Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness
U.S. Premiere with Amy Goodman and Javier Couso
March 23, 2005
Summary by Phoebe Hoss
On Wednesday evening, March 23, the documentary film "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness" had its premiere at All Souls Church under the auspices of the Peace Task Force, the Educational Committee of Not in Our Name, and the Action for Justice of Community Church. The film was introduced by Amy Goodman of National Public Radio and anchor of Democracy Now as the kickoff to a tour of the United States to raise awareness and money for an investigation of the killing that is the film's subject and rationale.
This film is the result of a year-long investigation of the killing, on April 8, 2003, in the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad of two foreign journalists and the wounding of two others, as the result of a shell fired by Company A of the Third Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. The purpose of the film is to counter the Army's claim that the tank had fired on the hotel in self-defense, and that the deaths were accidental. This claim is clearly contradicted by the footage, principally shot by one of those killed - Jose Couso, a Spanish cameraman and journalist -- before he was hit.
Other factors emerged in the film to bear out that those deaths were murder, not accident: First, not only was Hotel Palestine far from the main fighting and thus relatively secure, but two months before this attack its exact location had been given to the Army as a place that was not a danger to our forces. The hotel housed 300 foreign journalists. Indeed, according to the Geneva Convention of the laws of war, it was a civilian building and thus not legitimate to attack. Second, the tank was too far from the hotel to have been hit by any sniper with a rifle on the roof as the Army claimed. Third, the tank waited in place, aiming, for 10 minutes in which time, as for the previous 25 minutes, no fire was exchanged between tank and hotel. Fourth, if under attack, a tank would never stay on a bridge. This was clearly recorded by Couso's camera. Finally, it looked as though the U.S. Army was bearing down purposely on "nonembedded" journalists, as earlier on that same day it had attacked Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV, killing one journalist and wounding a cameraman.
After the 50 minute film was over, Jose Couso's brother, Javier, spoke and answered questions through his interpreter, James Hollander. Among the questions were:
Are there other such patterns as this unprovoked attack?
- What's happening in Palestine is similar.
What do you say to the journalists embedded in our forces?
- I don't like the practice of having embedded journalists. John Burnett, NPR's Southwest correspondent, said he "felt we were cheerleaders for the U.S. Marines."
Are you doing anything legally internationally? And, any reaction from Reuters?
- One month after the killing, we filed a war crimes lawsuit against the three soldiers in the Army's chain of command who are responsible for the attack. Twice dismissed, the lawsuit has been sent back a third time. Reuters has taken several actions to support the investigation.
If you believe it was murder, wouldn't they have fired off more than one tank shell to get everyone in the Hotel Palestine?
- The aim was intimidation, to scare the journalists, rather than wholesale murder.
It was ultimately clear from the film and Javier Couso that, whether it was murder or accident, Jose Couso died for his belief that the role of a journalist is to bear witness to what is taking place in our name.
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