Word: soldiers
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Reporters are taught to keep themselves out of the story, but sometimes the story gives you no choice. Michael went to Baghdad in 2003 to work on our Person of the Year package about the American soldier, where he joined writer Romesh Ratnesar, correspondent Brian Bennett and photographer Jim Nachtwey. Jim Kelly, my predecessor as managing editor, had asked for volunteers for the job and was pleased and relieved that a pro like Michael had signed up for duty. When a grenade landed in the back of his humvee on a routine patrol in Baghdad and Michael grabbed...
...army convoy rattled through Al-Adhamiya like a carnival roller coaster, each turn as blind as the next. Not that the soldiers could see much anyway. Night had fallen on the old Baghdad quarter, a byzantine maze lit only by kerosene lamps flickering from rugged stone houses. We moved warily in the darkness, patrolling for insurgents in blind alleys custom-made for ambushes and narrow passages perfect for concealing roadside bombs. It was anyone's bet who faced a more dire risk, the hunted in terrorist cells or the hunters in humvees, along with whom I was riding under...
...Along with images of the charred corpses of individuals killed in explosions, some from an initial batch of 14 videos seem to show Iraqis fraternizing with Australian troops-potentially jeopardizing the locals' safety. Others show soldiers exposing themselves and wielding pistols in apparent breach of safety protocols. In one image, a soldier points a pistol at the head of a kneeling man, possibly another Australian soldier, dressed in Arab robes and headdress. A former Military Police officer who reviewed the videos for Time described their content as not only disgusting but in breach of military procedure and operational security...
...While Rip It Up includes images from U.S. military operations, it chiefly shows Australians on operations and in their barracks-and includes the image of the soldier aiming at a crouching man in Arab dress. Another video, 3 Troop, shows images of a soldier apparently practicing quick-draw techniques with his pistol; the sequence ends with him pointing the gun directly at the camera. While evidence of lax weapons-handling practices emerged at the current military inquiry into Kovco's death, questions remain over whether the commission conducting the inquiry was aware of all relevant soldier-made videos. As well...
...Gordon Traill, a former warrant officer who served in secdet 4 in Baghdad in early 2004, says he was not aware that any videos of his fellow troops had been posted on the Web. But he confirmed that photography by soldiers is tolerated. "The only time you could not take cameras was when you went to Abu Ghraib [prison]," he says. Dr. Ben Wadham, a former Military Police member who is now a lecturer at Adelaide's Flinders University specializing in army culture, described some of the posted images as "trophy shots." He said soldiers would be admonished if they...