Getty photographer Chris Hondros, Marla Ruzicka
and me in Baghdad last summer.
BAGHDAD—Even now, I have a hard time believing that she's gone.
Marla Ruzicka died Saturday, April 16 when a suicide car bomber blew up his car next to hers in an apparent attack on a nearby civilian convoy on Airport Road in Baghdad. She was 28.
Marla was a friend of mine here in Baghdad. She was a matchmaker, a social hub and the heart of our journo-tribe, both here and in Afghanistan, although she wasn't a journalist. She was known and loved—sometimes through gritted teeth, admittedly—by the majority of Baghdad, it seems. Everyone knew Marla.
That's because Marla made it her business to be known. She was tireless and ubiquitous in her work, which was to get compensation for Iraqi victims of war from the U.S. military. She confronted, cajoled, flirted with and—more often than not—convinced generals, diplomats and politicians that Iraqi civilians were worthy of remembrance and that the U.S. had a responsibility to the families of those killed or injured by American munitions.
It was hard work. Every day, she was out, with her driver/translator and country coordinator Faiz Ali Salim, meeting families and diplomats, generals and journalists, working everyone to help these families. She had a hurricane energy to her and a radiant goodness that could knock you down and leave your head spinning. I often imagined the first contact she had with Iraqi families who needed help, and how bewildered they must have been by this pretty, loud and enormously kind American woman who swooped into their lives in a black abaya and face-splitting grin. Bewildered at first, yes, but quickly grateful, and as much in love and in awe of her as any of us who knew her for more than a short time. While she leaves behind a group of friends among the westerners here in Baghdad, she leaves behind a huge extended family of Iraqis who took her in. I saw it myself last summer when I was thinking of pitching a feature on her to New York magazine. I went with her to the home of a family who had lost a daughter in a U.S. bombing. The men hovered around for her protection and gazed at her adoringly. The women of the family swept her up in warm embraces, almost causing her to disappear in the flurry of abayas. The children sat at her feet or played with her blonde hair. Then, the old matriarch told her about how the paperwork was going and asked her about a lawyer in Jordan who was trying to convince the family to take him on as their attorney.
I don't know what happened with their case because the story never panned out. She was leaving Baghdad and I got busy and with other things. Now I wish I'd pushed harder so that more people might have known about her when she was doing her work instead of the current rush of newspaper epitaphs.
Because what Marla was doing was important and necessary. The night before she died, at one of her thrown-together parties, she said she was staying in Baghdad longer than she had originally planned because she was close to establishing that the military kept records on civilian deaths in Iraq, despite military statements that such records don't exist. She had personally verified about 2,000 casualties through painstaking casework, although she knew these were just the tip of the iceberg. Through the strength of her personality, she persuaded U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy to push $17.5 million in compensation funds through Congress.
For journalists here, she was our little sister, our masseuse at parties and sometimes our project. For all her energy and good work, she was troubled, telling me over dinner one night about her anxieties and battles with depression. Her mood rollercoasted between mania and tears, and we often felt protective, but also sometimes impatient. Marla, go home; it's so hard on you—and us, I remember thinking selfishly. I felt this was not the place for DIY therapy, for saving oneself by helping others.
But I think now I was wrong. She helped so many and she was so loved. She died doing exactly what she was born to do, and thousands are grateful to her. Thousands were saved by her. And what have we, the journalists who took her in, done? Compared to the beautiful, sad pixie, most of us are dwarves.
She was so many things to so many people, but for the journalists who knew and loved her she was, ultimately, our heart and our conscience.
We realized something was wrong Saturday when she missed her own party that was to mark the social "coming out" of the Hamra Hotel pool. Some photographers, including Scott Nelson, who is donating any sales of his photos of her to a fund for her families, and me sat around cracking jokes and talking about our friend.
"Every war needs a Marla," Scott said, referring to her zest for life, compassion, sense of fun and passion for helping people.
"Every war has a Marla," I said. "It's Marla."
Two hours later, we found out she was dead.
Any donations are requested to go to her organization CIVIC at P. O. Box 1189, Lakeport, CA 95453.
Christopher, I’m so sorry for this latest loss and your having to see another friend taken by this war. I read about Marla in today’s email from Alternet - http://www.alternet.org/story/21779/ - and I wondered if you knew her.
Keep your chin up, and your head down. I do NOT want to read about you in this context. And thank you again for putting a human face on the news story - my eyes are still filled with tears for a lady I never knew, but would have been proud to know.
I heard about this early on from a blogger in Iraq who knew her. I’ve also been in touch with the documentary filmaker who is about to release a documentary about Jo Wilding, who knew Marla. She sure seemed to get around, and know many people! You’re right, Chris in that while she had her demons she also had a gift for helping people from what I’ve heard. We have to take the good where and when it comes and the bad, too. I hope this challenges people to positive action…
What a beautiful and honest rememberance. I’m very sorry for your loss. What a wonderful woman, having done such important, life-touching work. I hope someone else picks up her torch.
Chris, it is nice that you put up something of your own thoughts about and reactions to Marla. However, I find some of what you say disturbingly ptaronizing. “Our little sister”??? Marla knew 1,000 times the number of things about Iraq that most members of your so-called “journo-tribe” ever knew. (“Journo-tribe”— now there’s a telling indicator of pack journalism if ever I saw one…)
Also, referring to Faiz Ali Salim as simply her “driver and translator” when he was the Iraq Director of CIVIC is incredibly demeaning and reminds me SOOO much of the way that extremely ignorant western journos who’d parachute into Lebanon or Iraq when I was covering wars there would refer to the extremely expert and often highly educated indigenous cultural negotiators whom they put on their payroll and would then refer to demeaningly only as “fixers” or “drivers”.
Some respect for the late Mr. Salim, please.
My condolences for your loss, Chris.
I’m working my way through The Baghdad Blog (the book of Salam’s blog) and read about Marla and CIVIC on Sunday:
http://dearraed.blogspot.com/20030501dearraedarchive.html#200338293
(22nd May entry, page 180 in the book)
When I saw an article in Monday’s Guardian that mentioned in passing that an activist called Marla Ruzicka had been killed (the blog doesn’t give her surname), it jumped out at me before I made the connection consciously.
The Guardian has an obituary today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1462967,00.html
Front page story in the Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=630851
An appreciation at Salon:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/18/marla/index.html
Tragic that someone so wonderful is killed so young and in such a manner. If only we had not lied our way into an unprovoked attack this would not have happened and would negate the next day’s tragedies from occuring.
I shouldn’t have read this at work…I’m in tears at your loss, and ultimately, all of ours. I feel humbled to have even read about such a person, and your remembrance of your friend has touched me deeply.
Vaya con Dios….
This story makes me remember my childhood, when we sponsored families of indo-chinese refugees and put them up in the houses on either side of ours, the one behind, and converted our garage into another place. Dozens of people eventually, beautiful people. And grateful and so go*damn hard working, and laughing, always laughing.
One of the family grandfathers, a former tribal elder back at home, could not accept or adjust to this new life and hung himself in the back yard of one of their houses. I didn’t know that grandfather that well, but his death touched me forever. Like I suspect this one will. More importantly, we should be touched by the sufferings of the millions there, not just of our noble own who fall victim to the violence. Bless her heart and may we continue her work, however we can.
…This was a fine young woman that probably wanted to help. Her family will be especially burdened by her loss. As to the rest of you, well, it’s a party and you were not invited. You glorify your personality, lives, life style and ego too much to be taken seriously. You should go back to fantasy land and get a real job. Leave the fighting to the real soldiers.
A profound loss. May Marla serve as an inspiration to all of us to be better people.
“Because what Marla was doing was important and necessary. The night before she died, at one of her thrown-together parties, she said she was staying in Baghdad longer than she had originally planned because she was close to establishing that the military kept records on civilian deaths in Iraq, despite military statements that such records don’t exist.”
The best memorial to this evidently extraordinary woman is to continue her work. The US military says that one of its goals is to reduce civilian casualties but it also says that it does not keep track of those very same civilian casualties. If you don’t measure, you can’t correct.
Finish her work, please. Follow her lead and uncover those military records of civilian deaths.
First I wish her a peacefull eternal rest.
We never get information much deeper that this about civilian reported deaths;
“Marla Ruzicka died Saturday, April 16 when a suicide car bomber blew up his car next to hers in
an apparent attack on a nearby civilian convoy
on Airport Road in Baghdad.
Why can’t reporters fill in the blanks better than
” a suicide car bomber” did it…?
No Sh!t . We know it was an one way bonsai attack but why so often are “freedom fighters” excused from keeping count of who they kill and
WHY they did it.
They are not required to have an official press releases to apologize to the Iraqi population….ever….
To them, “All is fair”.
Why don’t the ‘concerned journalists’ really DIG DEEP into filling in the blanks on this one.
Give the who,what,why’s of her death by suicide bomber…from the bombers side of reasoning she was a justifiable target.
Can’t anybody actually piece the guy back together and get into his head as to why he attacked this chosen civilian “soft target” ?
I know Al Jazeera covers the “freedom fighters” point of view very well but they also shy away from the real personal details of
who actually done it.
Should they be exempt in making compensation offers with so many civilians like this Marla person is “accidently” targeted ?
hell…
guess what ?
… in 3 months…
nobody will give a ratz azz about one western reporter,census taker,number cruncher, personal claims adjuster or whatever she told people her primary reason for being in harms way.
marla was my friend. we were roommates in college. where can we get the pics you mentioned by scott nelson?
Erin,
I believe Scott is associated with World Picture News.
http://www.worldpicturenews.com/
Christopher’s (Back to Iraq) comments on Marla Ruzicka below reflect just how convenient suicide bombers can be for the American military.
“The night before she died, have one of her thrown together parties, she said she was staying in Baghdad longer than she had originally planned because she was close to establishing that the military kept records on civilian deaths in Iraq, despite military statements that said such records don’t exist.”
Christopher.I am so sorry for the loss of your friend,I’m not religous but this poem always seems to help:
I am standing upon the seashore.A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the ocean.She is an object of beauty and strenght.I stand and watch her until at lenth she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says”There.she is gone!”
“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight .that is all.
Her diminished size is in me,not in her.And just at that moment when someone at my side says”There,shes gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:
“Here she comes!”
And that is dying
stay safe friend
Nana
Chris, please accept my humble condolences.
Marla and Faiz sound like truly remarkable people.
It seems like a hundred years ago that Salam was writing about Marla and CIVIC and posting photos. Raed and the other young Iraqi volunteers were so dedicated and determined to help their people. What they were documenting was horrible, and yet — and, yet — it seems to me now that there was hope that The War was over.
Even a truly magical pixie needs a shoulder on which to lay her weary head down. I’m sure that just as Marla brought comfort, compassion, energy and hope to the people she came into contact with, that you too brought great hope and comfort to her with your friendship and your concern. I’m sure you were a wonderful big brother to your special little sister.
Please take care, dear. We love you, too.
Remarkable woman and a remarkable story. I’m glad so many Iraqis got to know her before she was killed. Please keep her memory alive for us.
Words are never enough.
An amazing journey from Global Exchange at 15 to Afghanistan and Iraq-10 years of struggle and activism!
Two have said, “why can’t we see into the mind of a bomber” and “very convenient for the Bush people”.
Remember, there is a $200 billion Embassy only of late occupied by Negroponte.
Something about journalists and aid workers as targets—shades of El Salvador?
The general population terrorized.
A South American feel.
What kind of people make war on an impoverished country and make a never ending “job” of it?
After using nuclear arsenals, murdering civilians, using napalm-would they ever repay for the damage done?
Are some Iraqis being paid to keep chaos alive?
Its seems no accident that an American woman was targeted.
Last time an Italian journalist. It’s impossible to be coincidental.
But why would Iraqi fighters do the U.S. government ” a favor ” by disposing of someone who asked too many questions?
In Negroponte’s world, you don’t ask a lot of questions!
We must “sort it out”….and talk and talk about it…
From a song I heard yesterday:
Marla had the courage—
But it is very dangerous to be a loner.
What might happen if hundreds of people
packed away their possessions and
went to Iraq, as witnesses?
There needs to be many, many more
to show that this will be stopped!
I am glad you are there,
because you dare to even enter
the Hell the President has created…
in which good people are not welcome…
Only scavengers and killers are invited!
If only we could all be as courageous as
Marla.
We can write a million words, but taking action and responsibility in these times requires exceptional strength and putting aside your own fears.
The way she was living her life is truly admirable.
Cecilia
Rory Carroll of the Guardian remembers Marla:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1463729,00.html
A tragic loss. My condolences.
Are there others in Baghdad to pick up the work she was doing? Of course the soul silenced is never replaced, but the work remains and hers was a good work that should not end.
It’s sad that anyone should die like this and even sadder that it was a person who went to help others.
It’s a wonder that there are still people out there who consider these suicide bombers to be “freedom fighters.”
What kind of “freedom” do they hope to achieve with this kind of action? Is it freedom of religious expression? What kind of religious sentiment do they hope to express?
Most religions consider people to be equal under their creator, and accordingly no one has the right to murder another, much less in a random manner. Beyond religion, even most athiests, materialists, humanists, etc., would grant that rule as a foundation of civilization.
These bombers should be REPRESSED until they can learn to live by the rules required for a civilized world. I know that idea offends a lot of sensibilities, but until it happens we’re going to have a lot more mourning over senseless murders such as this one.
I never cease to be amazed at the people who continue to insist that a war has only two sides: our side (the justified one) and the other side (the evil enemy). Those people are already dismissing Marla as a wrongheaded anti-war lefty who met an ironic end. But they’re wrong. We needed her. Not just the Iraqis whose loved ones have been killed, but we here in the US needed her. We need to know the cost of war. We need to acknowledge the lives we’ve ruined. We can’t just shut our eyes and shoot. Someone has to tell us what we’ve done before any judgment about whether it was worth it can have any meaning. I hope that CIVIC gets the funds they need to accomplish what Marla set out to do — and that they have the people who can make it happen. My deepest condolences to you, Chris, and everyone who knew her. She sounds like one gal who was worth knowing.
What a beautiful and very touching account of Marla’s personality and work. There is so much one cannot understand if one is not there. These stories help us to imagine what life in Iraq must be like. Thank you for sharing.
I agree that you, as a journalist, need to start writing more about who is behind the Sunni “insurgency” that employs these suicide bombers to stop democracy…unless you are too scared to get on the bad side of the bad guys. I am amazed that some of the other posters would prefer that Saddam was still in power! Marla would be alive today if there was no terror campaign to keep democracy from happening. You cannot say that freedom should never have happened for the Shiites and the Kurds.
Also: to say that Bush Senior just happened to be hanging around when the Berlin Wall fell…conveniently, for your ideology, forgets that Bush Senior was director of the CIA before he was VP under Reagan. Bush Senior may have done more than Reagan for freedom in the former Soviet Union. Only JP2 may have done more. And Vietnam? May not have been a democracy…but the majority of people wanted no part of communism. Too bad, after we won the strategic victory of splitting China and the Soviet Union, we called a quick truce, pulled our troops out, let a leftist Congress beg the communists to break the truce…and watched 2.4 million people get killed by the communists. At least Thailand remained safe in 1975 because China was no longer on the rampage it was on in 1965. War aims met.
About Iraq: War Aim #1 was to put the Shiites in charge of the ME’s most important country. So I am waiting for Bush to hand the country over to the Shiites.
Marla sounds like she was cool. Unless she ignored the victims of the “insurgents”, in which case she wasn’t that courageous. The “insurgents” would have wanted to keep her alive as long as they felt she was trying to help their cause by hurting the cause of our courageous soldiers.
By the way, I live in Europe. I have never met very many anti-Americans or those who seriously think the liberation of the Iraqi Shiites was a bad thing. All this talk lefty Americans make about America “losing respect in the world” is fundamentally the act of saying white is black and black is white. The reality is the American soldier’s reputation has gone sky high in the past few years since 9-11. Maybe people have been told to say they don’t like Bush, but there is nothing negative about talking politiely in front of Arabs and Germans on a Paris subway “My brother is an American soldier in Iraq and I am proud to say he smoked another terrorist last week.” You should try it the next time you are in Paris or London: Pretend that your brother is in Iraq fighting insurgents…and watch how people will not call the police. Then try to say that you have a friend who is an insurgent in Iraq…and watch people wonder if they should turn you into the police.
freedom?
an estimated 100,000 iraqis killed.
people unable to travel freely for fear of being killed by the occupying forces (yes, americans are killing iraqi civilians), resistance forces, and now terrorists, not to mention being kidnapped for ransom.
gross violations of the geneva conventions including torture and evidently rape of iraqis by americans
a puppet government installed by the americans and now (because Sistani insisted) an eventual election reported to have been fixed by the Americans to reduce the Shiia tally by a number of percentage points.
a current government under the thumb of the U.S. military.
lack of electricity
lack of running water
sewage in the streets
14 permanent U.S. military bases (the one near the airport will have a Burger King and a gym if I remember correctly).
billions and billions wasted (although Halliburton is certainly richer for it).
a set of interim regulations written by the Americans to allow privitization of Iraqi industries and that can only be overturned by a 3/4 majority as I recall. (Thus we have an Iraq economy that is intended to benefit the bottom line of American corporations and the oil industry which was always a large part of BushCo’s motivation to go to war).
a press that is targeted by American forces. Why was an Italian journalist targeted by American troops (not on the main airport road at a checkpoint), but on a supposedly more secure road leading from the green zone to the airport. This after the Italians had communicated with the Americans. Plus, the troops shot at the back of the Italian car as they were moving away, not as they were approaching a “checkpoint.”
wow, “democracy” american imperial style is a beautiful thing i guess. it is just so difficult to understand why the iraqi resistance would reject american occupation.
Marla was working for a noble humanitarian cause. Her efforts to uncover the American tally of Iraqi civilian deaths was and is incredibly important work. Indeed, just how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, and by whom?
here you go sc,
How do you spin this link?
http://beta.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050422/aponremiea/iraqhelicopterkilling
The video link above is about the recent helicopter crash in Iraq.
Some “media group” covered it. The video was posted on a Web forum used by Islamic militants. ( aka ‘freedom fighters’ ? )
Excerpts here;
The scene moves to tall grass, where a man with thinning, gray hair and wearing a blue flight suit is lying on his back, the right side of his head bloody.
“Stand up! Stand up!” the cameraman shouts to him in English.
“I can’t, it’s broken. Give me a hand,” the survivor says in accented English, raising his hands for help. “Give me your hand,” he repeats.
It appears the militants help pull him to his feet. “Weapons?” the gunmen shout at him in Arabic.
The cameraman tells the crewman, whose face is visible, to step back.“Go! Go!” he shouts.
The survivor then tries to walk, limping with his back to the insurgents, who then say something to him that makes him turn around. He raises his hands to somebody off camera as if gesturing to them to stop what they are about to do.
The militants open fire,
continuing to shoot him after he fell to the ground as someone shouts
“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar ”
It’s stories like these that make people understand why ‘the other side’ doesn’t keep track of civilian deaths. This time they felt allah would be pleased enough with the spectacular death of Infidels that it warrented international net release. ( how close was
Marla to finding less popular video recordings when reaching out to get body counts from the freedom fighters side ? )
hey,
I remember reading a previous post by Chris that mentioned something like this;
“If you even “LOOK WESTERN”…you are in danger of kidnapping,torture or worse”
“They will USE you at best….or kill you and allow the blame to fall directly on the ‘opressive occupiers’—— or something like that was his first or second post since the return from Iraq. I suggest people read those words for the first time.
.
About democracy in Iraq.
Fact remains that the Iraqi people are impatient with their interim govt.
Only the US stands in the way of a full Sunni purge being demanded by the majority.
?
When the purge goes down….and it will…how easy it will be to blame the ‘occupiers’ for the doings of the Iraqi democracy struggling with its baby step choices being decided in its infancy.
Freedom fighters respect brute force…. as long as “peace talks” about amnesty continue, they are still in the game of supressing the will of the majority.
Raed’s post provides at least one Iraqi perspective here:
Caught between The East and The West
Friday, April 22, 2005
Ramadi, Madain, and the Infamous “Baath-Qaeda” Camp
A boy lies dead in a street in Ramadi, Iraq on Thursday, April 21, 2005. His body was found in a street near three smoldering cars after gunfire erupted in downtown Ramadi 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
No “immediate” information! why would they care aslan? it’s just a little boy in the middle of nowhere. A little terrorist project in Ramadi.
But seriously, why would anyone care who killed the little boy. He’s dead, with other tens of thousands, because of the ongoing illegal war. Whether the bullet was shot by a US soldier, or by someone fighting the foreign occupation of his country, both of them didn’t mean to kill the boy, but they killed him.
There are tens of thousands of Iraqis who are being killed, and all of them are falling because of the war and occupation. Whether the US military decided to be generous and admit they shot us or not, it’s still the responsibilty of occupation forces to maintain a safe life for the occupied populations.
I was telling one of my friends the other day: “We have enough documented cases that can put EVERYONE in the bush adminstration in jail for the next 250,000 years. The thing we need now is to bring the US under the jurisdiction of international laws”. Those murderers should be brought to justice one day.
(quoted from http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/)
Raed’s post provides at least one Iraqi perspective here:
Caught between The East and The West
Friday, April 22, 2005
Ramadi, Madain, and the Infamous “Baath-Qaeda” Camp
A boy lies dead in a street in Ramadi, Iraq on Thursday, April 21, 2005. His body was found in a street near three smoldering cars after gunfire erupted in downtown Ramadi 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
No “immediate” information! why would they care aslan? it’s just a little boy in the middle of nowhere. A little terrorist project in Ramadi.
But seriously, why would anyone care who killed the little boy. He’s dead, with other tens of thousands, because of the ongoing illegal war. Whether the bullet was shot by a US soldier, or by someone fighting the foreign occupation of his country, both of them didn’t mean to kill the boy, but they killed him.
There are tens of thousands of Iraqis who are being killed, and all of them are falling because of the war and occupation. Whether the US military decided to be generous and admit they shot us or not, it’s still the responsibilty of occupation forces to maintain a safe life for the occupied populations.
I was telling one of my friends the other day: “We have enough documented cases that can put EVERYONE in the bush adminstration in jail for the next 250,000 years. The thing we need now is to bring the US under the jurisdiction of international laws”. Those murderers should be brought to justice one day.
(quoted from http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/)
Hello, I just wanted to say that I am very sorry for your loss. And I think that what you’re doing is a great thing. My class is studying different forms of mass media, and my presentation is about how TV affects the way people percieve war, and your stories are an exellent example. Thank you so much, and good luck.
04/22/05 Reuters: Iraq group threatens to kill Romania hostages
Insurgents gave Romania four days to withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to save the lives of three Romanian journalists kidnapped last month, Al Jazeera television reported on Friday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22572627.htm
Romanian reporters “LOOK WESTERN”. The Baath party is USING the journalists
04/22/05 Reuters: Car Bomb at Shi’ite Mosque in Baghdad Kills 10 (updated)
A car bomb blew up outside a Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad as prayers were ending on Friday, killing 10 people and wounding 15, Iraqi police said. The explosion occurred outside the al-Subeih mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district of the capital.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-04-22T132809Z01HOL245686RTRUKOC0_IRAQ-MOSQUE.xml
How does Al Jazeera cover this Sunni attack on a Shia mousque ?
Funny,
you don’t hear or read about Al Jazeera journalists being kidnapped and threatened with an allah approaved death sentence.
LOL
But they publish the fact one their own journalists is being indicted for being part of terrorist attacks in a Spanish court;
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0A0F579E-B769-4678-9791-F288FAC12531.htm
04/22/05 Reuters: Iraq group threatens to kill Romania hostages
Insurgents gave Romania four days to withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to save the lives of three Romanian journalists kidnapped last month, Al Jazeera television reported on Friday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22572627.htm
Romanian reporters “LOOK WESTERN”. The Baath party is USING the journalists
04/22/05 Reuters: Car Bomb at Shi’ite Mosque in Baghdad Kills 10 (updated)
A car bomb blew up outside a Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad as prayers were ending on Friday, killing 10 people and wounding 15, Iraqi police said. The explosion occurred outside the al-Subeih mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district of the capital.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-04-22T132809Z01HOL245686RTRUKOC0_IRAQ-MOSQUE.xml
How does Al Jazeera cover this Sunni attack on a Shia mousque ?
Funny,
you don’t hear or read about Al Jazeera journalists being kidnapped and threatened with an allah approaved death sentence.
LOL
But they publish the fact one their own journalists is being indicted for being part of terrorist attacks in a Spanish court;
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0A0F579E-B769-4678-9791-F288FAC12531.htm
Chris,
sorry to hear about her. She was my age… but what a wonderful story.
Juliana
RIP Marla Ruzckia. You left the comfort of living in the US to help ordinary Iraqis, which says alot about your humanity and your pure heart. May God bless your heart, and grant your parents strength to deal with your loss.
May she rest in peace. She earned it.
Marla was both heroic and a patriot.
It is terrribly important that the world - and Americans - know that one person can resist the fanatics who feel good about war.
Deeds speak.
Marla’s brief life shows us why the USA is not the evil empire of “Jennifer Peterson” and “Airedale” . May they one day feel ashamed of using a tragedy to spread lies and hate.
Martyrs may buy some time for the rest of us.
Music can help - listen to “American Woman” with the volume way up - this was not a Mother Theresa we are mourning !
Marla grew up in the next county from me. I had not heard of her until her tragic death. What a courageous young woman she was and what a bright light she appeared to be to all who knew her. Sorry you have lost your friend. Hope her work will continue.
She was a true hero. The world needs more people like Marla.
Airedale,
GAFB. People come here to read Chris’ reporting and readers intelligent, critical commentary, not your rantings.
Love,
-enragés
I’ll give her credit, she backed up her beliefs with actions.
You as a journalist know what is going on better than most of the people who are commenting here, the only other people are the Iraqis and the soldiers, and nobody is listening to them and reporting it in the news. I hope you’ll do your profession proud and keep getting the facts out. Stay Safe!
where the hell are you chris?
where the hell are you chris?
its been a while since your last post. hope you are safe and well…
Critique of CIVIC
As many of you probably already know, Marla Ruzicka, a young American woman known for her tireless efforts to document civilian casualties in Iraq and obtain US compensation for them, was killed by a suicide bomber while traveling near a convoy along the dangerous Baghdad airport road.
Ruzicka was truly inspiring in her willingness to take incomprehensible risks to assist some of the victims of the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. It must be said, however, that her political approach to the war in Iraq was fundamentally misguided, either because, as suggested within this very informative David Corn article, she acquiesced in the inevitability of the occupation, or actually came around to supporting the Occupation Authority against the resistance.
One need only visit the website of the organization that Ruzicka created, CIVIC Worldwide, to recognize the problem. CIVIC, you see, stands for “The Campaign for Innocent Civilians in Conflict.” Accordingly, it promotes the pernicious distinction between “innocent” Iraqis, Iraqis who decline to violently resist the occupation, and other, “guilty” Iraqis who do not. Such a perspective, coming from an American organization, is morally myopic, if not morally offensive, given that it condemns Iraqis for violently resisting their own personal and economic victimization by the Occupation Authority. It is indistinguishable from the one continually advanced by the US military.
Of course, this shouldn’t be surprising as it is the inevitable consequence of Ruzicka’s decision after the start of the war to sever her association with Global Exchange, a non-profit that organized against the war and now condemns the occupation, because she believed that she could subsequently accomplish more by working with the US rather than against it. It is tempting to dismiss the significance of her politics as the result of her political naiveté. After all, according to Corn, she reportedly told a friend, “My long-term goal is to get a desk at the State Department that looks at civilian casualties.”
Perhaps I am subjecting Ruzicka’s decision to excessive scrutiny. It is crucial to understand, however, that her implicit belief, and by extension, the founding principle of CIVIC, that one can most effectively assist the Iraqi people by remaining silent about the self-serving justifications for the war and the brutality of the occupation, so that one can obtain the assistance of the Occupation Authority, is not only false, but as pernicious as CIVIC’s separation of dead Iraqis into “innocent” and “guilty” ones.
In fact, others have been quite effective in Iraq without compromising their willingness to speak the truth about what is happening there. Last fall, Simona Toretta, a young Italian women nearly the same age as Ruzicka, was kidnapped and then subsequently released. She worked for A Bridge to Baghdad, an organization known for its outspoken condemnation of the sanctions, the war and the occupation, and she strongly shared these views. Upon her release, she supported the right of Iraqis to violently resist the occupation. Despite her bluntness, she reached many Iraqis through her humanitarian efforts, efforts that were arguably more effective than Ruzicka’s.
Likewise, Global Exchange, her previous organization, has effectively delivered aid to Iraq even as it continues to criticize the occupation from within the US. Ruzicka could not have escaped awareness of these obvious alternatives. Corn quotes a friend as saying, “Marla had no patience for people who demonstrated against the war, and did nothing else,” and the remark strikes the ear as more defensive rationalization than sincere indignation.
Could it be that Ruzicka succumbed to the psychologically reassuring feeling that she was more secure in Iraq when working with the occupation, despite all the evidence? If so, her inability to overcome a natural, instinctive tendency to feel more secure among one’s own may have ultimately killed her, as the resistance monitors and targets people who work with the US. One cannot avoid the tragic irony: Her alter ego, Toretta, refused to accept the constricting boundaries of pragmatism, spoke her mind and refused to compromise, thereby harmonizing her political and humanitarian goals, and still lives. Ruzicka made a Faustian bargain with the Occupation Authority, and tragically died.
Richard Estes lives in Northern California, and co-hosts a radio program, with an emphasis on peace, civil rights, labor and environmental issues, on 90.3 FM in Davis, CA. This article was originally published by the American Leftist.
“By the way, I live in Europe. I have never met very many anti-Americans or those who seriously think the liberation of the Iraqi Shiites was a bad thing.”
WTF Jennifer??
Which Europe do you live in??
I’m presently in the UK, and have spent much time travelling Europe and the world - if you really beleive that Europeans support the US and the war on Iraq, than you’re very sadly misguided, or don’t get out into the “Real World” very often.
9/11 has done nothing for the reputation US soldiers, how can you make such bold statements?
9/11 also had nothing to do with Iraq.
If Europe was so supportive of the war, then how come France & Germany stayed out of it?
My wife went to France last year, (she’s Canadian) - and she met an American couple in a train station in Paris, the American couple had to pretend they were Canadian, for most of their trip, as they were not welcome if it was known they were from the US!
I think I feel the same way as many people in Europe, we are not anti-US as such, just very much astounded and against your present governments foreign policies.
I never cease to be amazed that some people can defend the actions of suicide bombers and believe they are doing something for the “peace effort”. There’s never a valid excuse for killing anyone for any reason other than immediate self-defense, and even that should be highly scrutinized.
And speaking of body counts, has anyone come up with an official body count from the Saddam Hussein era? Apparently just last week they found another 1,500 bodies of Kurds in a mass grave in Northern Iraq, many of which were those of children.
Anyone who wants to talk seriously about peace should be urging all sides to put down their arms.
Richard, your theory is all wet.
Marla Ruzicka was not kidnapped and killed, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by some murderer with a view of the target area and a cellphone. I doubt he even knew who was in the car, his only goal is to cause casualties and sow terror. Yet to hear you talk, you conflate him as
As for another woman being kidnapped but due to her outspoken anti-occupation views, is released so she can contine to criticize the occupation, why am I not surprised? If she’d be trying to restore water, sewage facilities, or electricity to Iraq, she’d probably be in captivity or dead. But at least she meets your moral standard.
From what I can see, Ruzicka was tryingto get help for the Iraqis by whatever legal means she could, and she probably did more good for them than any critic of the occupation did. Most war protesters are merely all talk, they stand outside a recruiting office or an embassy and wave signs, then get in their cars and drive home on IED free streets, then congratulate themselves on their moral courage while living in a home that has 24 hour a day electricity. What does that accomplish for the average Iraqi?
There is something to be said for pragmatism; it yields tangible results. The Iraqis care far less about political affiliation than you do, Richard. Then again, they probably aren’t your target audience.
I never knew of her before her death, and I regret that. Reading about her and how influencial she was makes me happy, I’m a “young person” myself and would love to help the world like she did.