Knight Ridder reporter killed after Baghdad police deathsquad story

[Monkie]

I dont remember seeing this story anywhere so here you go..
from the end of the article
"Salihee was a special correspondent. He was shot and killed last week in Baghdad in circumstances that remain unclear"

the story about Iraqi police deathsquads:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050627/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_killings_wa_1

"Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms

By Tom Lasseter and Yasser Salihee, Knight Ridder Newspapers Mon Jun 27, 7:41 PM ET

BAGHDAD,
Iraq - Days after Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced on April 28, the bodies of Sunni Muslim men began turning up at the capital's central morgue after the men had been detained by people wearing Iraqi police uniforms.

Faik Baqr, the director and chief forensic investigator at the central Baghdad morgue, said the corpses first caught his attention because the men appeared to have been killed in methodical fashion. Their hands had been tied or handcuffed behind their backs, their eyes were blindfolded and they appeared to have been tortured. In most cases, the dead men looked as if they'd been whipped with a cord, subjected to electric shocks or beaten with a blunt object and shot to death, often with single bullets to their heads.

Iraqi and American officials said the murders aren't being investigated systematically, but in dozens of interviews with families and Iraqi officials, and a review of medical records, a Knight Ridder reporter and two special correspondents found more than 30 examples of this type of killing in less than a week. They include 12 cases with specific dates, times, names and witnesses who said they might come forward if asked by law enforcement.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the Iraqi police, denies any involvement in the killings. But eyewitnesses said that many of the dead were apprehended by large groups of men driving white Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The men were wearing police commando uniforms and bulletproof vests, carrying expensive 9-millimeter Glock pistols and using sophisticated radios, the witnesses said."

I know it wasnt a pretty white female american reporter that got shot after reporting on death squads but this does merit some coverage on the news, doesnt it?

[MrScorpio]

1. Of course, the death squads were trained by us

As were like the ones we had trained in Central America

The is the true face of our involvement in Iraq:

Ugly, brutal and murderous.

Eventually, even Americans who get in the death squads' will get in the way will receive the same treatment.

The Ghosts of US clergy who died at the hands of our death squads are giving us a warning.

And no one is listening.

[punpirate]

2. It's not yet El Mozote...

... but with Negroponte and Abrams involved, it could become that bad with time. If there are reporters writing stories about it who are then being killed shortly afterwards, it's all the more evidence of death squads in action in Iraq.

There are some evil fuckers in this government of ours, and Bush isn't the only one....

[LightningFlash]

4. Wolfowitz, Cheney and his stooge Bolton/Rove.....

Probably ordered it. I doubt Bush even had anything to do with it, yet I wouldn't be surprised if he did. There's some criminals pulling the strings on this crazed operation. :banghead:

[EFerrari]

30. You're right. The gang's all here.

:(

[LightningFlash]

3. God just when news couldn't get any worse.......

.....They go and do, and we learn how much our troops are being abused and the psychosis over there. :banghead: :banghead: :think:

[mom cat]

5. Freedom is on the march. The death squads are at it. This is Bush style

Democracy in action.:puke:
nominated, everyone needs to see this one!

[LightningFlash]

6. When one way doesn't deliver results....

Pull the rug out and do it another way :thumbsdown:

[oblivious]

52. The Salvador option

Pepe Escobar -- Asia Times
...A least six militias are rampaging throughout Iraq, armed, trained and funded by the Pentagon. One of these - the powerful Special Police Commandos, with at least 10,000 men - as already acknowledged by US generals - is widely involved in applying the dreaded "Salvador option" that retired General Wayne Downing, former head of all US special operations forces, considers a "very valid tactic". The Special Commandos were active in the assault on Samarra last October, which American generals hailed as a "model" of counterinsurgency operations (not exactly: the resistance continues). They are also active in Ramadi and Mosul.

Their commander is the feared Major General Adnan Thavit al-Samarra'i, a member of an aborted, Allawi-conceived coup against Saddam in 1996. Thavit until now has been none other than the "security adviser" in charge of the face-lifted, Saddam-era General Security Directorate - infested with Saddam-era Mukhabarat agents. This is the organization Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld considers so precious that he had to fly to Baghdad to personally order Jaafari not to dismantle it. Thavit also happens to be the uncle of the former minister of interior. All this explains Allawi's obsession in controlling a ministry that so graciously houses his Pentagon-cherished top militia. Two other militias - the Muthana Brigade and the Defenders of Khadamiya - are also subordinated to Allawi.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD30Ak01.html

Unraveling Iraq’s Secret Militias

...According to a report by the Wall Street Journal from February 16, numerous “pop-up militias” thousands strong are proliferating in Iraq. Not only are many of these shadowy militias linked to Iraqi politicians, but the Pentagon is arming, training, and funding them for use in counter-insurgency operations.

Most disturbing, one militia in particular—the “Special Police Commandos”—is being used extensively and has been singled out by a U.S. general for conducting death squad strikes known as the “Salvador option.” The Police Commandos also appear to be a reconstituted Hussein security force operating under the same revived government body, the General Security Directorate, that was formerly tasked with suppressing internal dissent.

...Greg Jaffe, the Journal reporter, identified at least six such militias, one with “several thousand soldiers” lavishly armed with “rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, mortar tubes and lots of ammunition.” Yet these militias owe their allegiance not to the Iraqi people or government, but to their self-appointed leaders and associated politicians, such as interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Even the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, admitted in testimony before Congress on March 1 that such militias are “destabilizing.”

Of these militias, at least three are linked to Allawi.

... Jane’s Intelligence Digest commented that the GSD, “will include former members of Saddam Hussein’s feared security services, collectively known as the Mukhabarat. These former Ba’athists and Saddam loyalists will be expected to hunt down their colleagues currently organising the insurgency.”

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Images/guptapr0505.html

[mom cat]

7. More damning evidence from the article:

Marks on the bodies were similar to the injuries found on prisoners who were rescued from secret Interior Ministry jails by representatives of the Iraqi ministry for human rights, according to family accounts and medical records.

snip

If the killers are proven to be Sunni insurgents masquerading as Shiite police, the murders raise troubling questions about how insurgents are getting expensive new police equipment. The Toyotas, which cost more than $55,000 apiece, and Glocks, at about $500 each, are hard to come by in Iraq, and they're rarely used by anyone other than Western contractors and Iraqi security forces.

(The Sunni insurgents would not be killing reporters exposing government abuses. Look at motive, method, money and opportunity)

Further evidence that a police force created, trained and funded by the United States has been abusing human rights, on the other hand, would complicate the Bush administration's efforts to muster greater domestic support for its Iraq policy and more international support for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari.

snip

Raad Sultan, an official in Iraq's ministry of human rights who monitors the treatment of Iraqis in prisons and detention centers, said some Interior Ministry employees have tortured Iraqis whom they suspected of supporting the insurgency.

Officials in the Interior Ministry's intelligence division deny having detainees, saying they only question those in Iraqi prisons. But one investigation by the Human Rights Ministry found 32 detainees, and another found 67 in Interior Ministry intelligence facilities. The majority of the detainees had been tortured, Sultan said.

THIS IS HUGE! WE MUST HELP GET THIS STORY OUT!

[LightningFlash]

9. Hell get it to congress first!

To Conyers and Warner, Owens and all the others holding hearings!

Get this information to their hands and then spread it everywhere!

:thumbsup:

[mom cat]

15. Nominate it too.... that will help it get spread everywhere!

[anarchy1999]

8. Go figure. Negroponte and all the rest sleep well at night.

Can't wait, just can't wait for Bolton to be seated at the UN. Watch out!

[mom cat]

21. You've got that right.

[mom cat]

10. more snippits,but read the whole article yourself if you can.

Most of those who were tortured had their hands cuffed behind their backs, were blindfolded and had been beaten by cords or subjected to electrical shock, Sultan said. Baqr, at the morgue, said the bodies that have been brought to him handcuffed and blindfolded had been similarly abused.

But when battered corpses turn up outside Interior Ministry facilities, Sultan said, "How can I prove it is the security forces?"

Ghathanfar al Jasim, who sits on Iraq's national judicial council and functions as an attorney general, said it's difficult to discuss extrajudicial murder.

"We cannot admit that our police are doing it; it would make them look weak," Jasim said, adding that Sunni insurgents often target Iraqi security forces, especially commando units such as the Interior Ministry's Wolf Brigade.

[mom cat]

11. Huge upsurg in execution style killings.

Asked who he thought was behind the upsurge in such executions, Baqr said, "It is a very delicate subject for society when you are blaming the police officers. . . . It is not an easy issue.

"We hear that they are captured by the police and then the bodies are found killed . . . it's obviously increasing."

Baqr said he's been unable to catalog the deaths because so many bodies have been brought through his morgue and because he doesn't have enough doctors. Before March 2003, he said, the morgue handled 200 to 250 suspicious deaths a month, about 16 of which included firearm injuries. He said he now sees 700 to 800 suspicious deaths a month, with some 500 having firearm wounds.

[mom cat]

12. link to the direct Knight Ridder storyabout the death squads:

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

[Peace Patriot]

13. Yasser Salihee

The sentence about reporter Yasser Salihee's death is in italics, at the very end of the article, after the main text--it's hard to spot.

Knight-Ridder is one of the few U.S. news organizations doing real journalism. Indeed, it may be the only one.

This death needs to be fully investigated!

Too many journalists have been killed in Iraq by U.S. forces! And they seem to be targeting the best of them.

This is so outrageous!

[mom cat]

16. Knight Ridder doesn't have an update on Yasser Salihee's murder yet.

[Burried News]

14. Burried News, Burried People

"We have a plan ..." But not a plan George can talk about.

[mom cat]

38. It looks like this one is getting buried. Wait till the death squads come

to a city near you or me. Oh but then it will be too late.

[mom cat]

17. Other info on Yasser Salihee and and other articles by him:

No wonder they wanted him dead. He was telling the truth!http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl.toolbar/search/web/Yasser%2BSalihee

[I Have A Dream]

18. Nominated. n/t

[mom cat]

19. Thanks. Write your congress persons on this one! Urgent

This is all too reminiscent of the US backed death squads in Latin America. I just wrote Kennedy and Kerry about this. Send them the link to the original Knight-Ridder article:

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

Then spread the information far and wide. Thanks.

[truth2power]

20. I only had to read the subject title and I thought, "Negroponte." n/t

[mom cat]

22. You are so right truth2power. Contact everyone you know on this one!

These evildoers must be stopped! Here is the link to the original Knight-Ridder article:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

[BamaBecky]

23. Oh goodness, this makes me SICK TO MY STOMACH!...n/t

[mom cat]

24. Send this story to EVERYONE:

Here is the link to the original Knight-Ridder article:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

[mom cat]

25. I just contacted Randi , Raw Story , Kennedy and Kerry. Also

Information Clearing House and What Really Happened.Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[mom cat]

26. Let me know who you contact!

[DemoTex]

50. I contacted Randi. Thanks for the addy on the LBN thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1594531#1594788

[mom cat]

53. You bet. It sounds like Randi is not picking this up so far but others

have been including information clearinghouse and what really happened not to mention the Detroit Free Press which came out with the story today.

[mzmolly]

27. Ahhh, so they are "making problems go away"

I had a brief conversation here with a former person in the know who said that the US Govt. was training/sending people to Iraq who would "make problems go away." It would appear that they are hard at work.

[mom cat]

28. I worry about when they plan to bring that same strategy here! not

that they haven't already done so. The list all of already explained death's is already too long.

[EFerrari]

31. This is a very reasonable concern. Andy they'll be so much

better at their tricks for their practice in other places.

[mom cat]

34. These guys are not going to quietly give up their power.

[LiberalAndProud]

29. Things aren't always what they appear to be at first glance.

http://www.angelfire.com/ct/ww2europe/1939.html
-snip-
On the evening of 31 August the German Sicherheitsdeinst or SD took control of a radio station, dressed in Polish uniforms, and made anti-German announcements in Polish. Known as "Operation Himmler," the Germans left murdered concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms to make it look like an act of Polish aggression.
-snip-

I'm just saying ...

[mom cat]

32. Yes, but this is different in that:

1. This isn't a one time event
2. The only other probable culprit is the Sunnis, and it is the Sunnis who are being slaughtered in the hundreds.
3. The props are not readily obtainable by non-coalition people.
Yes, other people can stage things, but look at:
the motive...getting rid of outspoken Sunnis,
the props... Glock pistols, white Toyota Trucks,
the money... these thinge are not cheap
the MO... These are not random acts, but organized

This needs to be investigated, no matter who is behind it!

[EFerrari]

33. True. But we have to think about who benefits the most and who

has the better resources and opportunity.

[mom cat]

35. The coalition of the killing?

[EFerrari]

36. They were willing to send unruly (ethical) KBR employees to

camps under fire if they dared talk to auditors. That's not rumor or speculation, that's been attested to by more than one witness.

Maybe I'm around the last bend, but I can't think of anything these guys wouldn't do to protect their interests.

[mom cat]

37. No, you are not around the bend..You are just thinking logically.

What bothers me is the total lack of legs for this story. Is everyone afraid to touch it?

[mom cat]

39. More news about his death...shot by Americans!

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm

Posted on Wed, Jun. 29, 2005



R E L A T E D C O N T E N T

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.


R E L A T E D L I N K S
• Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms
• Sunnis, Shiites struggling for control of mosques in Iraq
• Iraqi authorities crack down on solo drivers in effort to stem attacks
• Much-needed emergency medical supplies arrive in Najaf




Reporter shot to death in Iraq

By Tom Lasseter

Knight Ridder Newspapers



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder, was shot to death in Baghdad last Friday.


The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper, though there were Iraqi soldiers in the area who also may have been shooting at the time.


Salihee, 30, had the day off and was driving alone near his home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah when a single bullet pierced his windshield and then his skull.


He was shot as his car neared a joint patrol of American and Iraqi troops who'd stopped to search a building for snipers. American and Iraqi soldiers are frequently targeted by suicide car bombers.


The U.S. Army is investigating the incident.

[Mandate My Ass]

40. What a disgrace - we have death squads

and we kill anybody who dares report them.

This is what we were told last night was "worth it." :cry:

The Bush cabal are monsters.

[mom cat]

43. The most evil of monstors! Send the articles to everyone you can think of:

Knight Ridder journalist killed after writing the following story ?:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

And why was he killed by the Americans?:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm

And why isn't this story being picked up by the media?

[Monkie]

41. makes me wonder if Tom Lasseter knows more but is scared

its a pretty damning piece but still tries hard to not say straight out he was shot because of his reporting and he waits right to the end of the piece to say:
"In the last story he worked on, Salihee used his medical expertise to review records of Sunnis brought to city morgues after reportedly being taken by men in police uniforms."

[mom cat]

42. Read this too: A follow up by Tom Lasseter:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm


Posted on Wed, Jun. 29, 2005

Reporter shot to death in Iraq

By Tom Lasseter

Knight Ridder Newspapers



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder, was shot to death in Baghdad last Friday.


The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper, though there were Iraqi soldiers in the area who also may have been shooting at the time.


Salihee, 30, had the day off and was driving alone near his home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amariyah when a single bullet pierced his windshield and then his skull.


He was shot as his car neared a joint patrol of American and Iraqi troops who'd stopped to search a building for snipers. American and Iraqi soldiers are frequently targeted by suicide car bombers.


The U.S. Army

Much More
Thanks for your original post! I have sent it and this most recent article to a number of news sources. Raw Story has picked it up.

You got the ball rolling on this one! Great work.

[mom cat]

44. Don't let this story die like the journalist that wrote it!

Send this message out to everyone you know:

Knight Ridder journalist killed after writing the following story ?:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/11999387.htm

And why was he killed by the Americans?:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12016097.htm

And why isn't this story being picked up by the media?

[mom cat]

45. I think I've had some luck in getting some legs underneath this story. I

am planning to send this out to send human rights groups today. Does anyone know how to find the group tracking murdered journalist in Iraq?

[Monkie]

46. you are a angel

for not letting go of this..
this is one journalists group that tracks them http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20

[mom cat]

49. Now he or the angel! Thanks so much for the link. I'm on it!

O8) :loveya:

[mom cat]

51. I just sent them a message with links to the stories. Thank you again

for getting the ball rolling on this story. I think that it's starting to get picked up now. The Detroit Free Press had an article on it yesterday. I haven't had a chance yet to check the other sites that I contacted, but I know Raw Story picked it up yesterday.
This is what I love it about DU. All of us working together can make something happen.:grouphug:

[5thGenDemocrat]

47. I'm thinking (hoping) it's a bad idea to fuck with Knight-Ridder

Whatever else you can say about the current abysmal state of American journalism, Knight-Ridder still sits near the top of the pile for professionalism.
One example: Think of arguably the most famous photo of Bush War I, the soldier being air-lifted out from a firefight, crying because he has just been informed that the body in the body bag behind him is that of his good friend. That photo was taken by David Turnley of the Detroit Free Press -- a Knight-Ridder paper. He deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for it.
Knight-Ridder (through its papers) sends its own correspondents to war. They're aware reporters get killed covering wars -- but not, so far as I am aware, intentionally by "friendly" troops.
I suspect K-R is pissed and is going to pursue this story tenaciously. Maybe it's just another "tragic accident" (we have a lot of "tragic accidents" which somehow usually work out in the authorities' favor), but I'll bet Knight-Ridder's not going to stop digging until they find out why and how this occurred.
Maybe (just maybe) the American press are beginning to turn on the Bush regime. If so, Knight-Ridder has now been given a reason to make it personal.
Just my opinion as a former Bay City Times (Booth/Newhouse) writer.
John
A sportswriter for most of my career, so I may not know what the hell I'm talking about.

[Mandate My Ass]

48. Kick

I hope Knight Ridder gets all over this.