Times Online - World

"PRESIDENT BUSH faced another potential public relations disaster over Iraq last night after graphic video footage emerged of a US Marine appearing to shoot dead at point-blank range a severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah.
First aired by NBC, but quickly broadcast by all the major networks, the soldier appeared to turn his weapon on the wounded militant as he lay on the mosque floor.

The Iraqi was one of five wounded prisoners left in the mosque after Marines had fought their way in on Friday and Saturday. The Pentagon said last night that an investigation was under way."

There is little surprise in the story.

What is surprising is the mutism of the press in the face of a humanitarian disaster in Fallujah -- wholesale destruction of a city and widespread killing of civilians, rebaptized as "insurgents". The US seems to be taking its cues from the Israelis in this respect: keep the press away, describe operations as "military", call everyone an "insurgent", bomb the hospitals, keep the international humanitarian organizations away, keep the journalists away, say "Mission Accomplished" while the bombing continues. And, oh yeah, once you've bombed their city into the dust, claim that you are going to hold "elections". That's bubbalogic.