French Journalist Wacked By Syrian Government?

[jimmy olsen]

His death seems suspicious

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/jan/12/syria-arab-league-monitors-cannot-stop-the-killing#block-9

The official version of Wednesday's attack in Homs - that it was carried out by armed opposition fighters - has been publicly questioned this morning by one of the journalists on the government trip.

Speaking to Europe 1 radio, Jacques Duplessy said he wondered if the entire incident had been a "trap".

    I think we were royally manipulated.

    It wasn't a freak incident at all because after those four shells, there was nothing more. It was over: no attack, no shooting.

Duplessy said he was suspicious of the Syrian state media's rapid response.

    Syrian television was everywhere- three cameras. They filmed everything...One wonders if it was actually a trap, if it wasn't a deliberate attack on journalists.

He added: "Of course, we know nothing. We have no proof."

Thierry Thuillier, head of news at France Télévisions, ruled out such ideas. "It seems to me to be really premature to be talking of manipulation," he said.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelweiss/100129359/who-killed-france-2-journalist-gilles-jacquier-in-homs/

Who killed France 2 journalist Gilles Jacquier in Homs?

By Michael Weiss World Last updated: January 12th, 2012

French journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs on Wednesday (Photo: Reuters)

There were evidently two delegations touring a pro-Assad rally in Homs on Wednesday, as everyone from the Guardian's Ian Black to CNN's Nic Roberston has attested. According to BBC Arabic correspondent Mohammed Ballout, who seems to have had the most intimate view of what happened to France 2 journalist Gilles Jacquier:

    "The first [delegation], escorted by the Syrian Ministry of Information, consisted of, besides myself, journalists from the American channels CNN and CBS and from AFP. The second delegation was escorted by a Lebanese nun and had in its numbers Gilles Jacquier and another France 2 journalist, five Belgians, two Swiss, two Lebanese and a Syrian journalist.

    "We made the rounds of hospitals in the districts of Homs that are still under army control around 3 o'clock, my group left the Alawite quarter of Zahira. A few moments later, outside the hospital of Zahira, a crowd formed of Assad supporters who started chanting slogans in support of the regime. Suddenly, an RPG rocket hit the crowd. Eight pro-Bashar activists were killed instantly, there were also two injured.

    "The journalists in Jacquier's group ran to see what was happening. At that moment, a second RPG was fired in their direction [unclear if he means the crowd or the journalists]. Gilles Jacquier died on the spot. A radio journalist from the Flemish radio station VRT was wounded in the head. The France 2 cameraman was not injured. The attack happened in the street."

This would suggest that anti-Assad rebels did the shooting, which is indeed what Syrian state media are already alleging. The pro-regime Addounia channel claimed characteristically that "terrorists" killed Jacquier and suggested that the weapon they used was an ENERGA anti-tank missile — an armament said not to be in the kit of Syrian security forces. Nothing Addounia TV says ought to be taken as fact.

Nevertheless, rebels do occasionally use RPGs, though one foreign-based liaison to the insurgency in Homs told me that the "the area was bombarded with mortar. [Jacquier] was hit with shrapnel from that round not from an RPG, which would have burnt him totally if it hit him directly".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based NGO often cited in the Western press, also accused the regime of killing Jacquier. And the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC), a large grassroots network of anti-regime activists, emailed a press statement stating that "security forces shot a delegation of journalists and some inhabitants in Ikrima district with two BMP shells leaving other injuries including members of the journalists' delegation and a number of inhabitants near Al-Batoul Supermarket".

A BMP is an armoured vehicle strongly resembling a tank: it has a gun turret out of which any shell will have been shot. No Syrian rebels have access to them but the regime routinely uses BMPs in its incursions into residential areas in Homs and other cities. No reporters part of the delegation have said that they saw any around the blast site, although the regime has been known to "hide" these vehicles, particularly from Arab League observers (not that it had to try terribly hard to fool that lot).

If French forensic pathologists can determine the munition used by examining Jacquier's body when it's returned home, they might be able to piece together who perpetrated yesterday's attack.

Whatever the case, Ian Black is surely correct to note that "if the regime minders had been hoping to portray a city under government control yesterday, then they most certainly failed".

[Habbaku]

They'll get to the bottom of this any horu now.

[CountDeMoney]

French Jorunalist

I really wish they would whack you, you stupid fucking nigger.

[DGuller]

They'll get to the bottom of this any horu now.

[Drakken]

It wasn't a freak incident at all because after those four shells, there was nothing more. It was over: no attack, no shooting.

How about they realized how stupidly egregious the mistake was, they panicked, and simply stopped shooting until the observers got out? Why rule out simple faulty communications between the pointers and artillery?

Okey, Syrian government is obviously the Empire now, so they are immediately evil even if proven otherwise. However, that's jumping the gun real hard. Why whack them when they could just deport them? The international consequences will be the same. Keeping them or not, Bashar al-Assad's still the bad guy, so there is absolutely no gain in obusing observers to death.

[Sheilbh]

A reminder of how often journalists, despite being perceived negatively, put themselves at risk.

I've read the Assads are more or less withdrawing to the Alawite heartland, and Damascus.

[Mr.Penguin]

Or some maybe, just maybe did some anti- regime fighters see a large pro- Assad demonstration and decided to teach them a lesson by firing four mortar shell or RPG's into the crowd. After all, Homs is a anti- regime stronghold and I doubt they would take it lightly if a large group of pro- Assad people gathered...       

[Berkut]

Probably killed by the same group that offed that Iranian scientist. :fear:

[fhdz]

They'll get to the bottom of this any horu now.

[jimmy olsen]

Spell check doesn't work in the title bar for some reason. 

[Habbaku]

Why do you need spell check for a title?

[jimmy olsen]

Why do you need spell check for a title?

I type fast and need a spell check for everything.

[Ed Anger]

YOU DON'T SAY.

[Habbaku]

You should concentrate on accuracy over speed.