Knight Ridder Pushes DSM/ Knight Ridder Iraqi Correspondent SHOT DEAD!!

[Beetwasher]

You do the math.

Iraqi correspondent shot dead

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.

--snip--

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

Although according to another poster he was also working on a story about Iraqi death squads at the time.

[Elidor]

1. Another thread here:

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

[Wetzelbill]

2. I don't even like to think about this shit

It ruins all hope for me. I need a little, you know?

Man, that's f'ed up.

[Elidor]

3. Then don't watch the documentary 'Control Room'

It makes it pretty hard not to believe that Rummy targeted Al-Jazeera employees.

And of course there was the tank incident at the hotel where all the news media in Baghdad were staying.

[Wetzelbill]

6. Too late. I already did. :)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. We're doomed

We're doomed. This is so far beyond the pale.

We're doomed.

The reporter now turning over his notes to the judge is the latest, and biggest, crack in the Constitution. The rest of it, the Ratface administration has used to wipe its lying ass.

We're doomed.

[Senior citizen]

5. That Italian woman whose car we riddled with bullets,

killing her bodyguard, after she was released from being held hostage, also claims that we have been targeting reporters. Since we don't permit photos of returning caskets, and we don't permit unembedded reporters, why shouldn't we assume that any reporter we haven't specifically authorized is an enemy trying to bring people the truth about Iraq?

An administration that wants to control the news, is not a democratic administration. Undemocratic administrations have a history of killing people who disagree with them. And if it was known that this reporter was working on a story about the Iraqi death squads at the time, it is only logical that he would have been a target. Death squads like to kill people but they don't like publicity.

[5thGenDemocrat]

7. I think you're a bit off on the quid and the quo, Beetwasher

I believe this is due to the death squad story -- not the DSM.
According to the link, this guy was a doctor as well as a reporter. As such, he'd recognize wounds inflicted during an execution as opposed to random gunfire. He'd be aware of at least some of the particulars (the what, the when and the where) of an execution. He'd see patterns. He'd also have contact with other physicians who were seeing the same thing.
He'd be a expert witness to a devastating story. He'd be a man who knew too much.
So a case could be made that the authorities had to off him. I don't know but, like I said on the other thread, I suspect Knight-Ridder's not going to stop digging until they (and we) know the particulars.
John
The DSM story has nothing to do with this. But this really gives K-R a good reason to dig a whole lot deeper into the DSM story.
It's personal.

[hyperium]

8. 'death squads' directed to hunt down rebel leaders and sympathizers

These death squads were first mentioned a few months back, it seems.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA14Ak03.html

[Mandate My Ass]

9. He may have been a witness and he definitely knew too much

The last story he was working on was specifically about the wounds inflicted on the bodies and how they were consistent with torture performed by these US-backed death squad/militia unit. Check this out.

British lawyers to pursue Iraqi security forces over killings

Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday May 20, 2005

The families of 15 Iraqi Sunnis found in a mass grave north of Baghdad earlier this month are to pursue the alleged perpetrators in a British court.
The men were arrested on May 5 when Iraqi security forces raided a vegetable market at Hayy Jameela, according to the Birmingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers. It says all shared a Sunni tribal name, al-Dolaimi, one of the largest tribes in western Iraq.

<snip>

The British law firm was instructed to represent the families by the Iraqi League, a UK-based organisation which describes itself as non-sectarian.

The Iraqi League says it has spoken to the news agency which photographed the corpses in the morgue and that it is prepared to give evidence in a court of law.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1488466,00.html

[Beetwasher]

10. Two Birds W/ One Stone?

You could be right that it's retaliation for the death squad story, but there's no reason it can't be both....

[blm]

11. I agree it's predominantly the death squad story, but, KRT is almost

certainly drawing extra venom from the WH because they have been on the cooked intel story since the fall of 2002 and they plan to stay with the DSM story.

I think the WH will use their lackeys at the NYT and Washington Post to try and gaslight KnightRidder and its reporters on these stories similar to the way they did to KnightRidder and Gary Webb on the CIA drug connection story. KnightRidder got backed into a corner on that one when other news organizations put up stories pushed by Bush1 that concluded Webb was lying.

That's how they work. Now that we all know better we have to work against that happening again.