Submit your comments on this article | ||||
Iraq | ||||
Iranian Acedemic Killed after being caught between a rock and a hard place | ||||
2004-01-22 | ||||
EFL from LA times They buried Abdul Latif Mayah on Tuesday, and with him, many academics’ hopes for intellectual freedom in the new Iraq. Gunned down only 12 hours after advocating direct elections on an Arab television talk show, Mayah was the fourth professor from Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University to be killed in the last eight months, his death the latest in a series of academic slayings in post-Hussein Iraq. "His assassination is part of a plan in this country, targeting any intellectual in this country, any free voice," said Salam Rais, one of Mayah’s students. "He is the martyr of the free world." Snip - many details about the man that are quite interesting. They ought to fill a couple of the newly vacated pedestals with statues of this guy. Mayah, whose friends said he was 54, was a longtime pro-democracy activist who had been jailed by Hussein after calling for elections in 1996. He had received anonymous death threats for several weeks, friends and family said, and began traveling with a bodyguard. As he drove to work Monday, his Mitsubishi sedan was stopped by unidentified men. Mayah, the bodyguard and a colleague were ordered out of the vehicle. The gunmen opened fire only on Mayah, and he died at the scene. One local media report said he was shot 32 times.
The US respects dissent, but I guess somebody else was less tolerant. Mayah, a Shiite and a former low-level member of Hussein’s Baath Party, "was supporting Sistani," said Jabber Habib, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "Had he not supported Sistani, he would have been killed by the other side."
I guess his glass is now permanently half-full. In a semi-related article Common Dreams asks Why Do Iowans Like To Caucus But Iraqis Don’t? Due to the article’s high percentage of drivel to facts, I won’t post it, but the few details of the CPA’s caucus format do sound FUBAR’d. | ||||
Posted by:Super Hose |
#1 The title should have been Iraqi not Iranian. |
Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-22 9:16:37 PM |