US wants to bomb international hotels in Bagdad

The Dutch evening news war reporter, who stayed in Belgrade through the bombing, came on the news last night saying that all the American journalists had quickly moved house and all moved into the same hotel, about which they said an agreement with the US government had been made that it wouldnt be bombed.

Most non-American journalists are still stuck in other hotels, he said. He also explained that his crew, in any case, would probably have to move into a neighbouring country, as the insurance company had announced that no insurance (life, equipment) would be valid after the ultimatum ran out.

The only belgian reporter left Bagdad today. Are there still independant newsagencies in Bagdad? Or de we (again) have to do it with CNN.

Of course, I think we should tell Saddam which buildings we promise not to bomb. We know he's such an upright guy, he'd never hide weapons in civilian buildings. That would be unsportsmanlike, not to mention a violation of international law about which we all know Saddam is such a stickler.

fair enough point.

of course, doesnt explain the question of the "preference treatment" of US journalists, if indeed that is true.

also, if saddam were sane, of course, he would think twice about hiding his weapons in the journalist hotels - after all, he needs those journalists in bagdad. they will be the ones to spread the news of any military mishap or mass civilian casualties; he will need them to mobilise outrage among muslims and doubt at the american home front. but then, we dont know whether he is sane.

we can reasonably suspect on the other hand that for these very reasons, the US wont be in too much of a hurry to reassure journalists about their safety. last time in the gulf, they kept the journalists well away, further and more systematically away than ever before.

how does this work in other wars, actually? is it really completely a go-if-you-wanna-risk-your-neck thing with war reporters? or are there generally some kind of implicit rules of the game about not bombing the journalist hotels, for example? i mean, there's enough reporters dying every year to show its never guaranteed safe of course, but are there generally any unspoken behavioral codes in this? (b/c even wars have unspoken behavioral codes). i remember in the bosnian war journalists grouped together in a sarajevo hotel about which it was generally assumed it wouldnt be singled out, at least, tho still it occassionally was.

All Belgian TV crews left Iraq. Same reason as the Dutch.

Oh God! Where are our troops going to turn for their waffles and wooden shoes?

or for journalists that will report on the things that go wrong, without being hampered by the kind of explicit "patriotic responsibility" that makes the mainstream American media willing to censor their news at the behest of the US government?

(i'm referring to when bush asked the media not to broadcast an osama speech, and they collectively assented)