« A Note to the DNC and RNC | Main | Semper Fi, My Brothers »

August 03, 2005

No Little Light Shall Shine

This doesn't bode well for an open society.

American journalist shot dead in Iraq

An American journalist has been found shot dead in Basra four days after he wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times criticising the spread of Shi'ite Islamist fundamentalism in the southern Iraqi city. Witnesses said Steven Vincent and a translator were kidnapped by gunmen shortly after leaving a hotel on Tuesday evening. His body was found later that night...

The New York Times opinion piece criticised the failure of British forces to clamp down on what Vincent described as a city that was "increasingly coming under the control of Shi'ite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream ... to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr". The article also focused on the Basra police force, quoting a police lieutenant as saying a few officers were perpetrating many of what he said were hundreds of assassinations of mostly former members of Saddam's Baath party each month. Iraqi Arab Sunni leaders have accused the Iraqi government of sanctioning Shi'ite hit squads that work alongside security and police forces...


UPDATE: A bittersweet paragraph from Mr. Vincent's last blog post, via Smash.
His words do him such honor.

Posted by tree hugging sister at August 3, 2005 08:41 AM

Comments

Evidently his female translator was shot but survived, whereas they made sure to put many bullets in his head and body.

Bastards.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at August 3, 2005 09:21 AM

Damn. Im getting tired of hearing about Sunni and Shi-ite. Both are turning out to be murderous thugs.

Basra has kinda fallen off the news map, hasnt it? Why hasnt more pressure been put on Basra? Or is that the domain of the new Iraqi president?

Posted by: sharon ferguson at August 3, 2005 09:27 AM