According to reports, a CNN crime correspondent known as Michael Ware has claimed to be a witness to a war crime of the small scale carried out by U.S soldiers stationed in Iraq. This event has not been looked into or seen by any of the U.S authorities. This person says he was filming while being with U.S soldiers who were present in a village controlled by al-Qaeda. Micheal acknowledges the presence of a young boy on the street who was armed to protect himself. He goes on saying that the boy only walked near the house taken by the soldiers when they indifferently shot him in back of the head. Ware further states that the boy’s inevitable death took place 20 minutes later, in which time he lay bleeding and couldn’t breathe. Also, the footage of this incident was never shown by CNN as it was stated to be too disturbing for the American public.
Ware is a tormented personality and suffers from Post traumatic stress disorder and cannot grant himself forgiveness. He has said that he was perhaps as indifferent as the U.S soldiers who he was trying to capture in an act of indifferent cruelty. John Martinkus, a journalist and friend of Ware is the only person who claims the truth of the CNN crime footage. He claims that Ware showed the footage to him and was himself playing it constantly and frequently like an obsession. He said that Ware couldn’t believe he had done nothing in the incident and that terrible choice of morals still haunts him. Ware believes the incident can be termed as a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
It is beside the point whether Ware speaks the truth as the one who shot the footage but a more valuable question is whether the media had rights to keep the CNN crime footage unaired claiming that it would have been too disturbing to see. We have to consider the media and its bonds with fairness and truth. The least it can do is air what info they have and let the audience decide whether it’s factual or not. Media airing of Saddam Hussein’s hanging is an important point, it was difficult to see and get even though everyone was dying to watch it. War has some harsh realities that have people hooked and that is how they keep perspective in all the hype of the media.
There were many possible ways to handle the situation. CNN could have handed over the video to either the Pentagon or U.S authorities so the case could be investigated and they could have made a CNN crimenews report without the video on their news (however stating that there was footage). Even if CNN had not reported on the incident or video, the video should still have been handed over to the Pentagon.
CNN crime
The biggest mystery is the present location of the CNN crime footage and why the authorities don’t have it. U.S soldiers facing charge has not been an anomaly in the past. Two incidents that caused media hype are firstly Steven Green (a U.S soldier) charged with rape and murder in Iraq. He allegedly shot a 15 year old teenage girl after raping her. He allegedly also murdered the rest of the family, with possible help by 3 other soldiers. Secondly, the case of Lynndie England, one of eleven proved guilty in 2005 by Army courts-martial, of torture and prisoner abuse in prison of Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Ware could have fabricated or there is a reason behind the footage being unaired, maybe due to a conspiracy in the ranks of CNN. Pentagon should get the tape and ensure legal action against the murderer. We have to be sure whether it was murder or self-defense. This is a chance for ordinary people to have a different outlook on events affecting all of us.