Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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RIP Aziz and Yousuf
May 18, 2007 9:51 AM
This morning we got horrible news (LINK) -- two of our reporters in Baghdad were killed.
Cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, were returning home from work at the ABC News Baghdad bureau Thursday afternoon when, according to our Baghdad correspondent Terry McCarthy, they were stopped by two cars full of gunmen. Their deaths were confirmed this morning.
During my time in Baghdad last February/March, I got to know Aziz a bit. He could come back from a shoot, smoking cigarettes, nervously amazed at how violent the country was becoming. Neighborhoods that were once safe were devolving into anarchy.
He hated it. He hated what was happening to Iraq.
And he thought it ridiculous, as I recall, to listen to American generals talk about how much progress was being made, when it clearly wasn't…the semantic debates -- is it a civil war? Is it sectarian strife? -- particularly irked him, as I recall.
No one wanted the country to become safe and secure more than he did.
Not President Bush, not Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Despite the inane babblings of some commentators, journalism in Baghdad is almost never done from the safety of the Green Zone (which is not traditionally "safe," at any rate). And for whatever boldness the job requires from Western reporters, the unsung heroes are the Arab crews, who go to places where a white Westerner cannot, and are targets of violence in a way that would blow your mind if you know about it -- which is to say if the US media paid as much attention to the deaths of non-American journalists.
They are brave men (and women, but usually men) who are there to do their jobs, to show the world reality, truth. Not military spin. Not political posturing to do well in the Iowa caucuses. Not clueless arrogance. Truth.
Aziz leaves behind a wife and two daughters. Yousuf was engaged to be married within the next few weeks.
Rest in peace. --jpt
May 18, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)
Spock states that "... politics should be out when it comes to life lost(sic)". Politics (and unfathomable stupidity) is what got "the coalition of the Willing(sic)" into the quagmire of Iraq in the first place. Politics should clearly be put aside sometimes. This is NOT one of those times.
Posted by: sophillyfatz | May 21, 2007 9:14:48 PM
God Bless the two Reporters and their Families. That is all I will say here because Politics should be out when it comes to life lost.
Posted by: spock | May 21, 2007 4:32:14 PM
sophillyfatz said it well. I'm still waiting to learn what steps George Bush has taken to encourage his daughters to join the military and ship out to Iraq to participate in this most essential war.
Posted by: DKNY | May 21, 2007 10:03:12 AM
Jake -- it's so important for people to realize the work of photographers and all the "behind the camera" people in the news business. it's all the more important when they lose their lives in the service of journalism. thanks for giving the ABC team the recognition they deserve.
Posted by: Rebecca Cooper | May 20, 2007 10:06:37 PM
Appropriate emotion and sadness on your part. Two MORE dead good guys, dying for an uncertain purpose. And the killing goes on, with over 3400 American servicemen and countless Iraqis
dead. Tell that to Lieberman and all his Republican (and Democratic Party) friends who want the carnage to continue with no end in sight.
Posted by: sophillyfatz | May 19, 2007 6:16:17 PM
Please accept my condolences for the loss of two brave reporters, whom I'm sure made your time in Iraq worthwhile. It's truly sad that such good people are lost to the most senseless of violent acts, a true example of the banality of evil.
Posted by: chuck | May 18, 2007 11:51:52 AM
Thank you for this moving account. Very tragic.
Posted by: cordelia525 | May 18, 2007 11:41:43 AM
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