Iraqi (Knight Ridder) correspondent shot dead

[UpInArms]

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/iraq-box130e_20050630.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder, the parent company of the Free Press, was shot and killed in western Baghdad on Friday as his car neared U.S. and Iraqi troops who had stopped to search a building for snipers.

Salihee, 30, was driving alone when a bullet pierced his windshield and then his skull. The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper, though Iraqi soldiers in the area also may have been shooting at the time.

U.S. Humvees blocked three entry points to the intersection Salihee was approaching. The one he was driving toward was manned by Iraqi and U.S. soldiers on foot. It's unclear how well he could have seen the troops, and whether they were in the road waving motorists away, or taking cover in case of sniper attack.

Most witnesses told another Knight Ridder Iraqi special correspondent that no warning shots were fired. But the front right tire of Salihee's car was pierced by a bullet, presumably meant to stop him from advancing.

...more...

[Beetwasher]

1. Knight Ridder Was Pushing DSM, You Do The Math

n/t

[Igel]

5. And the snipers were issued his picture or, in any event,

recognized him when he was in his car?

Me..........................Conclusion.
| - - - - - - - - - - - |
too far to jump

[Beetwasher]

14. Errr, Not Really

Is that how you think it works? You think it was just a chance encounter and they recognized him? LOL!

[Fire Walk With Me]

31. Don't the press have to clear movement with the military to be in warzones

?

They'd know his itinerary, even basically.

And hey, that girl who was canvassing for Iraqi body counts died near US military.

As did the Italian bodyguard, and there were (un)censored documents about that which enraged Italy..

Lots of loose cannons at checkpoints. If you want to try on the tin foil, consider how convenient the reasonable doubt is there. If there were genuine bad intent, it would be the ideal gauntlet for it to occur in. And few would be prosecuted for doing their duty, etc. (Hey, they get off for torture so long as they're doing their duty. Conscientious Objectors, on the other hand, get the book thrown at them, so there is a conflict of justice going on, at minimum.)

Of course, I'm just a kidder. There is no true selfishness to this extent in our world.

[Igel]

34. You think that they lured him there?

The army in Iraq can't tell their ass from a hole in the ground half the time, but they just happen to know his schedule, know that he'll respond to this, know the route he'll be using, and wait for him?

[Beetwasher]

37. Lured?

Really, give me a break. Who said that? If they were trying to take him out, it wouldn't be hard to know where he would be. Are you so naive that you think assassinations don't happen? It's not too difficult.

[gandalf]

7. Sorry, but what does DSM mean?

thanks

[Straight Shooter]

9. Downing Street Memo

Technically the Downing Street Minutes, but commonly known as the Downing Street Memo, the "smoking gun" of bush's intentions to go to war.

[Akoto]

10. Downing Street Memo.

The document which indicates the war was planned well before the government began to openly push for it.

[gandalf]

16. Thanks, StraigthS and Akoto

The blogger Xymphora sometimes claims Knight Ridder is the only honest US newspaper chain...

[Peace Patriot]

24. Xymphora is right! Knight Ridder is the only news organization

in the country doing real journalism--of the establishment news organizations. (We're doing our bit here--as are Air America and other alternatives.)

Knight Ridder is amazing--and deserves our support. Write to them! Write to local newspapers to use their news service!

[Straight Shooter]

12. Just another coinky-dink in the bloody pattern of the bush administration

Maybe the sniper had his own ax to grind. Or perhaps, did anyone see Negroponte or his goons in the area?

[Monkie]

2. his last report was on Iraqi police death squads #warning picture#

he was a doctor before becoming a reporter

picture from his last report on possible police death squads in Baghdad:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/tom_lasseter/11999387.htm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3976285
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3981453

[maddezmom]

3. here's the link to the KR story

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

[Dhalgren]

4. Hey, the Americans aren't stupid.

After they assassinate a reporter now, they shoot the tire afterward to be able to say, "See, we tried to stop him!" How many reporters does this make that the US (we) have killed - even in the last few weeks?

[mom cat]

19. Or they shut out the tire first so they could get a better shot at him.

If the tire is already shot out, why do you need to shoot somebody in the head! The car isn't going anywhere with the tire shot out. There is no need to then kill the single occupant of a car. This was an execution just like the executions that Salihee was himself investigating. Note that in his article dated June 27, Salihee explains that in one month the number of unexplained gunshot victims in the morgue jumped from 16 to over 500. Something Huge is going on there and he was the reporter who was uncovering it. He died for his efforts to tell the truth. We owe it to him to spread his stories far and wide.

Link to the article dated June 27, 2005: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

[MisterP]

28. maybe they'll claim he could've been a bomber, like they did when

they massacred the parents in a car in front of their children (the brake lights were on in the that one)
on edit: the KRT topic title is "War with Iraq," not "in"!

[librechik]

6. We don't target journalists, so stop saying that! n/t

[kypper]

8. I wouldn't put it past them at this point...

There's just no ownership on anybody's part.

Remember the idiot who bombed Canadians in Afghanistan? Slap on the goddamned wrist.

[UpInArms]

11. from the DU GD thread - a picture of the Iraqi television producer

Ahmed Wael Bakri (also shot by US)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3984750


Wife of Iraqi television producer Ahmed Wael Bakri looks at her husband's coffin during his funeral procession in Baghdad yesterday. Bakri was shot dead by US forces while driving ``too close'' to their military convoy a day earlier in southern Baghdad, an Iraqi interior ministry official said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/photo/2005/06/30/2005038159

:cry:

(edited to correct headline)

[Gregorian]

13. When it's all over, who do we blame?

When it's over, and they realize that it was all for nothing.
When it's over, and the dead are still dead.
When it's over, and big bad Saddam is in jail.
When it's over, and bush isn't in office anymore.
When it's over, and we're broke.
When it's over, and the world hates us.
When it's over, and the oil was never there.
When it's over, and we wish we'd never invaded.
How will we apologize?

[mom cat]

20. No apology could ever be big enough or good enough.

[daleo]

15. This one definitely seems suspicious

Especially his being killed by a sniper.

[ovidsen]

17. "I fired a warning shot through his head." n/t

[mom cat]

18. Here are the links to the original Knight Ridder stories:

June 27, 2005: Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms
By Tom Lasseter and Yasser Salihee - Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm


June 29, 2005: Reporter shot to death in Iraq
By Tom Lasseter - Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm

ALSO NOTE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES BY YASSER SALIHEE:

Posted on Fri, May. 20, 2005
Sunnis, Shiites struggling for control of mosques in Iraq
By Yasser Salihee
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11699583.htm


Posted on Sat, May. 14, 2005
Iraqi authorities crack down on solo drivers in effort to stem attacks
By Yasser Salihee
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11648761.htm



Posted on Sat, May. 07, 2005
Much-needed emergency medical supplies arrive in Najaf
By Yasser Salihee
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11591245.htm

[DemoTex]

21. A week or so ago Randi Rhodes said ..

Randi said that more reporters/journalists have died in Iraq than in all of the Viet Nam war. She did not cite a source (that I heard), but Randi is meticulous in her research.

Remember, too, the US attack on the car of Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena on the road into the Baghdad airport in March.

Scary.
:scared:

[mom cat]

22. Contact Randi about this story at the following link:

Go to:
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/contact/contact_index.php

Then click on Randi.
Thanks.

[progressivebydesign]

23. Are they just shooting everyone? last week a school teacher. now this. n/t

[Dhalgren]

25. As Val Kilmer said in "Thunderheart"

"A school teacher, Frank? A school teacher?" Rat fucking bastards...

[mom cat]

26. Death by fire arms jumped from 16 to over 500 in one month.

I guess that constitutes shooting everyone, or at least trying to. Let's see now, let's do the math. It took about two years to kill fewer than 1800 Americans. The new death squads are racking up numbers of over 500 a month! The victims are all Sunnis and the murderers are all outfitted with coalition issue Glocks, driving white Toyota Land Rover's, using the same morgue identified torture techniques as the prisons: you connect the dots.

[Peace Patriot]

29. He was investigating death squads--mostly likey US trained and...

funded. This is a Bush Cartel MO--death squads to take care of the opposition (central/south America, in particular), and killing journalists in Iraq. Started with the deliberate targeting of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, well known as the journalists' hotel, they blew a corner of it away, with a raft of journalists and cameras in full view on the balconies, killing several Reuters people, then bombed Al Jazeera's office, and a TV news office, killing one, injuring others, also known news media locations--just for starters, during the invasion; there have been many others.

Don't believe ANYTHING the military says about this. Not one word.

[mom cat]

30. Contact Reporters without Borders about this murder:

You can e-mail them at: [e-mail]
send the link to the story to them and all of the media outlets you can think of.
Thanks,
mom cat

[pocket]

27. I don see why anyone would have trouble believeing

that *'s guys would kill reporters. They rape and torture children, why should killing a reporter bother them?

[mom cat]

32. Story about another Iraqi journalist killed by the US (USA Today)

Posted 6/28/2005 4:57 PM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-06-28-iraqi-journalist_x.htm

U.S. troops allegedly killed Iraqi journalist
BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. troops allegedly killed an Iraqi television director Tuesday when he drove near a U.S. convoy, colleagues and a hospital official said. The U.S. military said it had no reports of the incident.
Ahmed Wael Bakri, a program director for al-Sharqiya television, was the third Iraqi journalist allegedly killed in similar incidents in the past week.

He was trying to pass a traffic accident and wasn't paying attention to a U.S. convoy when troops allegedly opened fire at his car, according to Riyadh al-Salman, a production director at the station.

Dr. Muhanad Jawad of the Yarmouk Hospital also said Bakri was shot when he failed to pull over as the U.S. convoy passed in the area.

The U.S. military said it had no immediate reports of the alleged afternoon incident, although an "escalation of force resulting in the death of one local national" had occurred in the morning.

The French watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders called for an inquiry. "We ask the competent authorities to take all necessary steps to investigate the circumstances of his death," the group said.

U.S. military convoys often are targeted by suicide car bombers, and most have signs on the rear vehicles warning drivers and people to keep their distance.

Bakri, who was in his 30s, also worked for al-Iraqiya television. He was on his way to visit his in-laws at the time of the shooting, al-Salman said.

On Sunday, Maha Ibrahim, a news editor with the local Baghdad TV channel, was killed when U.S. troops opened fire after apparently coming under attack in a Baghdad neighborhood, channel director Saad al-Bayati said. Ibrahim and her husband were on their way to the station, owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party.

On Friday, an Iraqi reporter working for an American news organization was shot and killed in Baghdad, allegedly by U.S. troops, after he apparently did not respond to a shouted signal from a military convoy, witnesses said.

The U.S. military had no immediate response to either claim.

Earlier this month, an Iraqi reporter working for the Dubai-based television network Al-Arabiya was seriously wounded in an apparent kidnapping attempt.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 45 journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed while covering the war in Iraq since March 2003. Insurgent actions are responsible for the bulk of deaths.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Slain Iraqi reporter brought courage and realism to war coverage

Posted on Thu, Jun. 30, 2005



PAULINE LUBENS, San Jose Mercury News
An Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers, Yasser Salihee, was shot and killed in Baghdad on June 24.

Slain Iraqi reporter brought courage and realism to war coverage

By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Yasser Salihee was killed on his day off.

The irony is breathtaking, if you knew Yasser and the risks he took to gather scraps of truth in a place filled with deceit and danger. Yasser worked as an Iraqi correspondent for Knight Ridder, relentlessly pursuing stories that put him in harm's way because he wanted to show American readers the realities of life in a war zone.

His curiosity took him across Iraq. He interviewed an insurgent leader at a clandestine meeting in Baghdad. He braved the road through the "Triangle of Death" to cover the aftermath of a battle in Najaf. He kept his cool in Fallujah as he convinced rebels with grenade launchers that we were "just journalists."

But Yasser, 30, wasn't just a journalist. He was also a husband and father, and on June 24 he was shot and killed on the way to get gas to drive his family to the swimming pool. The U.S. Army is investigating Yasser's death; it appears that an American sniper fired the shot that flew through his windshield, pierced his skull and ended a life that was bursting with promise. There's no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work.
(snip/...)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12026482.htm

[Monkie]

35. WSWS story about Salihee's US-backed death squad investigation

Journalist killed after investigating US-backed death squads in Iraq
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/iraq-j01.shtml
"By James Cogan
1 July 2005

~snip~
The US military has announced it is conducting an investigation into Salihee’s killing. Knight Ridder has already declared, however, that “there’s no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work”. In fact, his last assignment gives reason to suspect that it was.
~snip~
The Wolf Brigade was recruited by US operatives and the US-installed interim government headed by Iyad Allawi during 2004. A majority of its officers and personnel served in Saddam Hussein’s special forces and Republican Guard—veterans of killings, torture and repression. The unit has been used against the resistance in rebellious cities such as Mosul and Samarra, and, over the past six weeks, has played a prominent role in the massive crackdown ordered by the Iraqi government in Baghdad codenamed “Operation Lightning”.
~snip~
An article in the British Financial Times on June 29 provided further evidence of police commando atrocities
~snip~
The main US advisor to the Wolf Brigade from the time of its formation until April 2005 was James Steele. Steele’s own biography, promoting him for the US lecture circuit, states that “he commanded the US military group in El Salvador during the height of the guerilla war” and “was credited with training and equipping what was acknowledged to be the best counter-terrorist force in the region”. In a 12-year campaign of murder and repression, the Salvadoran units, trained and advised by people like Steele, killed over 70,000 people.""

So its Saddam's special forces we are using to spread the democracy in our own special way...

[maddezmom]

36. just read that....everyone should

sitting here in tears...:cry: