Murdoch’s own Eason Jordan: more damning evidence

Gerard Jackson
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 15 February 2005

My story exposing Peter Wilson of Rupert Murdoch's Australian as a liar for having falsely accused US troops of deliberately targeting journalists at the Palestine Hotel has caused considerable controversy.

Fortunately more evidence has recently come to light that completely demolishes Wilson’s vicious libel.

The Mudville Gazette featured an exchange with Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald that reveals the circumstances under which a US tank fired on the Palestine Hotel.

GH: So you were there?

JC: I was about 100 yards or so from the Jumhuriyah Bridge, down at the intersection of Haifa and Jaffa, when Staff Sgt Shawn Gibson fired on the Palestine. All of us were highly concerned at the time about reports an Iraqi FO had eyes on our position from a tall building in the vicinity. After the big counterattack that morning was fought back, we continued to receive sporadic mortar fire and RPG fire all morning, taking and returning fire from several tall buildings. The tankers on the bridge reported that numerous RPG teams were operating up and down the opposite bank of the Tigris. Gibson saw what he thought was the spotter and fired. He was distraught when he learned his mistake.

GH: And following the events the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders also wrote up reports?

JC: Yes. I was quoted in the reports, selectively and/or inaccurately, and had RWB remove my remarks, which they reported inaccurately and without permission. CPJ, while casting aspersions on the soldiers based on speculation, neglected to include remarks I made on the character of Gibson and CO Capt. Phillip Wolford, whom I knew as professionals who went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. I lived with them, rode with them into a series of actions and have great respect for them. The Palestine was an accident by well-intentioned men who had been under fire, some of it intense, since dawn the day before.

The following excerpt is from Poynters and once again features Crittendon.

From Jules Crittenden Boston Herald: I am alarmed that Steve Lovelady, managing editor of CJR Daily, is baffled by the uproar over Eason Jordan's remarks. If this helps, it is because Jordan reportedly accused American soldiers of purposefully murdering journalists, without citing any evidence, and without his news organization having reported it. While he backtracked and claimed he was misunderstood, apparently CNN found his transgression serious enough to accept his resignation.  

I am also alarmed that the editor of a major media watchdog publication's web spinoff would cite a report titled Two Murders and a Lie (Reporters Without Borders, and apparently without standards) to support Jordan, as well as the similarly flawed Permission to Fire, (Committee to Protect Journalists) both of which offer selectively reported and distorted views of the Palestine incident that are peppered with inaccuracies and speculation. There is no evidence to support accusations of either murder or lying in the Palestine incident.

By way of disclosure, I was embedded with the tank company that fired on the Palestine, and was within 100 yards of the tank that fired on April 8, 2003. Sgt. Shawn Gibson saw what he thought was an Iraqi forward observer in a tall building. We had been alerted that an Iraqi FO had eyes on our position an hour earlier. The tankers had been in combat for up to 30 hours by the time Gibson fired, and after a particularly heavy pre-dawn counterattack was repelled, continued to be plagued with mortar fire and RPGs — including fire from the east bank of the Tigris and from tall buildings. In a month of combat operations with A Co. 4/64 Armor, I witnessed numerous examples of restraint when the tankers put themselves in danger in order to avoid killing civilians. Any suggestion that American soldiers have purposefully killed journalists in Iraq is repugnant, ignores the facts and reflects a disturbing bias. The failure of a major media watchdog publication's editor to get this is also disturbing.

Brookes: It is all too clear that Peter Wilson deliberately libelled the US military and should now be made to pay the necessary price. Good God, if Murdoch's New York Post can summarily fire Dawn Eden for a far lesser offence The Australian can damn well fire Wilson for his repulsive and unethical behaviour.