Defining Freedom

So looting is okay with Donald Rumsfeld but stone throwing? For the second time U.S. troops have opened fire on people for doing so.

Update: The official line is that the Marines were 'under fire' a version the Iraqis are disputing.

They said a controversial Iraqi opposition leader, Mishaan al Jabouri, started speaking to the crowd and hailing the arrival of American forces in Mosul. "They began throwing stones," said Fateh Tata Abed, a 32-year-old man who was shot in the chest and arm. "And the American forces started shooting at us." A second man, Sadullah Ghanal, 39, gave roughly the same version of events. "After we threw stones at Mishaan Jabouri," he said, "the Americans started to fire on us." Doctors said all but one of the 26 casualties were men. Ghanal said he worked in the governate but was not in the building when he was shot. Abed, the second wounded man, said he was a soldier.

The one female casualty was an 11-year-old girl. Doctors displayed an X-ray showing a chunk of shrapnel embedded in her lung. Relatives said she had been on the roof of a nearby building when she was struck.