From the L.A. Daily News Sat paper:
Man Found Fatally Shot near hospital A tanker truck driver was found shot to death in Willowbrook on Friday after he called his dispatcher several times to say he was being shot at by someone following him on the 105 freeway, authorities said.
The victim, shot in the upper body, was found about 4:50 a.m., on a sidewalk near 118th street and Wilmington Ave, a block or so from Los Angeles County King-Drew Medical Center, authorities said. The tanker truck was parked nearby.
Attempted truck-jacking gone badly?
Here's some more info:
A truck driver who had repeatedly radioed his dispatcher early Friday that someone was shooting at him from another vehicle was found dead next to his truck in Willowbook.
Steven Nguyen, 31, of Westminster was shot multiple times in the chest and was found on the sidewalk just before 5 a.m., said Sheriff's Deputy Josie Woolum.
"We don't know if he was pulled out of his truck or if he got out voluntarily," Woolum said.
Nguyen had hauled fuel for Beneto Bulk Transport for five years, a company employee said. He is survived by his wife and 1-year-old son.
He was en route from Long Beach to Sylmar when he began calling his dispatcher at 4:20 a.m. to say he was being fired upon, Woolum said.
During the next 30 minutes, he drove from the westbound Gardena Freeway to the northbound Harbor Freeway to the eastbound Century Freeway. He exited at Wilmington Avenue.
Sheriff's deputies received a 911 call from the Beneto dispatcher and arrived to find Nguyen's body on Wilmington Avenue, a block from King/Drew Medical Center.
Officials closed the Harbor and Century freeways for almost two hours to search for shell casings.
Woolum called the shooting "very scary, very tragic." Anyone with information has been asked to call the sheriff's homicide bureau at (323) 890-5500.
Woolum also warned motorists to be "extremely cautious."
"If someone is shooting at you … pull right into a sheriff's station, a fire station, a place of safety," Woolum said. "Never pull off to the side of the road and confront somebody."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1149223/posts
The UN sex for food scandal and Abu Ghraib
Peter Jenkins
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 7 June 2004
The Independent has recently reported that UN peacekeeping forces in the Congo have been raping and impregnating girls as young as thirteen years old in exchange for food.
Recently, I penned an article concerning the response of the left wing press to the execution of Nicholas Berg. The response ranged from not reporting the story at all to blaming the incident on the United States and Israel ? the favorite straw men of the Left.
The Left continues to carp on Abu Ghraib even though some of the soldiers have been punished while others still face trial. The Left wants a pound of flesh in the form of resignations from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for starters.
This would only undermine the Bush Administration and that is precisely what the Left wants. How else to explain the rantings of Senator Edward Kennedy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and most recently former Vice President Al Gore in his infamous address in front of MoveOn.org at New York University? If it did not harm the Bush Administration, the Left would not have shed a tear for the prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Those who might doubt this conclusion need look no further than the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire) at the disgraceful behaviour of the United Nations peacekeeping force in that country. Known as MONUC (UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo), it was recently revealed by the UK newspaper The Independent that MONUC soldiers have been raping and impregnating girls as young as thirteen years old in exchange for food. The MONUC soldiers are from Morocco and Uruguay.
Kate Holt and Sarah Hughes, who co-authored the article, interviewed more than thirty girls who disclosed that they had been raped by the soldiers. Testimony from one girl named Faela is particularly chilling:
If I go and see the soldiers at night and sleep with them, then they give me food, maybe a banana or a cake,? she says, looking down at her son. ?I have to do it with them because there is nobody to care, nobody else to protect Joseph except me. He is all I have and I must look after him.
Faela is only thirteen years old.
These girls live in a camp for displaced person in Bunia that was set up by Atlas, an NGO, under UN supervision. Many of them came from the Ituri province, in the northeast of the country, which has been devastated by ethnic strife. Many of these girls are without families and have no one to feed, shelter and protect them. NGO workers seem afraid of the MONUC soldiers and are unwilling to help those who are most vulnerable. One relief worker who spoke to Holt and Hughes on the condition of anonymity said:
Yes, we know that girls go and visit the UN soldiers every night. There is nothing to stop them, and the girls need food. It is best to keep quiet, though. I am frightened that if I say something I may lose my job, and I have children of my own to feed.
While the UN has announced an internal investigation into the matter there is little reason to be optimistic. First of all, since the girls are "internally displaced persons" they do not come under the mandate of the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). As for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), its head Matteo Frontini, while concerned with the girls, said, "[T]here is an urgent need for more UN agencies to be operational in Bunia, as well as an increased response from the Congolese government."
Well, Frontini did not name the UN agencies he thought should be involved and given that the Congolese government is in the midst of a civil war, don?t count on them to be forthcoming with assistance.
Surely, one would think that the rape of girls in a refugee camp would warrant the same level of attention as abuse of terrorists in a prison. But so far Senator Kennedy, House Minority Leader Pelosi and former Vice President Gore, who can't talk enough about Abu Ghraib, fall silent when it comes to girls being raped by UN peacekeepers.
So far left wing periodicals such as The Nation, The Progressive, The American Prospect and Mother Jones have also been silent, choosing to focus on Abu Ghraib.
And I thought the Left cared about the rights of women and girls and opposed their exploitation. So why the silence concerning the Congo? I can think of three reasons:
A) The Left cannot find the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a map.
B) The Left believes that the UN is above criticism.
C) The Left cannot blame the United States or Israel for the rape of the Congolese girls.
The first reason admittedly is a bit of an exaggeration, of course. But given their tunnel vision concerning the Middle East it is not far from the truth. The second reason has been demonstrated amply in recent years, with the Left looking upon the UN as a sacrosanct organization that need not be accountable for its action. The Left looked the other way as the UN has fumbled its way in Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia and most notably in Rwanda.
As for the third reason, you can bet that if the incident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo involved Americans and Israelis it would make the front page of the New York Times everyday for a month as Abu Ghraib has done. But in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Al Gore has no one to admonish with a "How dare they." Ted Kennedy will not criticize the management of Congolese displacement camps. Nancy Pelosi will not declare that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to be incompetent.
No one should have a monopoly on caring for our fellow man. But in America, the only persons and organizations that have drawn attention are the Fox News Channel, Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online and Andrew Sullivan.
Once again, I am left to shake my head and am forced to ask: Where's the Outrage?
My Comment: One might also ask since the Vatican was so quick to jump on the Abu Ghraib scandal, why has it been so silent about this scandal? Well, maybe Bono will five the Pope a new pair of sunglasses.