NY TIMES IRAQ VIDEO IGNITES UPROAR

Military officials in Baghdad have suspended the credentials of a New York Times reporter and photographer after video and a photograph of a dying American soldier were posted on the newspaper's website. The video, which accompanied an article about a deadly encounter between insurgents and an American patrol canvassing an apartment in Baghdad, showed soldiers placing the mortally wounded Army Staff Sergeant Hector Leija on a stretcher and carrying him out of of the apartment. He died later. Military officials maintained that the video violated Army rules prohibiting the showing of wounded soldiers without official consent. The "blogosphere" was inundated with outraged comments. One woman wrote: "Is there any depth these bottom-feeding America haters will not stoop to advance their defeatest (sic) agenda?" The Times said that it planned to send a letter to Sgt. Leija's family expressing regret for any distress the video may have caused. However, it added that the article and the accompanying video represented "a portrait of Sgt. Leija's courage under fire and showed how much his men respected and cared for him."

02/02/2007