reporters were taken to the office of the police chief.

"You people are not under arrest," Najaf police chief Ghaleb al-Jezari told them.

"You are brought here because I want to tell you that you never publish the truth. I speak the truth, but you never broadcast what we are."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040825/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_najaf_media&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "you never publish the truth"

I believe that Saddam used to do this too.

[qanda]

2. Bizarre!

What in the world is going on over there?

[0007]

3. junior has his panties in a twist, his world is coming apart at the seams

[krkaufman]

6. Intimidation.

Straightforward intimidation; nothing more. (Though I'm sure they'll go to the next level, if so inclined.)

[MisterP]

8. same as happened to Mazen Dana and the Palestine Hotel

Rumsfeld thinks the problem isn't the torture, it's the cameras!

[Lizzie Borden]

18. Exactly!

[Matilda]

22. It's democracy. Didn't you know?

n/t

[Democat]

4. A first hand account on this story from a blogger in the middle of it

I was on the roof trying to get my BGan to connect when Najaf’s finest burst onto the roof with a Kalashnikov and order me and the other journalists down to the lobby. The cops had raided the hotel and forced all the journalists out onto the street. We were terrified. The cops yelled at us and pointed their weapons toward us. Several large trucks were waiting and knew we would be loaded onto them. Then they started shooting.

“Yella, yella” they ordered us. BANG BANG! They fired their weapons just over our heads forcing us to crouch. The foreign journalists and the Arab media were separated into separate trucks and we were all brought to the police station at gunpoint. On the way, they continued to scream at us and point their weapons in our faces. I tried to put my money in my bag, but a young police officer thrust his Kalashnikov at me and rifled through my bag.

Finally, we made it to the police station. My friend Phillip urged me to ride it out, be calm, smile a little. Then we were herded into the police chief’s office for the most bizarre press conference of my life.

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000810.php

[AZCat]

11. The press conference description is very scary...

From the link:
<snip>
The Shrine would be stormed tonight, he said, and we would be allowed to get on a bus and go visit it tomorrow to see the damage the Mahdi Army had done to it. The Sistani protesters in Kufa were really Mahdi guys and they had to be killed. Oh, and thank you for coming.
</snip>

Creepy, creepy stuff. I am so thankful that there are people like Christopher to document how false this whole setup is, even if there doesn't seem to be a way to stop it.

[jpak]

5. Well at least there ain't no Rape Rooms in Chimpy's Free I-raq!!!

This is just a little old fashioned press intimidation (at gun point ) by an authoritarian US puppet government.

This is soooooo 80's...

<yawwwwn>

[leftchick]

7. Abu-Ghraib....

one big Rape room... now you were saying?

[bahrbearian]

10. Well there's no torture room's in Iraq.....Oh never mind , I know

Abu-Ghraib

[tblue37]

21. Actually,

the recently released investigation report documents abuse and torture at a number of US prisons in Iraq, as well as at Gitmo.

[leftchick]

9. Allawi is the new and improved Saddam....

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5DDCEF52-60B8-4FC6-ACFF-F794BBF8E6D7.htm

He is holding Iranian journalists too. Now I wonder who told him to do that...

<snip>
The arrests came as Iran's IRNA new agency announced it hopes to see two or three of its journalists released after their detention in Iraq on 9 August.

A source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was quoted as saying two of the three IRNA journalists would be released, but did not say which ones.

IRNA's Baghdad bureau chief Mustafa Darban, and colleagues Muhammad Khafaji and Muhsin Madani went initially feared kidnapped before Tehran announced all three had been arrested by Iraqi police.

[MasonJar]

12. I'd be willing to bet that they tell the truth on this one.

[Barrett808]

13. Iraqi police threats against journalists have continued for weeks

They obviously don't want witnesses to the impending massacre in Najaf.

[UpInArms]

15. you just know that they're about to do something stupid

eom

[jayfish]

14. Saddam's Trial Is Over Already?

When did he get out?

Jay

[jayfish]

16. Update Hidden In CNN Story

You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of different story to read about it. :eyes:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/25/iraq.main/index.html


When the journalists were returned to their hotel many found their rooms had been ransacked, and some reported small amounts of money missing.

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi later sent a bus to the hotel to collect journalists so he could deliver an apology, but the journalists refused to go.


The media is so whored-out that they will not move even to stop their own persecution.

Jay

[leftchick]

17. good catch jayfish.....

and how fucking pathetic is that?!? The NEW US goon squad in Iraq under PM Puppet Alawi?!

[SoCalDem]

19. N-E-G-R-O-P-O-N-T-E...a similar thing happened in central america

gunpoint...dead journalists...for reporting what was happening..

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[daleo]

23. Let freedom reign - a little more press intimidation

"After the unexpected press conference at gunpoint, the police chief kissed some of the journalists' Iraqi translators and had the reporters dropped back to their hotel."

Kiss of death?

[pfitz59]

24. Next weeks headline: "NYPD raids cyber cafe....."

rounds up bloggers at gunpoint!" NYC will be Miami all over again. Dollars to donuts undercover provocateurs will incite riots just so FOX news will get to broadcast cracked skulls. The city is primed to explode...

[DeepModem Mom]

25. kick