Steven Vincent was found dead of gunshot wounds in the Southern Iraqi city of Basra. An Op-Ed he wrote criticing the rise of Shi'ite fundamentalism and the corruption of the Iraqi police was published in The New York Times only a few days ago.
Steven was also a Blogger.
In one of his last posts he wrote:
In our travels across the city, Layla and I have fielded ceaseless complaints of extortion, protection rackets, employment featherbedding, nepotism, bid rigging, influence-peddling--it's impossible to talk to Basra businesspeople and not hear such woes. Mention, for example, the province's Governing Council and contractors will grimace, close their eyes and shake their heads. (One GC member oversaw a multi-million project to extend a street in downtown Basra; a year has gone by and so far no extension--meanwhile, the politician now lives in a $5 million home near the British Embassy.)
Steven was not the only American casualty in the last few days. Eight U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday, another 14 died today, bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the war to more than 1,800.
Posted by Diana at August 4, 2005 06:18 AMSuch a loss. Vincent seemed like he was doing good work. I remember, last year, Chris Albritton (of "Back to Iraq" fame) left because he feared for his life.
Like Bernard Fall, Vincent died on the job, trying to get the word out they only way he knew how, which was to get out in the field.
And dammit, watching the news every day about the killing in Iraq just keeps getting harder.
Posted by: tim fong at August 4, 2005 08:33 AMOn second reading of his blog (only read the CSM article before) I see that he is affiliated/was affiliated with NRO. Can't say I agree with everything he was saying, but his death is still a tragedy.
Posted by: tim fong at August 4, 2005 08:38 AM