A Steven Vincent Blogburst

"On August 2, 2005, the independent journalist Steven Vincent was murdered in Basra. A supporter of Iraqi democratization, Vincent had been reporting from Iraq for two years. Just before his murder, he had published a piece in the New York Times noting the increasingly dangerous activities in Basra of extremist Shiite militias, and it is reasonable to believe that that piece led to his murder at the hands of the thugs he was attempting to expose.

In the days following his death, however, Vincent was smeared by Juan Cole, the bizarre Michigan academic. Cole, who knew nothing more about the circumstances of Vincent's death than were printed in the newspapers, nevertheless offered his groundless speculations about the "real" reasons for his murder. In the process, he demeaned the memory of a far braver and better-informed man than himself. "
IraqiPundit