Did the US purposefully open fire on international journalists?

WORLD IN PERSPECTIVE by Omar Zeidane The US came under heavy criticism after one of its tanks fired at a hotel in Baghdad where international journalists were stationed on Tuesday. Three were killed in the blast. The event surrounding the attack is shrouded in suspicion, leaving many wondering whether this was a brutal kind of censorship. For example, the Pentagon defended its troops and said that the tank crew were coming under fire from the Palestine Hotel, and returned fire as a defensive measure. Yet, surviving journalists at the hotel vehemently deny that there was anyone shooting from the hotel. Initially the Pentagon said that there was a gunman in the lobby of the hotel, but that does not explain why the tank shell smashed into the 15th floor where several journalists were watching the action from their balconies. Of course under pressure, soldiers can make mistakes, and in the heat of the moment it is plausible that action is taken hastily. But footage of the tragic event revealed that the tank's crew did not act under haste. A cameraman from a French television channel filmed everything. The tank turned its gun towards the hotel, but instead of immediately opening fire -- it waited for some two minutes. "It had been very quiet for a moment," said Herve De Ploeg, "There was no shooting at all. Then I saw the turret turning in our direction and the carriage lifting. It faced the target." He added that "it was not a case of instinctive firing." Another journalist, Lilli Gruber from the Italian RAI UNO station, said that even if there had been a sniper at the hotel, "the Americans would have targeted him, whereas it was clear they were not targeting anyone in particular since the shell hit a balcony." So what does all this add up to? Some are suggesting that this attack was a deliberate attempt to silence international journalists. The contradiction in the Pentagon's version of events, and that reported by the journalists at the hotel, only serves to fuel this suspicion. "It is clear the shelling of television and press offices in Baghdad was not random," the Saudi "Al-Jazirah" daily wrote. "It appears that some people did not like the media contradicting lies issued by war generals… Unfortunately those who expose the lies get the message by missiles." The Qatar based Al-Jazeera television network claims that its journalists are being deliberately targeted. One of its correspondents was killed in a separate attack on its office by a missile, and in the hotel another of its journalists was killed. If these allegations are true the consequences are immense: How can the US install a democracy in Iraq if it has acted in this way?