The International Federation of Journalists has condemned as "outrageous and inexcusable" an armed raid by US troops on the Baghdad offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists. The soldiers ransacked the offices of the Syndicate—a member of the IFJ's global union network—before arresting security guards and confiscating computers. "This is a shocking violation of journalists' rights," said Aidan White, the IFJ general secretary. "More than 120 Iraqi journalists, many of them Syndicate members, have been killed and now their union has been turned over in an unprovoked act of intimidation." (The Guardian, Feb. 21)

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