Steven Vincent's wife strikes back
Steven Vincent, who authored the awesome blog In the red Zone, was murderd in Iraq on august 3rd. Juan Cole, insurgents apologist extraordinare, peddled theories that Vincent was having an affair with his interperter and was killed for "honor reasons", and then proceeded to blame him for his own murder and attacked his ignorance of middle-eastern culture and, by implication, his journalistic writing and legacy, basking in the knowledge that a dead man can't fight back. Think again Juan! Steven Vincent's wife decided to respond to mr. Cole in an e-mail. (Hattip Stefania) I susepct his ass is still bleeding, cause damn, she tore him a new one. Read it all here.
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 8/23/2005 05:10:00 AM
10 Comments:
Never , ever ,mess with a Sicilian woman. Yawn Cold is wishing he slept with fishes about now.
whew, she didn't just tear him a new one, she chewed him up entirely and spit him out, destroying every shred of his credibility.
Bridget
Raf,
Cole's point in addressing Vincent's murder was to suggest he was culturally ignorant (ie didn't know what he was talking about) and that that got him killed.
He did this because Vincent had had some unflattering things to say about the quality of Cole's assessments last February (to which he didn't respond).
Cole has history of acting spitefully and underhandedly. Not to take anything away from Stefania's post, I laid it all out here.
You're right that Cole's post was not uninformed. It was spiteful, and since he waited until his target was dead, it was cowardly.
When someone *is* one, how do you tear him "a new one"?
Good for her! Some how, it doesn't surprise me that Steven Vincent was married to such an impressive woman!
I don't follow Juan Cole but I'm guessing he was one of the people who was so "outraged" about people criticizing Cindy Sheehan. And then, he assassinates the character of a dead man.
I could be wrong, though?
raf -- if we don't know the facts we should question them before we voice strong opinions; it applies to everybody, me as well. Juan Cole doesn't do well in that department, esp. not when using words as sleeping around in this context. At THAT TIME we could have mentioned honour killing as a *possibility*. He didn't. He threw up on a widow.
in general -- whatever offended his killers, and it doesn't have to be any particular reason if you're a foreigner in Basra, .. anyway, whatever the reason was it doesn't really matter now, does it?
same thing with whatever opinions we might have on his writing, the man died recently, let him rest in peace.
I do not read Juan Cole and know little about him. The allegations he made came from the Telegraph article. The Telegraph's reporter stated the allegations as possibilities that Iraqi, British, and US investigators had developed and were pursuing, not conclusions. Cole claimed that the allegations would probably turn out to be correct. And he criticized Steven Vincent's knowledge of the Middle East.
I thought Mr. Vincent was performing an essential service as an American reporting on the spot in Iraq. Most US reporters see little first hand in Baghdad and nothing outside (apart from Kurdistan, where it's safe). The South accounts for half or more of the population and receives scarcely any direct reporting. Basra is the South's largest city and Mr. Vincent's work there was unique (although I now think that British reporters have been working there, too).
I feel so sorry for Lisa Vincent and her loss. I think that the Telegraph might have been a more logical target for her to begin with.
I agree with Ritzy that Rest in Peace is something that Mr. Vincent deserves. I am inclined to think that the identity of the persons and forces that killed him is important. First of all, he and his family deserve justice, too.
Second, it is possible that, to put it in its strongest form, the Iraqi government murdered him and tried to murder his translator. I do not mean that the Prime Minister knew about it or would have wanted it. I DO mean that the Basra leadership of his party, the Dawa, or of the other main party in the governing coalition, SCIRI, may have ordered the killings.
Mr. Vincent's first post from Basra said that foreigners were in danger, apparently from ordinary criminals and from the usual insurgency of anti-government people. The Sadr supporters out on the streets probably were also hostile to foreigners, especially Americans. His later posts and articles had something to offend all of the above. He also attacked corrupt leadership in Basra government, though not by name. His New York Times article endorsed claims that policemen with ties to the one or all of the Dawa, SCIRI, and Sadr were a death squad that was assassinating Baathists. I had wondered about the wisdom of his using a woman translator, since it required her to accompany an unrelated man in public--an offense to exactly the conservative Muslim forces that he was reporting to be increasing powerful on the streets and in society generally.
The two mainline Shia parties are thus only some of the possible suspects.
Continuation
If the governing parties are involved, or it turns out to be Sadr's forces, it is a sign of audacity on their part. Iraq is trying to create a constitution. If the governing parties did it, what does freedom of the press amount to Iraq? Especially for Iraqis without access to foreign publicity. If the Sadr forces did it, I note that they have much effective power in Basra, so the conclusion is almost as bad.
I do not trust the Basra Iraqi police to investigate this because they are potentially investigating themselves. Even the British have a motive for a cover up--the avoidance of embarrassment and retaliation for Mr. Vincent's criticism of them. Maybe an affair did lead to the attack. Yet, how convenient is the story: it not only whitewashes the Basra government, police, and the British, but it also discredits Mr. Vincent and his translator.
Michael in Framingham
Lisa Vincent's letter to jcole is a great rebuttle to a shameless coward and a testimony of her love for Steven.
Thank you Lisa.
You can leave condolences at, http://spencepublishing.typepad.com/in_the_red_zone/
Ricardo
Google Talk is up, running, more open and as clear as Skype...
As you can see, the Windows client is pretty basic, but functional. It is necessary to have a gmail account to sign up for the service - " by invitation it sounds like.
Hello, nice blog!
If you like you can visit my site to Download music, movies and games Join a music movies and games download sites.
Raf, I think i may just do that!
Post a Comment
<< Home