September 9, 2009

Fortunes of War: 1 NY Times Reporter Free. 1 British Soldier, 1 Translator, 1 Woman, 1 Child Dead

“I’m out! I’m free!” -- Farrell to Susan Chira, the foreign editor of The Times
....

Times Reporter Is Freed in Afghan Raid That Kills Aide - NYTimes.com

In the darkness, they ran along the wall for 60 feet or so, and then Mr. Munadi put up his hands and walked into the open, calling “journalist, journalist!” Gunfire broke out and he fell, Mr. Farrell said, just a couple of feet away.

“He was three seconds away from safety,” Mr. Farrell said. “I thought we were safe. He just walked into a hail of bullets.”

Farrell, a veteran journalist, was kidnapped once before while reporting in Iraq in 2004.

A British commando died in the operation, the country's defense ministry said without offering further details. Crossfire during the raid also killed a woman and a child....
Farrell was working on a story for the New York Times about US culpability in civilian deaths when he was
taken hostage Saturday along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz when they went to cover a German-ordered airstrike of two hijacked fuel tankers. The bombing, carried out by U.S. jets, caused a number of civilian casualties. -- BostonHerald.com
Keeping with their policy, the Times kept a lid on the story, lest press coverage add more zeroes to a potential ransom. That's the same thing they did with David Rohde, who escaped his terrifying captors last June. -- Gawker

Well, I certainly hope Mr. Farrell got a story before becoming the story. He's getting to be very expensive, as well as dangerous to those around him.

Posted by Vanderleun at September 9, 2009 9:08 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

*Farrell was working on a story for the New York Times about US culpability in civilian deaths when he was ...*

Perhaps he has a different take on "U.S. culpability" now.

Maybe that's too much to hope for.

Posted by: teresa at September 9, 2009 10:04 AM

We need to let the ObamaCare accountants do a Quality of Life Years calculation on guys like Farrell; he might not be worth saving.

Posted by: Mike Anderson at September 9, 2009 12:02 PM

The Left is at war with America and if treasonous reporters can trade a few noble lives to get a resume enhancement, they will make that trade to the last drop of noble blood.

People, we are heading toward a time when you will only have those rights and privileges which you enforce for yourself. I will not convict, if I'm given jury duty, anyone employed to protect civilization. In Colombia a group of ex-military/police who saw their country was losing to the lawless formed Los Pepes and worked outside the law. This is what the Left will face because they are subverting or abusing all civil institutions in their war against our liberty.

Posted by: Scott M at September 9, 2009 12:56 PM

Dear Teresa: You are right, it is too much to hope for. Once you get past John Burns, the TIMES's staff lean so far to left that their doors are shaped like horseshoes.

Dear Scott M: You will have to walk through the TIMES newsroom door backwards. Logically, if you believed what you wrote, you would also believe that posting it would get you one of Eric Holder's watch lists, and hence might "disappear" along with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other on Der Tag. Yet you posted anyway, getting yourself and maybe the rest of us at American Digest, on any such list. This shows you've failed your IQ test---again. It's good to know that corrupt proecutors such as the notorious Left hero Mike Nifong have a friend in you, ready to spring them no matter how many Duke Lacrosse players Iron Mike tries to frame and railroad to jail. Still you might want to consider a different role model than the dog in Foghorn Leghorn cartoons.

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

Posted by: Gregory Koster at September 9, 2009 2:57 PM

I would hate to have to risk my life for one of these pussified metrosexual NY Times reporters. Can you imagine? Now the reporter is asking why his butt buddy interpreter was killed.

And did anyone read Friedman of the NY Times:
"Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China's leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
Our one-party democracy is worse."

Hey Tom, if they decide to send you to "greener pastures" during their next Cultural Revolution, I hope you'll see the irony.

Posted by: JD at September 9, 2009 6:17 PM

"I would hate to have to risk my life for one of these pussified metrosexual NY Times reporters."

Look, I detest the NYT as much as any right-thinking person. But trust me: There is no "pussified metrosexual reporter" doing work in war zones. Period. This guy may indeed be worthy of our contempt, but not because he's a pussy. If that's what he were, he wouldn't have been there in the first place.

Posted by: Tom at September 9, 2009 9:55 PM

"I shot the wrong architect."

Posted by: Fat Man at September 9, 2009 9:56 PM