Dont mess with my soldiers.
They are trained like dogs to kill.
And they will kill you...
U.S. military detains, beats
and threatens to kill four foreign journalists in Iraq. A
Democracy Now! interview with Israeli reporter Dan Scemama
Amy Goodman: The international
press watch group Reporters Without Borders has accused the US and British
coalition forces in Iraq of displaying contempt for journalists covering
the conflict who are not embedded with troops. The criticism comes after
a group of four unilateral or roving reporters revealed how they
were arrested by US military police as they slept near a US unit a hundred
miles south of Baghdad and were held overnight. They described their
ordeal as the worst 48 hours of their lives. The four journalistsIsraeli
journalist Dan Scemama, Boaz Bismuth, and Portuguese Luis Castro and
Victor Silva, entered Iraq in a jeep and followed a US convoy though
they were not officially attached to the troops. US military police
seized the journalists outside their base, detained them even though
they were carrying international press cards. The group claimed they
were mistreated and denied contact with their families. Were joined
now by Dan Scemama in Israel. Welcome to Democracy Now!
Dan Scemama, Israel Channel
One correspondent: Hi, good afternoon.
Amy Goodman: Its good
to have you with us. Can you describe exactly what happened.
Dan Scemama: Yes, we went
into Iraq to report about the war. We went on a jeep that we had that
we rented. We went with four guys. We all had credentials that we got
from the American army. On the credential it was written unilateral
and it was not written embedded. We just went in and we
saw the British crews fighting, we saw the American crewssoldiers
fighting.
We spent our nights with
the American and the British soldiers, each time in another camp, in
another place where they were parked. We were with them. We got to a
place which was 120 kilometers southkilometers which I think is
seventy, maybe, miles south of Baghdad and there we met a group of,
of the army of soldiers, and there was there also Ted Koppel was there
with uniforms, with a big helmet on his head. And Ted Koppel looked
at me and said to me, Youre crazy, you dont have a
gas mask. Are you crazy? Because theyre going to use chemical
weapons. And I did not recognize Ted Koppel of course. Then I
found out that it was him. Then we are asked by the army there to try
and get gas masks, because if not, its very dangerous for our
lives.
So we went south a little
bit. We met another American troop, a chemical officer we met. We asked
him for a gas mask and he gave it to us as a gift, which, what Im
trying to tell you is, we met a lot of American soldiers, and a lot
of beautiful people that helped us. That understood what we were doing
there, that a lot of times were trying to help us as much as they could.
Until we got to this one group of soldiers in which the head of them
was a guy that called himselfhe did not call himselfwe succeeded
to find out his name because he did not want to identify himself. And
his name was First Lieutenant Scholl which I will never forget his name.
And him, with his soldiers have decided that we are very dangerous spies
for Iraq. They decided that the CD player that we had is an electronic
device that we used to tell the Iraqis where the American soldiers are.
They took away our cameras. They took away our ID cards. They took away
our money. They took our phones. They put their guns towards us. They
forced us to lie down on the floor. To take our shirts up to make sure
we didnt have any explosives on our bodies. They checked usour
bodiesthey checked our carsIm afraid Im too
long so maybe you have another question and then I will continue.
Amy Goodman: Was one of the
Portuguese reporters beaten up?
Dan Scemama: Yes. After we
were arrested at six o clock in the morning by these guys, and
at about 11:30 I think it was, some five and a half hours after we were
arrested, he kind of lost his patience, the Portuguese guy, and they
put us in our jeep, they closed us inside the jeep and they said we
are not allowed to get out of the jeep and we are supposed to stay there.
And uh, so the Portuguese guy got out of the jeep, approached the armythe
camp and said Please, please, I am begging you, I have a wife
and children. Let me just make a call, a telephone call to tell them
that we are safe, that we are with you, the Americans and not with the
Iraqis. They might think at home that we are killed by Iraqis. Please
just let us tell them that. And they said to him, Go immediately
to your car. And he said, Please I am begging you.
Five soldiers went out of the camp, jumped on him and started to beat
him and to kick him. We ran to his direction. They all put bullets inside
the cannons of their guns, and they said if we move forward they shoot
at us. We were standing like stupid guys. We saw our friend lying on
the ground crying, hurting. They tied his hand behind his back. They
took him into the camp. And after half-an-hour, they let him go, and
came back to us all crying. And then came this Lieutenant Scholl. And
he told us, Dont mess with my soldiers. Dont mess
with them because they are trained like dogs to kill. And they will
kill you if you try again.
Amy Goodman: Well, Dan Scemama,
how long were you held by the US forces?
Dan Scemama: We were there
in our jeep for thirty-six hours outside the camp. They asked us if
we need anything. They came politely, very nice, Lieutenant Scholl,
he came again. Do you need anything? And we said Yes,
if you can give us a little food. And he said, I dont
have enough food for my soldiers. I will not give you food. After
about an hour, we saw a soldier going with watera bottle of waterin
our direction. And we said Look! Something human is happening
here. Somebody is coming to us with water! And then we saw that
he gave the water to a dog that was there, not to us!
Amy Goodman: Well
Dan Scemama: And they kept
us thirty-six hours and after thirty-six hours they put us on a helicopter
and sent us to Kuwait. And we thought, okay, now we are safe. And in
the military campAmerican military camp in Kuwait, they hold us
in a tent, standing up for six hours. An officer was standing next to
us, I dont remember his name. One of the sergeants who was there
said, Do you want a cup of coffee? And the officer who was
there shouted at them Dont give them anything! Dont
tell them anything. Dont talk to them, dont be nice to them!
and he said to us, Dont move and dont talk to each
other. This was already after 40-something hours that we were
there. And suddenly at six o clock in the morning, that was exactly
48 hours from the moment we were caught, or everything started, they
said Guys, everything is finished, everything is finished, what
hotel are you staying in Kuwait City, well take you to your hotel.
Listen what we did, we asked Can we use our mobile phones? Our
satellite phones? And they said Yes. And we all took
the satellite phones that we had and we called home.
We all four of us started
to cry and the Sergeant that six hours before wanted to give us a cup
of coffee, came to us, a Sergeant Major of the American army and he
started to hug us, he was crying. And he said, Believe me, its
not all the American army, excuse me I love you, I am with you, excuse
us, please and please and please. This all was finished. They took me
to my hotel. And when I arrived in my hotel, five minutes later, I had
time to take a shower, I wanted to eat something, because I did not
eat for a long time. And five minutes after I finished my shower, people
knocked on my door in my hotel. And it was Kuwaiti secret police. And
they told me for your own safety, we have to show you out of Kuwait
immediately. And they took me to the airport and threw me out of Kuwait.
Im sure the Americans did that.
Amy Goodman: Well, Dan Scemama,
I want to thank you for recounting what happened to you and your colleagues,
another Israeli journalist and two Portuguese journalists.