RIP Steven Vincent
Steven Vincent was one of the very few Iraq reporters brave enough to venture outside the Baghdad Green Zone these days, without a US military escort. He took this risk to bring us stories that would otherwise go unreported, as it’s a lot earier to get people to talk freely without armed US soliders looking over your shoulder. As has been widely reported, he was killed yesterday in Basra. What hasn’t been as widely noted is what a great reporter he was. It’s quite likely that his Switched Off is Basra editorial in last Sunday’s New York Times – in which he described how much of the Basra police force is little more than an extension of the extreme Shiite religious parties – is what got him killed.
The Christian Science Monitor (my favorite paper) regularly picks up his stories, so I’ve read his stuff before, but it was only after his death that I learned about his blog, In the Red Zone. I’m not sure how much longer it will stay up – I highly recommend taking a look while it’s still available. In particular, his final entry, The Naive American, is a compelling, personal account of his recent interview with an Air Force captain.
