Assassination

Journalist targeted.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An American freelance journalist and blogger was found dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

Police said Steven Vincent had been shot multiple times after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint hours earlier. Police said Mr. Vincent, a blogger who had been living in New York, had been staying in Basra for several months working on a book.

"I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent," said embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell. [SNIP]

Mr. Vincent's blog describes him as a freelance investigative journalist and art critic whose work had appeared in major newspapers and magazines including Harper's and the Christian Science Monitor. He worked briefly for The Wall Street Journal in 1998, writing about art, and was the author of "In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq,'' a recently published book that was an account of life in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. [SNIP]

I did not know of this gentleman’s efforts and am very sorry to learn of them this way. God rest him.

(Thanks to Roger Simon)