Patterico's Pontifications

1/5/2007

AP Staffer Killed in Iraq

Filed under: General,War — Patterico @ 11:34 am



Another AP employee has been found shot to death in Iraq:

The body of an Associated Press employee was found shot in the back of the head Friday, six days after he was last seen by his family leaving for work. Ahmed Hadi Naji, 28, was the fourth AP staffer to die violently in the Iraq war and the second AP employee killed in less than a month. He had been a messenger and occasional cameraman for the AP for 2 1/2 years.

. . . .

The death came as colleagues were still mourning Aswan Ahmed Lutfallah, 35, an AP cameraman who was shot to death by insurgents while covering clashes Dec. 12 in Mosul. He was the second AP journalist killed in that northern Iraqi city in less than two years.

On April 23, 2005, cameraman Saleh Ibrahim was killed after an explosion in Mosul. He was a father of five in his early 30s. AP photographer Mohammed Ibrahim was wounded. The circumstances surrounding the death and injury are still unclear.

In 2004, Ismail Taher Mohsin, an AP driver, was ambushed by gunmen and killed near his home in Baghdad.

You’d have to be crazy to think that there is a widespread conspiracy of AP reporters to help the enemy. Most of them are out there doing a dangerous job. I don’t always think the information is reliable, which is in part a function of the nature of Iraq in general . . . but we should recognize the sacrifice they are making to try to tell us what’s going on.

19 Responses to “AP Staffer Killed in Iraq”

  1. You never cease to surprise. It is indeed a very dangerous job.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  2. Tragic.

    DRJ (51a774)

  3. AP reporter killed…

    As I have said, foreign correspondents in Iraq do brave and dangerous work. RIP, Ahmed Naji. Patterico has some thoughts as well, which I second…….

    JunkYardBlog (621918)

  4. […] Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that an AP stringer has been killed, and I concur with Patterico’s thoughts. […]

    The Anchoress » Rounding up Jamil, Band-aids and more (1b383c)

  5. Pat “Appeaser of the New Saddams” Erico,

    Why not ask the obvious question … was this guy killed in retaliation for the AP’s coverage of human rights abuses against Sunnis?

    You would think a prosecutor would be more interested in bringing killers to justice than trying to discredit the work of those shining light on human rights abuses.

    [Prosecutors are primarily interested in the truth, and holding the guilty accountable within the law. We strike hard blows, but fair ones. People like you, by contrast, specialize in cheap shots. — P]

    Macswain (76d8da)

  6. Macswine,

    An American prosecuter in LA has no authority (not to mention presence) in Iraq. Why berate him for that?

    Dubya (c16726)

  7. Thanks for opening my eyes … wow, there really are no cheap shots or trash talk on this site by Pat and his righty cohorts? I don’t even like Eason Jordan but I can still recognize that calling him a “Saddam Appeaser” is a cheap shot.

    The difference between us is I don’t whine about cheap shots/trash talk. It’s a fact of life in the rough & tumble world of free speech and the blogs. It always amazes me when trash talkers whine about being trash talked.

    I also don’t use the mantle of false victimization as a way to avoid a point. Why don’t you care about who killed this AP staffer? Why don’t you care about human rights abuses in the new Iraq – especially those connected with the new government who our troops are dying to support?

    Dubya, you apparently have the mentality of your namesake if you read my post as calling for Pat to prosecute the killer in LA.

    [Calling Eason Jordan a “Saddam appeaser” would be a cheap shot if it weren’t true. But it is. Even he admits it.

    The problem with the Macswains of the world is that they can’t distinguish between fact-based criticism, like my criticism of Eason Jordan, and fact-free bullshit criticism, like 90 percent of everything Macswain has said about me on this site. — P]

    Macswain (76d8da)

  8. Jamil identified, facing arrest? — Day 2 — (Updated and bumped)…

    CENTCOM says AP’s Iraqi police source isn’t Iraqi police — Part 30 — Continued from this post. Libs on Jamil Confederate Yankee The overwhelming majority of liberal bloggers were dead silent from late November throughout the month of December, and…

    Bill's Bites (72c8fd)

  9. Shorter Pat: I still don’t care who killed this AP staffer.

    [Shorter Macswain: I’m as inaccurate as always! Sweet!]

    Pat,

    I do appreciate the effort to trash talk me. But here’s a tip … trash talk works better with a touch of humor rather than a pound of angry petulance.

    And as to being fact-free … are you suggesting ethnic cleansing isn’t happening in the new Iraq, torture is not occurring in Iraq’s prisons, Shiite killers haven’t infiltrated the Iraqi government’s security forces?

    Don’t be a chicken … tell me where I’m wrong.

    [In my judgment, all of the above are true. But according to a certain fact-challenged fellow named Macswain, I support all of that. He can’t point to a single fact to support the accusation. But that’s because he doesn’t care in the slightest about facts. — P]

    Macswain (76d8da)

  10. Dubya is one of my initials mcswine.

    Dubya (c16726)

  11. OK … so I’m fact free because I accussed you of “supporting” the items I listed and I can’t show yo, in fact, “support” those things. The only problem is … uhm … I never made that accussation.

    [Uhm, you said I am appeaser of the new Saddams, so, uhm, you, uhm, DID. You lie and lie and lie. — P]

    Now I wonder if you can guess who wrote this:

    Rule Number One of respectful argument is to phrase your opponents argument the argument youre responding to in such a way that your opponent would agree with it.

    What I’m challenging are your messed up priorities in putting a massive effort in trying to discredit the AP while largely ignoring the horrible human rights problems that exist with people throughout the new Iraqi government.

    Now if you’ll excuse me … I have an appointment to get my three-year old fitted for some Gangsta Grillz.

    [You don’t deserve respectful argument. — P]

    Macswain (76d8da)

  12. P: I’m sorry, that last italicized note was unclear to me. Does “all of the above are true” mean that “[x] isn’t happening” is true, or that you believe “[x] is happening”?

    I *suspect* that you mean the latter, but the plain words suggest the former. 🙂

    [All of the bad things that the fact-free commenter said are happening, are happening. I haven’t said Iraq is a Shangri-La; in fact — especially due to our new let’s-relive-the-final-days-of-Vietnam withdrawal policy, I suspect it’s worse than many realize. — P]

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  13. Is this AP reporter like the AP reporter being held by the American Military for helping Sunni extremist build bombs? I think that anyone on the ground who is giving the AP the news they feel fit to print might be called a “reporter” however I do not believe that makes them so. I also would comment that the United States Military has not confirmed the AP’s report that the Hussein “policeman” being real is correct. I would say lets continue to watch this play out before we accept the “word” and I use that loosely, of the AP.

    Rigthmom (c8d596)

  14. Rigthmom, easy there girl. The AP has a good deal of weasels, but we don’t yet have reason to believe they all are.

    As far as Macswain goes, I question, given his hate-filled mental state displayed here, whether his home is the ideal place to raise a three year old.

    OHNOES (3b3653)

  15. And THAT is a cheap shot. 😛

    Seriously though, have fun with the Gangsta Grillz… whatever they are.

    OHNOES (3b3653)

  16. Ahem, let me reiterate. I mean no ill will on Macswain’s family, his three-year-old, or himself. I simply threw out an over-the-line cheap shot because he clearly did not understand what constituted a cheap shot.

    OHNOES (3b3653)

  17. McSwain is just another fly-by-night Lefty Troll, who will gin up a little controversy hear, and then move on when we’re all justly disgusted by his behaviour, only to be replaced by another. It’s like a hockey team doing the cycle in the corner trying to set up a shot. With most of them though, their shots just clang off of the post.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  18. meant “here” not hear, Sorry.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  19. […] Patterico points out here that he is not all crazy all the time, as this quote reveals: You’d have to be crazy to think that there is a widespread conspiracy of AP reporters to help the enemy. Most of them are out there doing a dangerous job. I don’t always think the information is reliable, which is in part a function of the nature of Iraq in general . . . but we should recognize the sacrifice they are making to try to tell us what’s going on. […]

    Sadly, No! » Fair is Fair (d83a19)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0932 secs.