Journalist abducted, murdered in Iraq

[quaoar]

Steven Vincent, who wrote a piece for last Sunday's NY Times, was abducted and murdered in Basra, where he had been reporting on the massive corruption that permeates the city.

He also had a blog where he reported on events in Basra. This is it:

http://spencepublishing.typepad.com/in_the_red_zone

[rocktivity]

1. Yeah, but abducted by who?

Iraqis? Insurgents? Mercenaries posing as insurgents?

:scared:
rocknation

[bryant69]

2. Here's a link

To the New York Times story about this incident. - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/international/middleeast/03cnd-iraq.html

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[craychek]

3. This is truly sad =*(

[quaoar]

4. This is a tribute to Vincent

It is from the National Review, one of the publications he freelanced for:

http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200508030843.asp

Freedom’s Reporter
Steven Vincent is murdered in pursuit of truth.

An Iraqi police lieutenant, who for obvious reasons asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to me the widespread rumors that a few police officers are perpetrating many of the hundreds of assassinations — mostly of former Baath Party members — that take place in Basra each month. He told me that there is even a sort of "death car": a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment.

So wrote American freelance journalist Steven Vincent in a piece that appeared in the New York Times this past weekend.

And then a death car came for him.

According to an e-mail from Vincent's wife sent on Tuesday night, Vincent and his Iraqi translator, Nour Weidi, were "snatched in front of a bank on Tuesday, August 2nd at 6:30 P.M. local time. Two men drove up, grabbed them, threw them in a car and took off. Nour dropped her ID on the street, which is how the British were able to figure out who it was." Hours later, the American embassy in Baghdad would confirm Vincent dead, and his translator seriously wounded. Vincent's body was found on the side of a highway. He had been shot multiple times in the head.