Slain correspondent was also a doctor, father -- and friend

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Jul. 10, 2005
CRISIS IN IRAQ

Slain correspondent was also a doctor, father -- and friend

A bright and promising Knight Ridder journalist was killed in Baghdad.

By HANNAH ALLAM
Knight Ridder News Service

BAGHDAD - 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.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/12086858.htm
(Free registration required)

[Miss Chybil]

1. So strange and sad. nt

[Obamarama]

2. NPR's Jacki Lyden did a heart touching feature on Yasser

Yasser was her interpreter.It was on last weekend's broadcast. It sounds like he was a very wonderful person.

-SNIP-

"Yasser didn't die translating, or from a car bomb. He died, as far too many Iraqis do, simply by living. It was Friday, he was in his neighborhood on his day off, going to get gasoline and an oil change so that he could take his wife and daughter swimming. He was driving his car alone, when an American sniper from the 3rd Infantry apparently shot him at a checkpoint. I say apparently because the circumstances are somewhere unclear. He died of a single bullet to the brain, which pierced the car's windshield."

There's a section of the piece, toward the end, where Yasser's wife is crying, asking what their daughter is going to do, how will she ever know how much her father loved her. George Bush should be made to listen to this woman's sobs every night before he goes to bed.

You can see his photo and hear Jacki's sad but wonderful account of her time with Yasser here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4726759

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's great this reporter isn't letting this go by without further comment.

What a horror.

Thanks for the link. I found a couple of photos of Jackie. The outdoor shot is in Afghanistan.



_Bush may have been born WITHOUT a conscience. I believe he is beyond redemption.

[Obamarama]

4. Kicking for the late morning / early afternoon folks....

This is yet another hideous example of the insane hell playing out under our occupation of Iraq.

[fortyfeetunder]

5. Bush, look at this, was it worth it?

This so-called war is looking more and more like an atrocity. I don't think it's "worth it"...

[mom cat]

6. Jacki, what about the Death Squads that Yasser was investigating?

Jacki gives a sweet farewell to a friend but is silent about the explosive story that Yasser Salihee was investigating when he died about well funded, coalition equipped Death Squads and the phenomenal spike in execution style deaths in the last few months. The first link is to his last story about these Death Squads that was published after his death. The second is to an article in the Guardian where a reporter has the courage to tell the truth about the systematic, brutal killings by “our side” Jacki has sentimentalized the death of a brave man and buried the story he was trying to tell when he died!

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

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1520186,00.html

[WhiteTara]

7. so they shot him because it is illegal to

drive while being Iraqi?

"There's no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work."

This is madness! :grr: