] WASHINGTON, May 27 - There is no evidence that
] American forces were fired on from the Palestine Hotel in
] Baghdad before they shelled the building, killing two of
] nearly 100 journalists staying there, a journalist
] advocacy group said today.
]
] The Committee to Protect Journalists, which chronicles
] abuses against news personnel worldwide, said that its
] investigation of the April 8 incident concluded that the
] attack on the journalists, while not intentional, could
] have been avoided.

Six days after the incident, the Pentagon spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, notified the committee in writing that "coalition forces were fired upon and acted in self-defense by returning fire."

In a letter to Spain's foreign minister, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last month that the American tank had fired in response to "hostile fire appearing to come from a location later identified as the Palestine hotel." He called the use of force "justified" and "proportionate."

Written by Joel Campagna, CPJ's senior program coordinator responsible for the Middle East, and research consultant Rhonda Roumani, "Permission to Fire" is based on interviews with a dozen reporters who were at the scene of the attack, including two embedded journalists who monitored radio traffic before and after the shelling occurred, and journalists who witnessed the strike from inside the Palestine Hotel.

Read Full Report
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/palestine_hotel/palestine_hotel.html