Two CBS Journalists Missing In Basra

BAGHDAD — Two CBS News journalists were missing in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Basra, the network said Monday.

CBS said all efforts were under way to find the journalists, who were not identified by the network. It requested "that others do not speculate on the identities of those involved" until more information was available.

Iraqi police said the journalists were taken away Sunday after masked gunmen entered the Sultan Palace Hotel in central Basra. The police spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

"CBS News has been in touch with the families and asks that their privacy be respected," the network added in a brief statement from CBS Corp. headquarters in New York.

Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, has seen fierce fighting between rival Shiite militias as part of a power struggle in the oil-rich south.

The British military turned over responsibility for the province to Iraqis in December, but maintains forces near Basra, about 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "deeply concerned for the safety of our colleagues, and hope they are located swiftly and able to resume their important work covering this critical story."

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said: "Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists and the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. Journalists face incalculable risks in ord er to bring us the news about what is happening on the ground there."

Comments

[HDR]

Can anyone shed any light on who the two missing journalists are? Also, it seems odd that the story has not been referenced today. Interesting is the respect to privacy for one (or two) of their own but the rest of the 'newsmakers' are fair game.

[Savanarola]

This is alarming and no joke but I can't resist:

120 CBS journalists missing in America.

[tumblewind]

I thought the British left Basra last year. So I Googled it and sure enough they vacated the area in August. Leaving it in the throes of a civil war. It's been chaos for women ever since. That can't be good for journalist's who are missing.

[ceasenake]

Big mistake - they were in the British "controlled" area. Maybe they didn't get the memo that the Brits are hiding out from all possible "unplesantness".

[gcallaghan]

I wish these unknown journalists a safe outcome. Precious little truth about Iraq makes its way to the world's consciousness without the administration discrediting it or seeking to castrate the messengers.

[ricchase]

I understand the anguish CBS and the families must feel. However, just because it is one of "your own" is no justification for withholding information as basic as the identities of the news people at issue. ABC did the same thing with the accident that claimed John McGuenthy recently. If it were me, my family would not be spared by CBS or any other news outlet.

[BushBites]

Question: Why are Fox News reporters never killed in Iraq.

Answer: Because they never go there.

[Boobaloo]

Those are not journalists.

Those are professional crooks & liars and if they'd done their job they wouldn't have to be in such dangerous place.

[lippp]

Now is a good time for Laura Ingram to get her butt over there and broadcast from Irag since she has criticized the media for downplaying how safe it is. Come on Laura, do your thing over there. And while you are at it, howabout foregoing your health insurance like so many Americans have to do. Let's see how healthy you remain in country that provides only adequate to good coverage to the haves and minimal to none to the have nots. No Cheney Health for you unless we all get it.

[esgabel]

Where is the humanity in any of these posts? We so want to make a political point that we forget there are families here and in Iraq that are hoping against hope that these people come back alive. Hate is real and it festers, it is up to each one of us to stop the hate and use cogent debate--we have got to get beyond this...

[UncleJimbo]

esgabel,I weep for Iraq! Because what we have done to that country is so immoral,so evil sometimes I just can't believe it...but if you search (and you do have to search!) for the pictures of the horror,then you believe it! The real problem is and let me put it bluntly 50% of Americans don't give a shit about anyone who is not an American and the other 50% don't know how to make them care!

[esgabel]

I weep for both countries.­..although I think we have lost more. We went into an ill advised war at best, we didn't listen to Turkey and Jordan, we didn't listen to our officers or the British officers, we disbanded the Army and Police Force and let them wander with guns and ammunition, we held elections too early, and we allowed Iraq to become an Islamist State, there is so much more, but most of all we gave up our principals--we used pre-emptive war, we tortured, we broke and subverted our own laws.
This is not the America I believe in--this is not the America that my grandparents believed in...we must do something. Snarkiness, partisanship and hate solve nothing.

[KOisGod]

Bushcon goes to Iraq to steal their oil. Didn't bother to check that these bedoins are still stuck in the 13th century and have a hatred of Westerners that predates the Crusades. They are still avenging the deaths and betrayals of tribe on the other side of the horizone.

[Boobaloo]

Uhm ... I would really hate for factual and historical information to interfere with your stupidity but Iraq was among the most modern, secular & prosperous nations before Bush Co Senior demolished it and the Bedoin are a different ethnic group entirely from the Iraqis.

Nope, no one in Arabia hated the West until after 1947.

Strangly it was about the exact same time Israel was created, armed and unleashed to commit genocide.

Only truthful part of your lame comment is that Bush went in there to steal their oil.

Bush also went in there because God spoke to him and told him that Israel needs to be most powerful and that starts by demolishing Iran and then Iran and then Pakistan after that.

[Careful]

Genocide? The Palestinian population is growing by leaps and bounds, but you say Israel engages in genocide? You can say a lot about their treatment of Palestinians, but genocide? Of course, you're not anti-semitic. You're only anti-Israel. Riiiight.

[GhostintheMachine]

Just how much oil have we stolen?

[gcallaghan]

Dunno exactly. But, I'd venture a bet that we don't have it all yet.

[geobushono]

volunteering to go to iraq is failing the darwin test.

[grisgris]

I think you're wrong.
I think a journalist who goes to a war zone like Iraq to bring us the news of what's happening first hand is a brave person who is doing something that benefits us all. We need to know what's happening there and the journalists try to show us. I'm sure these people know their lives are in danger every second they spend in Iraq. Their fate may be the same as journalist Daniel Pearl's. (Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded on camera.) They knew the risks and still they made the choice to go. I am grateful for their work, I hope and pray they will be freed safely and I won't be surprised if they are killed. But, they didn't "fail the darwin (sic) test". Failing the Darwin test is spending every day on your couch in your trailer watching "Judge Judy" and "Springer" and stepping out in front of an 18 wheeler and biting the big one while walking up the highway to the "Pic-N-Save" to get another 6 pack of "Old Milwaukee" and a pack of "Kools".

[esgabel]

I keep thinking about what John Meacham (sp?)from Newsweek was saying about the reporters he has on the ground in Iraq and who put their lives on the line everyday--we take it for granted and are flip. They are brave. Think about the last image Marianne and Danny Pearl's parents have to remember or imagine--how do you live with that and not go insane?
How do we live with knowing how our millitary are mentally and physically impaired when they come home, if they come home. If we really cared we would all be working to put an end to this mess and take care of those who fought so hard for us...

[geobushono]

conventional style would have me capitalize the first word-volunteering-.
and -iraq-.
and darwin........but your correction pen came out only for the proper noun. Why is that?

[zendem1]

I'm sure they're just off somewhere drunk. The White House has assured us that the surge is working! Now..back to gay marriage..

[CjAzure]

I keep hearing about how the surge is working and then I keep reading about suicide bombers killing iraqi civilians , troops being killed, troops killing themselves, endless victims to an endless war! Now this too. Nothing about this war is working for the good of anybody! I hope the best for these people and that the horror that is this war will be brought to an end. Enough already!

[GhostintheMachine]

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — A gunman with a history of acrimony against civic leaders stormed City Hall during a council meeting Thursday night, killing two police officers and three other people before law enforcers fatally shot him, authorities said. The mayor...


I guess the surge isn't working here either.

[GhostintheMachine]

New Orleans, LA - 2006; 67.5 (154 murders; population 228,000 [2])

Iraq's violent death rate in 2006 was 56.49 per 100,000 residents (16,273 deaths, and a population per Wiki of 28,807,000).


New Orleans had a higher murder rate then the death rate in Iraq, maybe we need the surge here.

[grisgris]

Actually, we still have some National Guard "helping" NOPD here in New Orleans. Horror stories abound about them and most of us are more leery of them than we are our own somewhat scary police force.

[Lalo]

Two missing? Who cares! The Clinton shake up has so much more juice...!

Ariana, the Hater-in-Chief, is always true to form.

[SubparDude]

:
You mean "The surgeon is working?!"
:

[SShaw490]

Just more proof we need a new surge. As soon as we get that draft working and pick up a couple of hundred thousand new guys, we'll go over there and find those journalists.

This is long past being a political question - it's simple reality: No amount of American military investment can make traditional enemies into friends who'll go off into sunrise of democracy holding hands.

[munster]

How about those Romey boys - they don't have much to do now.