Reporter shot to death in Iraq

[quaoar]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm

By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder, was shot to death in Baghdad last Friday.

The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper, though there were Iraqi soldiers in the area who also may have been shooting at the time.

Salihee, 30, had the day off and was driving alone near his home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah when a single bullet pierced his windshield and then his skull.

He was shot as his car neared a joint patrol of American and Iraqi troops who’d stopped to search a building for snipers. American and Iraqi soldiers are frequently targeted by suicide car bombers.

[saigon68]

1. U.S. snipers have killed thousands

We don't even bother to count them

We only hear about it when "High profile targets" get their brains blown out.

[IChing]

3. He was reporting on war crimes

If it's the same one I read about yesterday. Anyone know?

[lasttrip]

2. more here..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3976285#3978311

[evermind]

4. This is the same reporter who wrote a story on death squads

.. in Baghdad police uniforms. As explained in this du post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3976285

the story reported on over 30 killings in one week, where the victims seemed to have been tortured, after being abducted by " large groups of men driving white Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The men were wearing police commando uniforms and bulletproof vests, carrying expensive 9-millimeter Glock pistols and using sophisticated radios".

[maddezmom]

5. his last story: Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police unifo

By Tom Lasseter and Yasser Salihee, Knight Ridder Newspapers
1 hour, 46 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Days after Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced on April 28, the bodies of Sunni Muslim men began turning up at the capital's central morgue after the men had been detained by people wearing Iraqi police uniforms.

Faik Baqr, the director and chief forensic investigator at the central Baghdad morgue, said the corpses first caught his attention because the men appeared to have been killed in methodical fashion. Their hands had been tied or handcuffed behind their backs, their eyes were blindfolded and they appeared to have been tortured. In most cases, the dead men looked as if they'd been whipped with a cord, subjected to electric shocks or beaten with a blunt object and shot to death, often with single bullets to their heads.

Marks on the bodies were similar to the injuries found on prisoners who were rescued from secret Interior Ministry jails by representatives of the Iraqi ministry for human rights, according to family accounts and medical records.

Iraqi and American officials said the murders aren't being investigated systematically, but in dozens of interviews with families and Iraqi officials, and a review of medical records, a Knight Ridder reporter and two special correspondents found more than 30 examples of this type of killing in less than a week. They include 12 cases with specific dates, times, names and witnesses who said they might come forward if asked by law enforcement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050627/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_killings_wa_1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1586868

[mom cat]

6. Here is the link to the original article:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm
note this from the article:

If the killers are proven to be Sunni insurgents masquerading as Shiite police, the murders raise troubling questions about how insurgents are getting expensive new police equipment. The Toyotas, which cost more than $55,000 apiece, and Glocks, at about $500 each, are hard to come by in Iraq, and they're rarely used by anyone other than Western contractors and Iraqi security forces.


Further evidence that a police force created, trained and funded by the United States has been abusing human rights, on the other hand, would complicate the Bush administration's efforts to muster greater domestic support for its Iraq policy and more international support for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari.


And then there's the following:

Officials in the Interior Ministry's intelligence division deny having detainees, saying they only question those in Iraqi prisons. But one investigation by the Human Rights Ministry found 32 detainees, and another found 67 in Interior Ministry intelligence facilities. The majority of the detainees had been tortured, Sultan said.


Most of those who were tortured had their hands cuffed behind their backs, were blindfolded and had been beaten by cords or subjected to electrical shock, Sultan said. Baqr, at the morgue, said the bodies that have been brought to him handcuffed and blindfolded had been similarly abused.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE....it is chilling to know that he was killed even before his article got published.
Was he asking too many questions?

[Just Me]

8. Was it US financed and sponsored.

THAT is the disturbing possibility.

Well, on second thought, after all the BushCo/neoCON-sponsored horrors I've read,...it's no longer disturbing,...such things just make me shake my head. Yet, another piece of evidence that the BushCo/neoCON cabal are monsters and they are getting away with it while exploiting their own people to do it.

[mom cat]

9. It is chilling...Death Squads

[Mandate My Ass]

15. Yes, it was

It was the Wolf Brigade. Trained, armed and equipped by us. The "police" are 100% Shiite.

Our officials are trying to spin this that Sunni insurgents are masquerading as Shiite commandoes and killing their own people so that they could make the Shiites look bad. Those wily Sunni insurgents!

Our government is being run by monsters.

[mom cat]

34. You connect the dots:

I frankly see no other explanation.

[MisterP]

7. ah, the Wolf Brigades: they're the one the resistance is targeting

when the deaths are reported as "Iraqi police" or "Iraqi military"

[mom cat]

11. Could you explain this some more? Thanks

[Just Me]

14. Kindly provide some links which explain these "Wolf Brigades".

I have no idea what you're talking about. How do they fit into the bigger picture? Who finances them?

[Just Me]

20. HELLO,...are you still there? Truth-seekers want more info.

:hi:

[LightningFlash]

10. Its really disgusting what we have here....

Just keep broadcasting this everywhere so congress is aware, get it into the media and get this knowledge KNOWN.

There is absolutely no reason at all knight ridder reporters would be dropping like flies......Unless Mr. Cheney, is afraid of going to the Hague that is.....

:banghead: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[saigon68]

12. Cheney would look great in an orange jump suit.

[mom cat]

13. Bingo.. Nominate this story so it doesn't drop like a fly too!

I sent this out to Randi and Raw Story and a few others. No bites yet.

[dogday]

16. Being A Reporter In This War

Is very dangerous to a regime that does not want the word getting out...

[mom cat]

17. This was just picked up by Raw Story!

[Mandate My Ass]

18. Kick

More war crimes coming out of Iraq.

They buried this until after Chimpy's speech.

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Of course

It makes sense. Maybe that's why the soliders didn't clap. They're tired of all the BS. :shrug: It's so disgusting what they do. Kill or attack reporters who have the truth on them. *sigh*

[Bouncy Ball]

19. kick for truth

[mom cat]

22. Kick again!

[Elidor]

23. Not surprising

It's certainly no secret that Rumsfeld has troops targeting journalists. But it's amazing just how brazen they are about it all.

It's not just Vietnam anymore: now it's El Salvador, too. This is the biggest clusterfuck of all time.

[DemonFighterLives]

24. In Bushco's warped sense

This is a sign of progress. Kill the messenger! It has worked for them in the past many times.
:argh:

[wookie294]

25. I'm convinced US military is murdering reporters

The military is intimidating reporters, trying to keep them off the streets to avoid learning the truth.

[LibertyorDeath]

26. Murdered for speaking the truth.

This has got to fucking stop.

Enough.... Fuck them all to Hell.

[Eric J in MN]

27. I just wrote on my blog about an Iraqi tv producer who was killed.

Different man, different incident, same war.

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_06_30_iraqi_tv_producer_killed_by_us_for_driving_near_convoy.asp

[ToeBot]

28. Isn't Knight Ridder one of the last reputable news services left?

Seems they are one of the few willing to risk confronting this administration. It smells bad, really bad.

[Frederik]

29. Yeah, you don't see Fox reporters

getting their skulls penetrated by snipers.

[mom cat]

30. Welcome to DU! You are right about this smelling bad. Help get this

story out to as many liberal sites as you can.

[Monkie]

31. i want to thank you for your effort,i emailed the author in the hope

it encourages him and his editors that this story must be not be forgotten or dropped, and so that they know that there are people that support them.I included a link to the discussion here.

[mom cat]

33. Thanks monkie. You are starting to give primates a good name.

What is the link for contacting Tom Lassiter the author?

[Mandate My Ass]

32. Kick

Too many dead reporters.

This one obviously knew a great deal about US sponsored death squads.