As I noted below, Howard Kurtz reports that Eason Jordan has created a list of “incidents” in Iraq. The purpose and contents of the list are not clear, but it may be surmised that it is a list of journalists killed by U.S. soliders. Apparently the list is designed to bolster the view that our soliders are deliberately targeting journalists. The only name on the list that Kurtz mentions is that of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, who was killed by U.S. troops on August 17, 2003.

U.S. military officials say Dana was killed because soldiers mistook his camera for a weapon. But some of Dana’s former colleagues don’t buy that argument. Examples:

- Salon: “The “unconscionable” death of Mazen Dana: Are journalists being targeted in Middle East war zones? To a colleague of the slain Reuters cameraman, it sure seems that way.”

- The Guardian: “US troops ‘crazy’ in killing of Mazen Dana.” Includes a quote from Nael al-Shyoukhi, a Reuters soundman, who said U.S. soldiers “saw us and they knew about our identities and our mission.”

-The Independent: “US admits Mazen Dana was shot dead at close range.” Quotes Dana’s driver, Munzer Abbas, saying, “There were many journalists around. They knew we were journalists. This was not an accident.”

-Palestinian Chronicle, “Reuters Cameraman Killed For Filming U.S. Graves: Brother.” Quotes Dana’s brother saying Dana was deliberately murdered for discovering mass graves of U.S. troops killed in Iraqi resistance attacks.

So why did Jordan invoke Mazen Dana’s name? It seems pretty clear he is suggesting, along with Dana’s brother and former colleagues, that Dana was deliberately targeted by U.S. troops. In other words, Jordan is now making the exact same argument he says he didn’t make at Davos.

Update: Blogger Spartacus wrote about Dana’s death here the day after Dana was killed a year and a half ago:

The usual suspects are criticizing US troops for shooting dead Mazen Dana, 43, a Reuters cameraman, on the outskirts of Baghdad Sunday. The problem is (as we saw at the Palestine Hotel, where another Reuters cameraman was fired on by a tank and killed) that a shoulder mounted television camera looks an awful lot like a man-portable anti-tank missile system. If you are a 20 year old soldier, in 125 degree heat, who hasn’t had a hot meal in two days or a shower in four, who has slept perhaps 5 hours in the last two days, and you see someone 50 meters away pointing something at you that may be a missile launcher, what would you do? If it is an anti-tank missile, you have a second or two to kill him before he kills you. If its not, then you just made a terrible mistake. It is not an easy choice. And not one the troops take lightly. But the stakes are high: choose wrong and you die.

Still don’t buy the argument that a soldier might confuse a shoulder-fired weapon and a shoulder-use camera? Check out the photos here.

Update II: What other journalists does Jordan think were deliberately killed by U.S. soldiers? At least two people know: Jordan and Kurtz. Release the list! (Or is it covered by the Chatham House rule?)