Continued...
I have no way of knowing why Harris is doing what he is doing, or who may have put him up to it. Maybe he has cobbled his lurid war tales from the 2003-4 embedded period into a book of his own--"Ron and Lima Company's Excellent Adventure--Traveling with the Jarheads and Watching Iraqi Terrorists Hide Behind Women and Children."
Here may be some excerpts (taken from his "news" reports):
"What a difference embedding makes." (1-13-2004, Post Dispatch) [He really made this the opening statement in a breathless and appreciative article about Donald Rumsfeld's military. I couldn't have made anything that rich up on my own. A bumper sticker maybe? ^SG]
"For this new offensive, journalists would travel as the men and women of the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines did. They would eat what they ate, sleep (or not sleep) as they slept, bathe (or definitely not bathe) as they did.
"They could talk to all of the troops in their unit, from privates and corporals and sergeants to lieutenants and captains and colonels, and on some occasions, even to generals." (Oh, gee whiz, even to generals!) The truth is that much of what journalists saw or did or the information that they gathered through conversations wouldn't have happened without the assistance of the units they were with It was through the relationship that we established that they shared their stories, food, water and concerns with us. It was Capt. George Schreffler who urged us off the ground during a sandstorm for fear that we would get run over by a vehicle during the night." (4-26-2003, Post Dispatch)
The story of Resheed wasn't the only place he expressed himself about the terrorists "hiding behind civilians." He likes that bromide, and though this seasoned reporter steeped in virtuous skepticism has never thought to ask himself how unusual it is that cities have civilians in them. He not only used this notion to excuse the shootings of civilian vehicles in Resheef, he eagerly rebroadcast this claim again when spinning a drama about "the road to Ramadi."
"'We're trying to get the snipers in position for a shot,' Major George Schreffler told the other commanders through tactical radio communications. "They're looking at guys in blue uniforms and others with black clothes and black masks. Some are using children to shield themselves.'"
Great stuff! True grit and big brass balls!
Jimmy Massey's sin is that he hasn't transformed Iraqis into extras on the set of a modern-day frontier masculinity script. Though Harris yesterday on CNN claimed that Jimmy is motivated by "profit," Jimmy and his wife have been living pretty close to the margin since Jimmy was released from service with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Contrary to this scurrilous assertion, Jimmy Massey has been trying to tell anyone who will listen that a hell of a lot of civilians are being killed in Iraq the very thing that Harris has worked so diligently to excuse. Little wonder that the mirror that Jimmy Massey holds up to reporters who compulsively justify these killings is one they need to break.
The real sin, of course, is opposing the war. This is part of an escalation against war opponents. The LA Times just reported that one of the biggest churches in Pasadena was warned by the IRS before last year's elections that it could lose its tax exempt status if it preached against the war.
Harris, a Black man, who right-wing bloggers love to love when they are doing a yeoman's task for God, the Market, or the War, has now become the darling of these white nationalist internet denizens. These puerile neo-fascists gleefully blasted Harris' November 8th hit-piece through the blogoshpere faster than you can say Free Republic.
But not everyone was so happy.
"Vanity Fair" was cited by Harris, and so was "USA Today." Not exactly bastions of anti-imperialism, both publications reportedly called Harris on the carpet yesterday for misrepresenting Massey interviews they conducted, and for claiming that neither had checked their sources.
"He began turning up in the media last spring," wrote Harris of Massey, "with stories about military atrocities. Massey's primary thrust has been that Marines from his battalion--some of whom, he told a Minneapolis audience, were "psychopathic killers"--recklessly shot and killed Iraqi civilians, sometimes, he said, upon orders from their commanders."
Evidence to the contrary, says Harris, is the fact that the Marine Corps denied it. Give that man the Seymour Hersh Muckraker Medal!
During the Marine Corps' extensive investigation of Jimmy Massey's claims, there was one person the Corps never once attempted to contact for a statement: Jimmy Massey. Whoever that investigating officer was, promote him immediately. Make him the commander of CENTCOM.
Jimmy has been diagnosed with a debilitating case of PTSD. In public presentations, he has repeatedly advised audiences that his memories are not clear. But since Ron Harris never attended a single presentation by Jimmy Massey, he doesn't know that either. He does make a claim that Jimmy made statements in an interview with the Post-Dispatch that he couldn't back up with documentation, but Harris himself does not provide documentation of the interview where Massey allegedly did this.
Here is what Dr. Craig E. Abrahamson, a PTSD researcher said today in response to an email:
"I am presently in Vietnam, and am conducting research regarding family violence, not just in this country, but in others as well. Just to give you some back ground, I have worked with veterans of the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and now the War in Iraq. I also work with victims of domestic violence, both women and children. My belief and findings indicate that indeed initial memories of trauma are very vague, and in the process of flashbacks, nightmares, and talking, the memories become more vivid."
"None of the five journalists," says Harris, "who covered the battalion said they saw reckless or indiscriminate shooting of civilians by Marines, as Massey has claimed. Nor did any of the Marines or Navy corpsmen with Massey who was interviewed for this report."
Let's think about this for a second. A tactically dispersed 900-man battalion with five journalists, at least three concentrated in one company, and the members of the units do not shoot any civilians with journalists watching. Pretty unbelievable, eh? And no corroboration from the "MARINES AND NAVY CORPSMEN INTERVIEWED FOR THIS REPORT." Well, hell, that's just definitive, two years later no less.
Two people who Harris obviously didn't interview were Andrew Howard and Ryan McFarland, two members of Massey's platoon (not some distant sister company) who gave testimony to Jimmy's publisher corroborating Jimmy's claims.
Harris didn't interview Brad Gaumont either, or if he did, Gaumont didn't repeat what he said into a Danish reporter's tape recorder last year: Referring to civilians who were killed, "They had it coming anyway; Iraqis are scumbags."
Harris also missed Jeffrey Fowlers, who disliked Jimmy and told people Jimmy Massey had been "fired. "Jimmy is trying to slander the MC because they fired him but he was just as much a part of what we were doing [killing civilians]. We were assuming they were terrorists. There were no explosives but it's highly probable there could have been weapons. We were all pissed off [at shooting women and children]. Nobody was doing it on purpose." But they were doing it. They were killing civilians. Plenty of them.
Let's just quote Harris' (April 9, 2003) article, where Jesse Schutz of the 3/7 says, "We're not trying to shoot civilians. If they don't stop, then we fire a warning shot, and if they still don't stop, it's either them or us.'
See, I'm sitting here with a computer and a telephone for one day, and I seem to be able to do a better job of digging up the truth than Ron Harris was, and he was there with the 3/7.
"What a difference embedding makes."