U.S. Should Step Up Search for Missing Media Workers in Iraq

By: This unsigned editorial appeared in the June 2 issue of E&P.

When professional thieves and opportunistic looters plundered the Baghdad Museum in mid-April, angry world opinion quickly transformed the Bush administration's initial shoulder-shrugging reaction. Within days, U.S. forces had posted a tank platoon to prevent any further destruction, and dispatched a team of military investigators. By May 16, the Pentagon had conducted a dazzling press briefing to show off all it had learned about the thefts. Lead investigator Col. Matthew Bogdanos spoke feelingly of how the thefts included, "most notably and lamentably, the Sacred Vase of Warka, a Sumerian piece from about 3000 B.C."

Contrast that empathy to the indifference the U.S. and British authorities have shown towards finding two Independent Television Network (ITN) media workers -- cameraman Fr?d?ric Nerac, 43, and driver/translator Hussein Osman, 30 -- who have been missing since March 22, when the British news crew came under heavy fire approaching Basra in southern Iraq. ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was killed and cameraman Daniel Demostier was wounded in the shooting, which likely came from U.S. forces.

At first, it seemed the United States, at least, was serious about finding the two men. Secretary of State Colin Powell on April 3 assured Fabienne Nerac, the wife of the cameraman, that he would "personally" look into the case. Mrs. Nerac has yet to hear back from any American officials.

An ITN investigation found the press cards of the two men at village Baath Party headquarters near the site of their disappearance. But the trail grew cold, and it was not until April 28 that the U.S. military announced the start of an investigation. The British were even more dilatory; the Ministry of Defence grudgingly began its formal investigation just last week.

This is not the only episode the Pentagon appears determined to keep under a permanent fog of war. Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a detailed and devastating report on the April 8 shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad while it was occupied by more than 100 journalists. The report by CPJ's Middle East expert, Joel Campagna, concludes the attack, which killed two TV cameramen, was not deliberate, but could have been avoided. It traces how the military's story changed as it moved up the chain of command, from initial anger about the shelling by officers on the ground to the Pentagon's increasingly incredible claim that the attack was in self-defense.

With major combat over in Iraq, the Pentagon should order a speedier and more transparent investigation into the episode than the one it has mounted so far -- and it should pursue the trail of Nerac and Osman with at least the urgency it shows in tracking down the lost Sacred Vase of Warka.
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