Video of photojournalist killed in Ramallah

[xsfo]

I don't know if this has been posted before.
Check out the video at: http://ciriello.com

Oww. Looks like the IDF got him.

[Fred Hansen]

Looks like the IDF got him.

What makes you say that?

[Jeff Thomas]

Frankly, this is a pretty useless video. The video doesn't show anyone being shot. It simply shows what appears to be a Palestinian savage firing an AK around a corner, down a street. The cameraman then approaches the corner around which the rounds were fired. Then, when the camera rounds the corner, it appears that a round may have hit the cameraman. However, all we know is the camera appears to have been dropped.

Now, call me insensitive, but I think it is clearly stupid to stick your head around a corner when a Palestinian savage has just fired rounds at someone. Seems pretty clearly to be brain-dead activity to me.

But, then again, it was probably a Palestinian camerman, and we have now seen what bright bulbs these savages are, haven't we?

We're apparently also witnessing how tight their families are as well, aren't we? Recent reports indicate that Palestinian families are now receiving more than $25K for each of their children sent on suicide missions. Very attractive family values ...

I normally avoid sweeping statements about groups of people, because I strongly believe in individualism and detest bigotry. And, I still believe that most Palestinians are not savages ... but these militant murderers are indeed savages, and I'll no longer cut them any slack. Too many of these Islamic savages have gone beyond the pale, and it is high time more of us began recognizing how disgusting these savages really are. And if we're going to win this war against terrorism, we had better wake up, right now.

Regards from AZ

[Salt]

I detest the liberal media, good shooting!

[Borf]

From the looks of the site, cameraman was an Italian photojournalist.
Who knows what happened. Maybe someone shot him in the back.

[xsfo]

The guys shooting at the beginning are Palestinian so he was probably shot AT by the IDF. The video makes it look as if he got shot poking his camera around the corner. Here's a little more on the guy's demise. I guess he didn't get hit in the video?

Full AP story on Yahoo

Italian free-lance photographer Raffaele Ciriello, 42, was killed near Manara Square - the first foreign journalist killed in the year and a half of violence. Fellow journalist Amedeo Ricucci said he and Ciriello were following Palestinian gunmen when an Israeli tank appeared from around the corner and fired a machine gun from about 150 yards without warning, striking Ciriello in the stomach.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz expressed regret at the death but declined to discuss the circumstances without more information. "There has been crossfire for several days and we don't know where he has been killed," he said.

[Fred Hansen]

Fellow journalist Amedeo Ricucci said he and Ciriello were following Palestinian gunmen when an Israeli tank appeared from around the corner and fired a machine gun from about 150 yards without warning, striking Ciriello in the stomach.

Warning?!!!!! What the hell are they talking about? If someone shot at me, their warning would consist of a bullet passing through what was left of their vital organs.

I couldn't tell who was who from the video, but I do know enough not to round a corner where someone just blazed away. Guess my mama raised me right.

I am deeply embarrased by my "left-wing fruitcake" comment, I hereby retract it. Quite honestly, I have never encountered or heard of an Italian journalist that was pro America. Live long enough, and I guess you get to see a lot of things you never thought you would. I still do not understand what compels a person to enter in to a war zone with a camera, and begin to take pictures.

Judging by his web site, he knew the risks, and took them anyway. It makes no sense to me, but obviously it was important to him.

[Gholam]

an Israeli tank appeared from around the corner and fired a machine gun from about 150 yards without warning

So let me get this straight, now IDF soldiers are supposed to give the attackers 5 minutes of warning time to get to cover before returning fire? Ahem. To anyone accusing IDF troops of rampant civilian-killing, look at the casualty figures of Operation Protective Wall, then look at the casualty figures of US Army Rangers run through Mogadishu in 1993.

[ojibweindian]

"...without warning"?

Anyone sticking around to watch/tape a firefight in progress should expect to be shot at. It's completely moronic for journalists to think that they should be exempt from the dangers of purposefully putting themselves at risk being in a combat zone.

[ojibweindian]

Oh, and Gholam:

I agree with you.

[Dennis]

Y'all might want to take a half hour to tour the website.
It's worth it. Then comment.

[ojibweindian]

After perusing the journalist's site, I should amend, if not outright retract, my previous comments.

Ciriello definitely knew about the dangers he was facing while working in Isreal. He was no coward; rather, he was brave. My previous post implied stupidity on his part, and for that I appologize.

My beef, then is with those journalists who believe that they, because they are "journalists", should be given a bye from the risk of harm/death while covering events in a combat zone.

Quite simply, those journalists should realize that ordinance is truly non-discriminatory; in other words, once loosed from the firing platform, an equal oportunity killer.

[Weimadog]

With those Palistinians in the video just standing around in the same area, taking a few unaimed potshots, and then pacing about, I am suprised they were not all shot by the Israelies.
At the very least they should be arrested for loitering.

Weimadog

[Yakko77]

Helloooooooooooo!!!

I once saw a documentary on journalists in war zones and what they need to know about the dangers of their work and how to survive. One of the things that is especially dangerous for cameramen is that from a distance, a soldier looking at a cameraman can really tell if that's a camera or a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) that he's pointing a him. Sometimes it's just mistaken identity and the soldier shoots first to be on the safe side.

[C.R.Sam]

Yakko77 brings up valid point. Pointing things at armed people can invite undesired fire from those people.

Anywhere.

Sam

[KSFreeman]

"There are guns here." Way of the Gun.

Do those morons in the media really believe that because they are "Journalists":barf: that they are immune to small arms fire? War is scary and dangerous. You don't know who is shooting at you and from where.

Go there if you wish. But I don't want to hear the boohooing when some moron gets shot.

[Borf]

Interesting and somewhat unrelated thing on website, but if you look at http://ciriello.com/site/pw/52ucpmb1.html - almost at the bottom of the page he shows the commander of a UCPMB group in Kosovo. He's got a Steyr Scout slung over his shoulder!

[Navy joe]

Without warning?? WTH I personally consider the sight of a Merkava or any other MBT on the move to be ample warning, its probably not there to deliver Western Union. Unless of course its a candygram for Mongo.

[SIGarmed]

An armored vehicle can be seen in the distance in the video as the camera turns around the corner. Its hard to make out exactly if its an armored personel carrier or a tank. It surely didn't have the ability to tiptoe in the area without being heard. This was probably the target of the terrorist thugs shooting in the video. How stupid can you get? I just hope that they got the terrorists too. You can view the quicktime video frame by frame and see the vehicle in the distance about one block away.

[Skorzeny]

This was probably the target of the terrorist thugs shooting in the video.

While I unhesitatingly agree that suicide bombers who blow up civilians are terrorists, militia that defends its city from a foreign incursion by tanks and APC can hardly can be called "terrorist."

Of course, a case can be made that they are protecting future suicide bombers, but since those come from the civilian population base, the argument can go both ways.

That's the main problem with fighting against an insurgent group - separating real combatants from those civilians who are "friendly neutrals" to the actual act of combat (whatever their sympathies).

Skorzeny

[Fred Hansen]

Skorzeny,

You make a very valid point. If they are going to fight, I would rather see the Palestinians fight in the manner depicted in the video. It is foolish to open fire on a tank/apc with an AK, but it is in its own strange way, honorable.

[[email protected]]

Just because you pick up a rifle when your neighborhood is getting hit, doesn't mean that you still aren't a terrorist for your previous actions.

Maybe if they spent a little less time supporting suicide bombers and a bit more time stopping them, they wouldn't be seeing tanks and APCs in their neighborhoods.

'Course, that's just my pragmatic viewpoint. I'm sure someone will come up with an excuse on how Israel is wrong for sending them in regardless.

Kevin

[Skorzeny]

Spark:

Your argument is definitely valid on many Palestinian militia men, who actively support suicide bombers.

It is my understanding, however, that the Israeli invasion has galvanized nearly ALL Palestinian militias that normally squabble among themselves including Fatah, non-Fatah PA factions, Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as those moderates who are against attacks on Israeli civilians.

When they are defending their homes and refugee camps against tanks and APCs, they become legitimate defenders of their civilian population, not just the suicide bombers.

jmbg29:

That's because they lack anti-tank weapons, period. Despite the hooplah over the Iranian shipment, which contained small arms and low-caliber mortars mostly, the Palestinian militias are actually remarkably poorly armed and have very little anti-tank and man-portable SAMs.

There was an interesting article in the press recently about where the Palestinians obtain their arms (including illegal sales from stolen IDF arsenals from traitor/organized criminal ISRAELIS!).

Palestinians are learning, however (did I not extol Van Creveld's maxim that war is a mutually learning activity?). Recently three Merkavas were disabled by cleverly boobytrapped bombs.

IDF better wrap it up and leave sooner or later - and sooner the better - otherwise it will be Southern Lebanon all over again (where the kill ratio went from 10-to-1 to 1-to-1 as the Arabs there figured out how to deal with the IDF, even their vaunted commandos).

Skorzeny

[Fred Hansen]

Agreed.

[CMichael]

Skor>>
When they are defending their homes and refugee camps against tanks and APCs, they become legitimate defenders of their civilian population, not just the suicide bombers. <<

When they give safe haven to the terrorists in their homes and refugee camps then they should have no complaint when Israel comes to get them there.

Israel should wrap the mission when it is complete. It is their civilians that are targeted for murder.

The US didn't give itself one week to complete its mission in Afghanistan. Its complete when its complete.

:::giving Powell the middle finger:::
:barf:

Michael