We have seen the enemy and he is...Reuters!

The Pentagon's war on the press continues (from the Guardian):

The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to the Pentagon following the "wrongful" arrest and apparent "brutalisation" of three of its staff this month by US troops in Iraq.

The complaint followed an incident in the town of Falluja when American soldiers fired at two Iraqi cameramen and a driver from the agency while they were filming the scene of a helicopter crash.  

The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were "enemy personnel" who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them for 72 hours.  

Although Reuters has not commented publicly, it is understood that the journalists were "brutalised and intimidated" by US soldiers, who put bags over their heads, told them they would be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and whispered: "Let's have sex."

Of course, Iraq is a war zone - and these kinds of unfortunate incidents never occur in the US.

More seriously, it does make you think about the connections between US policing at home and abroad. The treatment of the Reuters journalists at least alludes to what happend to Abner Louima, although he wasn't a journalist. Gotta love our freedom of the press, and our humane law enforcement...