Few people outside the media biz ever look at bylines. I always do, even when there's little chance that I know the writer. It's just basic courtesy and appreciation, like applauding at the end of a good show even if you don't know the performers. But this Knight Ridder story, "Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms," had a double byline -- Tom Lasseter and Yasser Salihee -- and an extra jolt:
Salihee was a special correspondent. He was shot and killed last week in Baghdad in circumstances that remain unclear.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed that 23 journalists have been killed so far this year, nine in Iraq. Mr. Salihee hasn't made the CPJ list yet.
While it's easy for non-journos to mock the working press -- and, indeed, there is plenty to mock -- there's also the need for respect and recognition of their quest to bring us as much of the truth as they can manage. The KR team found, in less than a week, "more than 30" cases of Sunni men killed in a similar manner after being detained by men in police uniforms. There are now 700-800 "suspicious deaths" per month recorded in the Baghdad morgue. Whether it's Shiite police officers indulging in some sectarian revenge, or insurgents dressed as Iraqi cops ("You can buy a police uniform in 20 different places in the market" a U.S. official is quoted), it doesn't look like progress, "uneven" or otherwise.
Mr. Salihee's last story about the mess we've made in Iraq is a good one. Is his sacrifice worth it?
UPDATE: Knight Ridder now has a story on the investigation into the death of Yasser Salihee, who was apparently killed by a U.S. sniper. Dr. Salihee, formerly a physician at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital, is survived by his wife and their young daughter.
Knight Ridder Baghdad Bureau Chief Hannah Allam recently wrote of Salihee: "We weren't really looking for reporters at the time, but Yasser's impeccable English and sunny personality made him too hard to pass up. We hired him and took great delight in watching him blossom into one of our best reporters, the one who accompanied us to militant mosques and talked his way into insurgent-controlled Fallujah."
In the last story he worked on, Salihee used his medical expertise to review records of Sunnis brought to city morgues after reportedly being taken by men in police uniforms.