America Conor O'CleryThe Blade newspaper of Toledo, Ohio, this week won a Pulitzer prize for a series of reports that uncovered Vietnam-era war crimes kept secret for 35 years.
Reporters Michael Sallah, Mitch Weiss and Joe Mahr described how a unit called Tiger Force slaughtered hundreds of unarmed men, women and children in the Central Highlands during a seven-month rampage in 1967.
The unit was set up to cope with a guerrilla war defined by ambushes and attacks carried out by an enemy demonised as "gooks". They intentionally blew up women and children in underground bunkers, shot elderly farmers working in fields and tortured and executed prisoners.
Some routinely cut off their victims' ears and wore them on shoe-laces around their necks to terrorise villagers. The reporters travelled to Quang Ngai province and found the stories of their atrocities still being told by angry Vietnamese villagers who want to see justice done.
In the US, many former Tiger Force soldiers are haunted by their memories of the killings and 10 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The events in Quang Ngai province were detailed in 22 classifed US army archives obtained by the newspaper, which established that senior officers were aware of what was going on but did nothing to stop it. The case reached the highest levels of the Pentagon and the Nixon White House. No one was charged after a four-and-a-half year investigation, though army inquiries concluded that 18 soldiers committed war crimes ranging from murder and assault to dereliction of duty. The Toledo Blade has been highly praised for its courage in examining the case at a time of heightened patriotic feelings when US troops are being killed daily in Iraq. The articles prompted the Pentagon to begin interviewing Tiger unit members and to ascertain why no charges were brought.
The Blade award coincides with a CNN report called "Engaging the Enemy" that raises new questions about the conduct of the US military, this time in Iraq, another war against a demonised enemy.
It showed video footage of two incidents last year. In one, an Iraqi guard at an industrial site lies on the ground, apparently gravely wounded. As he slowly tries to rise, an American marine shoots him dead amid whoops of triumph. Sgt Anthony Riddles recalled that "everyone was like, yes, yes." In another incident a helicopter infrared night-sight picks up an Iraqi insurgent dumping what appears to be a weapon in a field and running back to his vehicle.
He is shot and falls wounded on the road. A voice on radio is heard saying "Roger. He's wounded. Hit him". A rat-a-tat of gunfire from a .30-millimetre canon leaves the Iraqi dead. The dramatic videos prompted the US military to investigate both incidents.
In the first case, the marines were cleared of any wrongdoing, but some had second thoughts. Cpl Casey Bromer said, "After we killed him, there was a question of, was this guy a hostile person? Maybe he could have surrendered." The second case is still under review. German television network ARD first aired the tapes along with a commentary by retired US Gen Robert Gard, who asked why in both cases the wounded Iraqis could not have been captured alive. He cited the Geneva Convention, binding to all US soldiers, which says it is a grave breech of the law of war to cause death or serious to injury to someone who is incapacitated by wounds.
While the actions of US soldiers in combat are governed by a code of conduct, by the Geneva Convention and by a responsible military authority, privatised armies are also fighting in Iraq and in some cases doing the professional soldiers' work. The four Americans killed in Falluja were members of an American firm called Blackwater Security Consulting whose 450 commandos in Iraq are employed by the Coalition authority, mainly to provide security for US administrator Paul Bremer and to escort supply truck convoys.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that an attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia on the US government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repelled not by US soldiers but by eight commandos from Blackwater, which is based in North Carolina. The firm even used its own helicopters to bring in ammunition and evacuate a wounded marine before regular US forces arrived. There were an unspecified number of Iraqi casualties. The Post said thousands of armed private security contractors are exchanging fire with Iraqis every day. This outsourcing of military roles is set to grow. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday, when acknowledging that some military recruitment levels were "below target level", that an even greater role would be given to civilains to free up combat units.
The Pulizer awards were a triumph for the Los Angeles Times, which won five prizes, a record apart from the seven given to the New York Times in 2002, mainly for its superb 9/11 coverage. This time the NY Times got only one of the prizes, for public service reporting. The LA Times won Pulitzers for breaking news (the California fires), criticism, editorial writing, feature photography and national reporting (how Wal-Mart became the largest company in the world). The Blade won the investigative reporting award, the Washington Post took the international reporting prize, the Wall Street Journal won prizes for explanatory reporting and beat reporting, the Miami Herald took the commentary award and the Dallas Morning News the photo award in breaking news.
For the first time, no newspaper was considered worthy of a prize for feature writing.