Poor pdf-skills exposes US-soldiers who shot Italian journalist
Interesting followup on Giuliana Sgrena case, the freed Italian journalist who was shot at by American troops upon her release. Yesterday the italian public received this PDF file containing an extremely detailed U.S. military report on the alleged accident. Many lines in the report were “blacked out” as the author probably considered them unclassified, yet sensible information (like the name of who the guy who shot the car).
The funny things is that the american military don´t know how to handle pdf-files. The black-outs have been removed and all the critical lines are revealed!
Here is the unblackened report[DOC Format] in all its details.
Thanks to user elpapacito at Metafilter for this story.
Update 4/5 2005:
For some reasons people are very angry at me for linking to these documents.
Here are some quotes from readers about me from the last few days debate:
‘I think you are a punk’
‘..scum’
‘..you behave as an irresponsible citizen’
‘..vulture’
Hey- that looks like a classified document to me, what about you? I guess you think you are cute- I think you are a punk. You, like all the other scum I read about have never been here, have no idea what its like to soldier here- have NO IDEA what this is all about. Oh maybe some of you have been here- but I know your dirty little secret- you never really get on the ground, you never spend the full tour- get down in the mud and blood- get the shit scared out of you- nope, just a short visit come and go as you please- come on down to my world ass hole. I will introduce you to the fear you have never known. We’ll see if you are a man or- a European. Either help- or shut up. That is my policy. I look into Iraqi faces every day- I know something you will never know- what its like to be thanked for saving a life.
Comment by Iron Soldier — May 2, 2005 @ 8:11 pm
Hello Iron Soldier, you are right, I never was a soldier and I have never been to Iraq. Maybe I have no idea what it is all about.
But I do support the allied operations in Iraq and really wish to understand what is going on.
I also understand that saving lives must be an experience that can hardly be understood by people who are not on the ground like you seem to be.
The document I link to and write about is not about saving lives. It is about taking lives. An incident of friendly fire that has upset a lot of people.
This has nothing to do with how it is to be a soldier in Iraq. I am sure you understand this and I am also sure that you will understand that your frustration has its roots somewhere else than in my blog.
Comment by Hans Henrik Lichtenberg — May 2, 2005 @ 9:41 pm
Politics aside sir, you behave as an irresponsible citizen of the world by publishing the names of brave soldiers who are doing their best to implement UNSC Resolution 1546. These men have done more for the world than you ever will, and their privacy should be respected. You could get the same blog effect without including those names. Perhaps we should instead see the names of the cowardly Dutch who watched thousands die in Srebrenica, or the French soldiers who armed Rwandan genocide squads during the sad spring of 1994? Or perhaps the Germans who…oh wait, the Germans are too impotent to have any peacekeeping blunders but history has proven that a strong Macht has a penchant for Krieg. Oh Europe, ancient dame, were you not so old and rotten to the core perhaps the people of Iraq and those who are trying to protect them could get on with this noble mission.
Comment by Anon — May 3, 2005 @ 9:01 am
The posted comments here are from rather foolish people. Iron Soldier, strange name that. If you are a soldier in Iraq you have my fullest sympathies. But, you should never have been sent over there. You are being abused just as much as the Iraqi people. Anon, just because you are literate it doesn’t mean you have a clue what you are wittering about. Europe has supplied many troops to the region (Italy and the UK are in the EU). It is not a noble mission you retard, conducting a war for corporate gain is not noble. It is downright insidious.
Comment by RichieB — May 3, 2005 @ 11:47 am
Right on Annon. I guess we are all on the same side here. I just don´t buy that all american soldiers in Iraq are heroes “who are doing their best to implement UNSC Resolution 1546″ Shooting at journalists and torturing prisoners for example are wrong. To ignore that fact in order to protect soldiers and the mission is the biggest mistake that can be done right now.
Comment by Hans Henrik Lichtenberg — May 3, 2005 @ 12:37 pm
Hans, you write that “I just don´t buy that all american soldiers in Iraq are heroes ‘who are doing their best to implement UNSC Resolution 154′ Shooting at journalists and torturing prisoners for example are wrong.”
If you were to read the report which you posted, you would see that the soldiers involved had absolutely no malicious intentions and that they legitimately felt threatened. Even the Italian govt. agrees with this conclusion and is blaming the overall system and higher ranking officials rather than the soldiers. Your publication of these soldiers’ names has tremendously harmed their families and this information does not add any information whatsoever to prove your overall point. Still waiting for you to find the names of those cowardly Dutch (Srebrenica), the sinister French (Rwanda), and while you’re at it how about some of the Belgian UN officials who sexually molested young girls in the Congo? You have harmed these soldiers and the overall mission. Shame on you. You should go back to your comfy flat, look in the mirror, and reflect a bit about what real hardship and sacrifice of self for others means. Read the full report and put yourself in the shoes of those brave soldiers, the wonder why you felt so good about publishing their names.
RichieB: You need a reality check. Containment of Communism…Bosnia…Kosovo…Europe is still a net consumer of global security…just ask the German and French peacekeepers who hid inside their base camps last April when the Albanians decided to burn the houses of the elderly Serb villagers. How pathetic. The UK is the lone exception and although technically an EU member they have cleary chosen a third way. Their likely rejection of an EU Constitution (what a joke!) further illustrates this.
Comment by Anon — May 3, 2005 @ 1:06 pm
I did not publish these names. I am linking to a document like many others that has been uploaded by an italian blogger. The main reason I wrote the post was because of the lack of document security in the US military. It is a good story that the US army don´t know how to handle top secret details i pdf-files. You can blame me for this, I would adress the authors of the document.
- If the soldiers have done nothing wrong, then how come the full text report has harmed the soldiers their families and the overall mission?
I guess you know that Giuliana Sgrena’s version of the story is very different than the US report. Read an interview with her here: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/27/1350235
Some quotes from Europa on the case:
Carlo Giovanardi, Minister for the relations with the parliament, said that he did not believe one word of the version presented by the U.S. Army.
Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission and now leader of Italy’s opposition, stated “57 million Italians united in waiting for Giuliana Sgrena’s liberation have a right to know what happened”.
Comment by Hans Henrik Lichtenberg — May 3, 2005 @ 3:09 pm
Sir, you chose to include a link rather than just mention the pdf phenomenon. For this you are partially complicit. You could easily copy the word document and remove the text of the soldiers names.
I correctly cited the position of Prime Minister Berlusconni, the man elected to speak for his government. The lone MP whom you cite was obviously exaggerating, and if you doubt me than I suggest you spend a year living in Italy before taking Mr. Giovanardi literally or at least pay cursory attention to Italian politics, “Kapo.” (google that last phrase with “Berlusconni” if you don’t know what I’m implying)
You claim to be concerned only with the pdf mix-up, but the very next sentence of your argument reveals your true motivation: disdain for the soldiers. No worries. The fact that you sit in your small, confortable world and blog away is testament to the fact these soldiers and others like them have done a pretty good job protecting your right to do so. I asked you to try and walk a mile in their boots and either you attempted and were unable to do so or didn’t even try. Like other professionals, they deserve a degree privacy which you apparently are unable to give them. Would you do the same to a surgeon whose operation went awry, or a policeman who legitimately felt threatened and shot a bystander who unintentionally made a threatening gesture?
Still waiting for a link to those aforementioned European soldiers’ names, or for you to switch your link and post a version without names.
One final thought: relying upon an Italian analysis of actions within a combat zone is a strange position…not exactly a demonstrated area of competence if you follow what I’m saying.
Comment by Anon — May 3, 2005 @ 4:33 pm
Hi Anon, you are not being fair now. We disagree at some points, but asking for names of European soldiers who have done bad things in other wars is foolish. Of course every war has its beasts and europeans are no better than others.
You say that my only reason to link to document was the pdf-mix. I have not said that. I said “the main reason”
My first thought as a journalist when I see a report that is filled with black-outs is that the authors have something to hide. Why is there so many lines we must not see? If nothing went wrong that day, why are things secret? This is the question I ask and I am sure that the families of the dead and wounded italians are too. - And a lot of newspapers are asking the same questions and therefore link to the hacked document. I do believe that it is in the interested of everyone to know what happened in as many details as possible.
And yes, I would publish names of doctors and policemen (and journalist, I did that some days ago) that have made mistakes. It is up to the readers to judge.
Best regards
Comment by Hans Henrik Lichtenberg — May 3, 2005 @ 5:14 pm
Hans
Here is how you harmed American (and coalition) soldiers- you let facts about attacks get published- this is giving essential information to the enemy. They now have battle damage assessment data that they can use to determine where they can attack next and get the desired results. That is why I think you need to come here, to Baghdad and ride the streets with me. You will like it. And for the record- I am sorry that the brave Italian died in this incident. They are great allies- and this was a tragedy. This war- totally just. If we don’t clean this part of the world up who will- OLD EUROPE? May God bless the coalition and the FREE IRAQI NATION.
Comment by Iron Soldier — May 3, 2005 @ 7:22 pm
actually that does not look like a “classified” document nor do the parts blacked out look classified anywhere above the “sensitive” level.
in other words, “privacy information” and not tactical information was revealed, possibly including some stuff which should have been made classified but wasn’t technically classified.
has Iron Soldier ever seen a classified document?
Comment by inexperienced dude — May 3, 2005 @ 7:59 pm
p.s. who’s to say that the document was not a purposeful leak via alleged mishandling (oops)… and before you yell at what i said, i do realize of course that someone could imply tactical information from it, if the figures were both accurate and highly current.
Comment by inexperienced dude — May 3, 2005 @ 8:02 pm
Hans,
Your “instincts” sound more like those of a vulture than a journalist. Journalists objectively inform. You included a link to information (soldiers’ names) which was utterly extranous to your allegedly main point (pdf botch) or secondary issue (aleged mistakes mae or a high-level cover-up). You didn’t even mention the IT counter-claim. Pathetic job of trying to objectively inform us with relevant facts, Mr. Journalist.
Maybe that’s why you’re playing with electrons on some obscure blog which just happened to come up on my google rather than creating a real piece of journalism, and it has officially become a waste of time to further blog in your tiny little world. Good day,
Comment by Anon — May 4, 2005 @ 7:49 pm
Hi Anon, good day to you too.
Again you are right. I am not saying that I am doing investigative journalism here. This blog is more like a summary of what I find interesting during my day, I do a little commenting but mostly I link to ongoing stories that has something to do with newspapers, journalism and free speech. Like thousands of other bloggers, newspapers and sites all over the net I have linked to that document for reasons I have tried to desribe. It is fine to disagree, I just don´t understand your point of view and your personal anger towards me.
I wish you and the entire coalition all the best in Iraq.
Comment by Hans Henrik Lichtenberg — May 4, 2005 @ 8:57 pm
Hans,
My anger is not with you as a person but with your actions. You did not respect the privacy of the members of the same coalition towards which you ofer good will. I asked you to try to walk a mile in these soldiers’ boots and imagine how their families feel. Publication of their names at the very least makes the families the target of “journalists” chasing a headline and at most makes them a target for terrorists. Throwing these brave soldiers’ names across the internet is irresponsible and offers no added insight into the events of that night. Your initial reaction was to disclaim (”I only provided the link”) but you willingly played the role of catalyst and your secondary response (”I just don´t buy that all american soldiers in Iraq are heroes ‘who are doing their best to implement UNSC Resolution 1546′ Shooting at journalists and torturing prisoners for example are wrong) reveals truer motivations: you have a pre-formed, negative opinion of the soldiers involved in this incident and assume someone is hiding malicious intent. Again, I urge you to walk a mile in their boots and think how worried these guys are to have their families after names and hometowns are thrown about the internet in an age of global terrorism.
Comment by Anon — May 5, 2005 @ 6:43 am