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Attack on Baghdad hotel was avoidable, says CPJ

New York May 29. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released an investigative report on Wednesday about the April 8 shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by U.S. forces, which killed two journalists and wounded three others. CPJ's investigation, titled "Permission to Fire,'' provides new details suggesting that the attack on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable.

CPJ has learned that Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists and that they were intent on not hitting it. However, these senior officers apparently failed to convey their concern to the tank commander who fired on the hotel. Written by Joel Campagna, CPJ's senior programme coordinator responsible for West Asia, and research consultant Rhonda Roumani, "Permission to Fire'' is based on interviews with a dozen reporters who were at the scene of the attack.U.S. military officials have given a variety of explanations for the shelling of the Palestine Hotel, mainly alleging that U.S. forces came under "significant enemy fire'' from the hotel, that there was an Iraqi bunker next to the hotel, and that Iraqi fire was coming from the hotel's lobby.

However, according to the report, "There is simply no evidence to support the official U.S. position that U.S. forces were returning hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel. It conflicts with eyewitness testimonies of numerous journalists in the hotel.''

``Based on the information contained in this report, CPJ calls afresh on the Pentagon to conduct a thorough and public investigation into the shelling of the Palestine Hotel," the report said.

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