Iraq Car Bomb Kills American Activist

Associated Press ^ | 4/17/05 | Associated Press

[jimbo123]

SAN FRANCISCO - A woman who founded a humanitarian group to aid civilian casualties in Iraq has died in a car bombing in Baghdad, officials said Sunday.

Marla Ruzicka, founder of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, died Saturday in the blast, which also killed an Iraqi and another foreigner, officials said. She had been in Iraq conducting door-to-door surveys trying to determine the number of civilian casualties in the country.

Ruzicka, 28, founded CIVIC in 2003 to "mitigate the impact of the conflict and its aftermath on the people of Iraq by ensuring that timely and effective life-saving assistance is provided to those in need," according to the group's Web site.

Ruzicka's parents said Sunday they were notified of her death just hours after the explosion. U.S. Embassy officials publicly released Ruzicka's name Sunday.

"We've been very worried about her but we know better than to tell our children not to do anything. We were supportive and just reminded her to be careful," said her mother, Nancy Ruzicka, of Lakeport.

She said her daughter had left her a telephone message the night before her death that said, "Mom and dad, I love you. I'm OK."

"She cared about people and gave people her love and help," Nancy Ruzicka said. "I'll remember the love she spread around the world and the good ambassador that she was for her country."

Ruzicka got her start working for non-governmental organizations 10 years ago at the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange.

"It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war," said Medea Benjamin, the group's director.

[Southack]

"Because Cuba?s Communist social and economic structure satisfied Ms. Benjamin?s own political leanings, her move to that island nation initially made her feel ?like I died and went to heaven.? She was deported, however, after writing an anti-government article in the Communist-run newspaper for which she worked."

...after Cuban spooks figured out that she needed a good cover story before she was assigned to the Great Satan.

[BillF]

Quoting the article:

Ruzicka got her start working for non-governmental organizations 10 years ago at the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange.

"It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war," said Medea Benjamin, the group's director. [emphasis added]

AP calls Global Exchange a "human rights group." AP should describe it as a left-wing anti-capitalist group.

I wonder if the car bomb components were purchased by terrorists trading some of the supplies that Medea Benjamin is so proud of providing to "the other side" (her words) in Fallujah.

[BJungNan]

Thanks for directing me to Post 23. Interesting. I think I clicked on the second article.

She is quoted as saying she was not taking a side in the war. And this I believe was in an article written prior to her death (I'll have to go back and check it again).

Myself, I'm not sure what good it does to document the dead in the conflict other than I suppose it might make the families feel better to know someone they lost has been counted.

At any rate, I don't think she is one that was helping terrorist smuggle bombs through a tunnel. Seems whatever she was doing it was noble.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Bull's-eye!

[beyond the sea]

You're right. After I put up the post I realised it was a useless comparison, if it were taken that way.

;-)

[MeekOneGOP]

She knew who Benjamin was/is - Benjamin and her scummy traitors raised cash from America-hating radicals and foreign enemies and provided it to A-Q

Every penny they raised and gave was one more penny terrorists used to kill US troops, coalition troops, and civilians .....

Well, there it is! In a nutshell.

I'll have to find that post of the pic you mentioned, Selkie.

Thanks, folks. :)

[sgtbono2002]

The consensus seems to be that this woman was up to no good for the USA, In that case I wish her a happy AMF.

[tgslTakoma]

I wonder if the car bomb components were purchased by terrorists trading some of the supplies that Medea Benjamin is so proud of providing to "the other side" (her words) in Fallujah.

I wondered the same thing, Bill. Oh, the irony.

[propertius]

Every western woman driving around in Baghdad wears that on her head. It is a form of disguise not an affirmation of faith.

[propertius]

Thank you.

[YOUGOTIT]

She was in the process of trying to make out military out to be murderers.

[Rummyfan]

Bump!

[jimfree]

God rest her soul. She was trying to give comfort to others.

That's what I got out of this. She was a lib but an honest and useful one who was trying to help.

[Old Sarge]

No apologies needed - from reports we get from theater, the Left has returned, thinking that if they can't be human shields anymore, they can do some real damage.

[MeekOneGOP]

..... The Iraqi people lost a minimum--a minimum--of 300,000 to the murderous Saddam Hussein--

But Marla Ruzicka was bent upon defeating the liberators of the Iraqi people--hence her death was an instance of friendly fire.

Every Iraqi family has a story to tell of family members raped, tortured, imprisoned, murdered, or simply "disappeared" by Saddam Hussein--

--but Marla Ruzicka was not gathering data on that monstrous crime against humanity--

She was engaged in propaganda warfare to weaken the forces of democracy and strengthen the hand of the terrorists.

Another foot soldier in the Soros-Communist global war on freedom--and now a martyr to terrorism.

Ironic that she had railed in print against U.S. "smart bombs" gone awry--

bump! ping! bump!

[lowbridge]

bump