Former Military Intelligence Officer Says Palestine Hotel Was Listed as a Deliberate Target

Prior to the shock and awe start of the war on Iraq, a military intelligence Sgt. was not only ordered to eavesdrop on NGOs in Iraq and other non terrorists like the journalists staying at the Palestine hotel, but also saw the name of the hotel listed as a possible target for bombing.  In fact, the hotel was not harmed until troops reached Baghdad. 

Then in one day, the Al Jazeera station in Baghdad was destroyed and the Abu Dhabi TV station in Baghdad attacked, and the Palestine was 'engaged' by a tank which lobbed a shell at one of the terraces of the hotel killing two journalists there.  And all these places were attacked by the same tank.  

Excerpt Democracy Now report "Fmr. Military Intelligence Sgt. Reveals US Listed Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as Target Prior to Killing of Two Journalists in 2003 ":

(Former Military Intelligence Sgt.);

It was actually an email. And I worked in a secure building, and we were given updates about what was going on. I actually am not sure why we were emailed this list of potential targets, and I’m not even sure in what context it was mailed—emailed to us. I would assume it was just an effort to let people know what was going on in the area, considering our mission. But the only reason now that I really remember that specific email is because I knew, having listened to journalists staying at the Palestine Hotel, talking with their families and loved ones and talking about whether or not they were safe and trying to reassure their family and co-workers and loved ones that they were safe, when I saw that hotel listed, I thought there was something that was going terribly wrong.

That list was Shock and Awe targets, during which the hotel didn't get hit, but the later pattern is telling with the three journalism targets hit in one day. 

The tank commander was carefully carrying out orders.  He doesn't seem to have known who was staying in the building he was told to hit, but apparently found the place to appear unmenacing enough to hesitate and check again. 

Excerpt same DN article linked above which is including part of a transcript of a documentary called Hotel Palestine:Killing the Witness.

NARRATOR: Gibson swings his cannon toward the hotel and requests Captain Wolford’s permission to fire, but he still hesitates.

SGT. SHAWN GIBSON: And I still hesitated. Do you hear me? I hesitated.

PASCALE BOURGAUX: I know.

SGT. SHAWN GIBSON: OK? And I took my time, and I called it up to ensure what I seen, and it was clarified with another set of eyes.

NARRATOR: The decision was not taken in the heat of battle. Ten minutes go by until Gibson receives the order to open fire.

SGT. SHAWN GIBSON: We did not know that they had reporters in the Palestine Hotel. If we would have known that, we would not have fired a round over there. I don’t even know if that information was given to the US Army. I do not know that. OK? If it was, it didn’t get down to my level.

CHRIS TOMLINSON: What Colonel Perkins and Colonel DeCamp have told me is that they did not have any information about the Palestine Hotel or the location of Western journalists prior to coming into Baghdad on April 7th.

NARRATOR: When Colin Powell visits Spain on May 2nd, he confirms what everyone had assumed. The military command was perfectly aware that the journalists were based at the Palestine Hotel.

COLIN POWELL: We knew about the hotel. We knew that it was a hotel where journalists were located, and others, and it is for that reason it was not attacked during any phase of the aerial campaign.

NARRATOR: The generals monitoring the fighting from their headquarters in Qatar soon watched the incident broadcast worldwide on television and called Baghdad demanding an explanation.

CHRIS TOMLINSON: That image got out on satellite television, and their senior commanders at the two- and three-star general level, messaged them and said, “What are you doing shooting the Palestine Hotel?”

NARRATOR: Tomlinson overhears radio communications discussing the incident. Lieutenant Colonel DeCamp is informed of the attack by his superiors and shouts over the radio.

LT. COL. PHILIP DeCAMP: Who just shot the Palestinian Hotel?

NARRATOR: Tomlinson hears how DeCamp, clearly upset, asks Wolford:

They were concerned, but someone gave an order to shoot the hotel, and ihter observers say that assertions of rocket fire from the vicinity of the hotel can't be substantiated. Why was the Palestine fired on?  The conclusions of some are that the US government didn't want un-embedded  journalistic witnesses to the battle of Baghdad. 

JON SISTIAGA: [translated] What’s my opinion? My opinion is that there was a deliberate intent to fire on the journalists’ hotel.

JOURNALIST: [translated] So, they had to know perfectly well where we were, and there was no mistake. There could be no mistake.

JON SISTIAGA: [translated] First, they get rid of the offices of Al Jazeera TV. Half an hour later, they shoot at the offices of Abu Dhabi TV. And half an hour after that, the same tank—why not?—shoots at the hotel where other international journalists are staying.

JOURNALIST: [translated] I don’t know to what extent the Americans knew that the final stages of the war would be so easy for them.

JON SISTIAGA: [translated] And what they did not want under any circumstances was almost 300 journalists, non-American and not under their control, that is, who would not exercise patriotic self-censorship, ready to cover whatever might happen.

Update from DN on Wednesday May 21, 2008: A journalist's association and Reuters have called for an investigation into the bombing of the Palestine.

tags: iraq  war  military  palestine hotel  reuters  al jazeera  abu dhjabi tv  

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