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2 U.S. Civilians Executed In Iraq [More info]
CBS News ^ | 3/10/04

Posted on 03/10/2004 8:10:47 PM PST by saquin

(CBS/AP) Gunmen shot to death two Americans and their Iraqi translator south of Baghdad, and the Polish military said Wednesday that the attackers were disguised as police and stopped the car at a roadblock.

The American victims were the first U.S. civilians from the occupation authority to be killed in Iraq.

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather reports one of the Americans killed in the ambush was Fern Holland, 33, program manager for women's initiatives in Iraq.

Holland was working with Iraqi women on the newly developed Iraqi constitution and was leading women's rights efforts in the part of the country where she was killed.

The way it happened, reports Rather, suggests that anti-American forces have adopted new tactics of disguise and deception.

Thirty-five miles south of Baghdad, on the road to the town of Hillah, the two American civilian employees of the Department of Defense and their Iraqi translator were executed by terrorists disguised as Iraqi police manning a fake checkpoint.

Polish coalition forces later arrested five suspects still driving the Americans' car with the bodies hidden inside.

"It's a great tragedy and our hearts go out to the relatives of those killed," said L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator in Iraq.

Bremer has requested that the FBI investigate the slayings of the Americans said Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

In the slaying, it was not yet known whether the gunmen were specifically targeting coalition officials. "We're starting to form views on that," Senor said.

Senor said some reported details of the attack were incorrect, but would not elaborate. He did not identify the dead, pending notification of their families.

It was also unclear if the Americans were traveling with security, and coalition guidelines discourage staffers from movements after dark. The roads around Hillah have seen a number of attacks on vehicles, some fatal, including the Feb. 14 killing of an American civilian.

An Army colonel working for the coalition was killed Oct. 26, when insurgents fired a barrage of rockets at Baghdad's Al-Rasheed hotel while Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was visiting. Fifteen people were wounded, and Wolfowitz escaped unharmed.


Fern Holland (Photo: CBS)


Fern Holland, 33, program manager for women's initiatives in Iraq, was killed in an ambush Monday, March 9, 2004.  (Photo: CBS)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: civiliancontractors; fbi; fernholland; innocentcivilians; iraq; iraqiwomen
It was also reported that the Iraqi translator was a women. So the attackers killed three innocent civilians, 2 of them women. What f***ing cowards. I wonder what John Pilger thinks of these brave elements of "the resistance."
1 posted on 03/10/2004 8:10:48 PM PST by saquin
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To: saquin
2 U.S. Civilians Executed MURDERED In Iraq
2 posted on 03/10/2004 8:14:13 PM PST by old-ager
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Polish coalition forces later arrested five suspects still driving the Americans' car

Good start.

3 posted on 03/10/2004 8:23:48 PM PST by amom
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To: saquin
Hey.....Kerry.....Take this and stuff it up your arse!!!
4 posted on 03/10/2004 8:26:48 PM PST by goodnesswins (The Democrat "Funeral" is on.....dum..dum..di...dum.)
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To: old-ager
Yeah, the headline makes it look like the Americans killed committed a crime.
5 posted on 03/10/2004 8:33:05 PM PST by #3Fan (Kerry to POW-MIA activists: "You'll wish you'd never been born.". Link on my homepage.)
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To: saquin
Pilger is probably delighted. To people like him, the greater the brutality and depravity they can get away with justifying, the more power they have. Pilger, Fisk, Moore and others like them are sons of Satan. The entire media left subculture is a mental disease driven by auto-erotic sado-masochism.
6 posted on 03/10/2004 8:33:20 PM PST by atomic conspiracy (A few words for the media: Julius Streicher; follow his path, share his fate.)
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To: old-ager
2 U.S. Civilians Executed MURDERED In Iraq

My sentiments exactly!

7 posted on 03/10/2004 8:37:41 PM PST by easonc52
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To: saquin
Why do the leftys make exscuses for these terrorist bastards while calling conservatives murderers?

This woman was killed for promoting womens rights..there is no doubt.
8 posted on 03/10/2004 8:44:37 PM PST by mylife
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To: Bartholomew Roberts
One victim is named in the article above.

She is mentioned on page 8 at the Iraq Women's Conference Report of Oct 2003

9 posted on 03/10/2004 8:45:00 PM PST by amom
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To: #3Fan
Now I wonder why the media would want to paint it in that light.....hmmm...
10 posted on 03/10/2004 8:46:45 PM PST by Blue Scourge (Off I go into the Wild Blue Yonder...)
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To: Blue Scourge
Yeah, I looked at the source before I posted my post and figured it may not have been unintentional.
11 posted on 03/10/2004 8:49:52 PM PST by #3Fan (Kerry to POW-MIA activists: "You'll wish you'd never been born.". Link on my homepage.)
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To: old-ager
Teen Executed in D.C.

Youth Found Shot Behind Northeast School
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2004; 6:24 PM

A 17-year-old Northeast Washington resident was fatally shot this morning outside a school that is under construction in Northeast Washington, police said.

Police identified the youth as Devaun Drayton, of the 1900 block of M Street Northeast. He was shot at least once in the upper body, they said, and found about 10:50 a.m. in the rear parking lot of Phelps Vocational School, a facility that is under construction in the 700 block of 26th Street NE.

He was transported to the Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:40 a.m. Police had no immediate suspects or motives.

Authorities said they had no indication that the youth attended any of the D.C. public schools in the area. Security was tightened at those buildings as a precaution, police said.

12 posted on 03/10/2004 8:58:02 PM PST by TheDon (John Kerry, self proclaimed war criminal, Democratic Presidential nominee)
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To: amom; not-alone; optimistically_conservative
Prayers for the families of those lost.

I know the other fatality would not be my brother now based on this article. Thank you.

My brother is a director for an environmental company now that he retired from the Air Force and is tasked with cleaning up hazardous waste sites of all types. Also travelling the roads, from Basra to Baghdad and plenty in between.

He's really busy there right now and hasn't (can't?) communicated with us here for a while.

Thanks all for your notes!

13 posted on 03/10/2004 9:25:46 PM PST by Bartholomew Roberts
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To: Bartholomew Roberts
may God bless & protect your brother & all those working on behalf of this country and for freedom for the iraqi people.
14 posted on 03/10/2004 11:08:10 PM PST by kim r.
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To: amom
Polish forces--this is a unilateral affair! Kidding aside, very sad to hear about the people being executed though.
15 posted on 03/10/2004 11:28:11 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: saquin
F()K them!

I'm sad that a good person was killed!

Where is Chuck Crap Schumer, his associate, and her filthy daughter Chealsea?

I WILL ALWAYS REMIND ALL THAT CHELSEA IS A PIECE OF S$%T!

UP YOURS HILLARY!!!!!!!!!!

16 posted on 03/10/2004 11:35:50 PM PST by RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS
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