Associated Press put terrorist collaborators on its payroll

Gerard Jackson
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 24 January 2005

The idea that Associated Press is in bed with terrorists might not be that far-fetched. On 19 December, 2004, in Baghdad three terrorists dragged three election workers from a car and then murdered them. By the strangest of coincidences an Associated Press photojournalist was present to take a sequence of photographs of this atrocity.

Now what are the odds that the Associated Press photojournalist�s presence was a genuine coincidence? Too long in opinion of many people.

Let us examine the situation in more detail. The journalist claims not to have had advanced knowledge of the murders. Yet the same journalist stood within yards of the crime quietly taking photographs of the victims� plight and then their murder, during which he showed not the slightest fear of the terrorists? Why? Why was he confident that they would not harm him?

Hoping to quash these questions an anonymous Associated Press source declared that the reporter had no �foreknowledge� of the killings even though he had been "tipped off to a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street."

This source is evidently too dense to realise that he just admitted that Associated Press cooperated with terrorists to advance their cause. (If only the same media creeps showed Coalition troops and anti-terrorist Iraqi�s the same consideration).

It truly strains one�s patience to have Associated Press basically argue that it does not know that terrorists use tip offs to advance their aims through public acts of savage violence that are intended to undermine Western support for the liberation while intimidating Iraqis.

Unfortunately we cannot question the cameraman since Associated Press refuses to identify him because it might endanger his safety. Let me see if I have got this straight: a photojournalist fearlessly stood in a street calmly taking a sequence of snuff photographs of two innocent Iraqis being murdered by three sadistic thugs while about 30 others fired guns and threw hand grenades, and yet the same man cannot muster sufficient moral and physical courage to confront his critics. Perhaps this Associated Press toady should try pulling the other leg.

Regardless of what the Associated Press mouthpiece said, if this journalist had nothing to fear from these terrorists as they went about their grisly work, why should he have anything to fear from them now? After all, they already know who he is and for whom he works.

Could it be that he fears the truth would come out about terrorist links if he allowed himself to grilled? Well this certainly looks like it might be the case. Jack Stokes, Associated Press director of media relations, said as much in an e-mail to Jim Romanesko, in which he said:

�Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are not from the area.

�Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to note, though, that the photographers are not �embedded� with the insurgents. They do not have to swear allegiance or otherwise join up philosophically with them just to take their pictures.�

Stokes admits that his cameramen are collaborating with terrorists but justifies this treason on the grounds that they �do not have to swear allegiance� to them. So if, let us say, Englishmen had embedded themselves with the SS during WW II so they could tell the Nazis� story this would not have been treason? Apparently not, at least to the depraved Stokes.

Of course Stokes and his leftwing friends could argue that there is nothing treasonous about Iraq photojournalists teaming up with terrorists to murder other Iraqis. Come to think of it, that is exactly what the lousy creep did.

And yet Associated Press still has the nerve to ask us to believe that it was taken in by terrorists. But if this were true then it would have been outraged at being deceived into cooperating with these murderers and it would have refused to publish the photos. Instead, it defends the cameraman, which is what Stokes was doing, and distributes the photos while refusing to condemn the terrorists.

Associated Press should reveal to the public everything it knows about the murder of the three Iraqi election workers. It should hold nothing secret. Unfortunately this arrogant news service refuses talk.

This secretive attitude is pretty rich considering that on 14 December last year the Bush-hating Tome Curley, its CEO, issued a press release condemning the �trend toward more secrecy,� which he intended to resist. But this is the same crowd that refused to cover the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth story because it would have embarrassed John Kerry.

I think there is sufficient evidence to warrant the expulsion of Associated Press from Iraq. Coalition forces and pro-democracy Iraqis have enough on their plate without being betrayed by this treacherous organisation.

Gerard Jackson is Brookes' economics editor