Mr. J. Thomas Schieffer
Ambassador of the United States of America to Japan
1-10-5 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420

November 14, 2006

Dear Mr. Schieffer:

On behalf of the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan and its Freedom of the Press Committee, we are writing to express our concern regarding the recent findings of a coroner's court in the United Kingdom regarding the death of British journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003.

We are obviously not in any position to determine the accuracy of the inquest's findings. But we believe they do raise questions about what happened that day. Aside from Lloyd, we note that a Lebanese interpreter, Hussein Osman, also died and that the fate of the French cameraman Frederic Nerac remains unknown.

The FCCJ is interested in this matter not just on the general grounds of furthering freedom of the press, but also because a small but significant number of our current and former members have reported in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least one of our members is currently stationed in Iraq. The safety of these journalists is obviously of vital concern.

I'm sure you know that on her recent trip to Moscow, United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with editors and reporters from Novaya Gazeta. Her very first comment in the interview, as given on the web site of the U.S. Department of State's home page was "I am very much saddened, as was the entire world, by the brutal murder of Anna Politkovskaya." She later said that she has told the Russian government that the deaths of journalists "must be thoroughly investigated." And further, "People are watching. People are pressing for a full investigation..."

We understand there is a vast difference between the circumstances surrounding the obvious murders of Russian journalists and the deaths of journalists in a war zone. But as the Lloyd et al. case stands at present, a disturbing lack of vital information continues to exist. We urge the United States to re-open its own investigation to determine exactly what happened to Terry Lloyd and his colleagues. To paraphrase Secretary Rice, we and journalists around the world are watching.

Sincerely,

Dennis Normile, President

David McNeill, Chair, Freedom of the Press Committee