Middle Eastern Cameraman killed..
 

Well, i found this story pretty fucked up. Its on the news today. A cameraman was shot and killed by some american soldiers while shooting footage of a tank. The reason i found this so stupid was, because the guy was only like 100 feet away from the tank. The guy or guys who shot him mistook his camera for a GRENADE LAUNCHER!! It makes me wonder what the hell we are telling the soldiers over there if they can't tell the difference between a camera and a fuckin RPG. :mad: :rolleyes:

I think I can see how a camera with a large lens on the front could be mistaken for a weapon. Of course we don't have all the facts of the situation either. do you have a link to a news article?

Im having trouble finding a link to this. I'll keep looking.

Here it is: http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/...03-08/072.html

Sounds like a terrible accident. :(

Well, the article doesn't specifiy whether or not the US soldiers thought it was an rpg or an anti-tank rocket laucher. This seems like a really big fuck up, though.

Yeah, it is pretty sad. Im just wondering how you can be close enough to shoot somebody, but didn't notice the difference between a camera and a large device with a hole that shoots things known as rockets out of it.:confused:

It might not have been the case in terms of what the US soldiers were thinking, but different terrorist groups including Al Quaeda have been known to pack camera equipment and such with explosive and detonate them in suicide attacks. That's how an Afghan leader of anti-Taliban rssistance group was assassinated.

Yeah, but the article says that they were cleary noted as journalists, and then they were attacked, so it happened all within a few seconds. Most likely someone got a little trigger happy and didn't notice the actual fact. (That they were journalists) Its a bad accident, but I hope someone kicks that guys ass when they find out who did it.

If the military does the right thing, he'll sure as hell be discharged for fucking up that bad.

The article said they were noted and that after they were done shooting and they were about to leave that the tank drove up so it was probably a different unit and they may not have known that the camera crew was going to be there. When they saw the tank the guy got out of the car and pointed the camera at the tank. Imagine how the people in the tank would feel when they see this unknown car and a guy gets out and points a large cylindrical object towards them?

True. With the extremely heightened security threat in Iraq, soldiers have very little time to react before getting maimed or killed.

Well normally that car wouldn't have gotten within a mile of that tank. They wouldn't let that car into the area unless it had reason to be there. Those security standards are already set over there. This never should have happened, because the soldiers should be used to camera's.

[sarcasm] Yah a RPG and a Camera look alot alike, I mean look at these too and tell me you dont see it also? [/sarcasm]

http://www.emergency.com/2001/taleban-rpg-7.jpg

http://www.ggvideo.com/pb/shoulder.jpg





*edit* The article posted above doesn't state its a RPG, but 3 different news orginizations that I saw a report on said it was.

I'll bet anything they shot 41 times...
Seriously, though, this kind of thing can't be avoided. the guys over there are antsy, with a GI getting picked off every few days. Sure the two objects don't look the same on a computer, but under stress your perceptions change a lot.