Although I have read that most of those that are in it for the money have left their reporting jobs and starting working for international orgs like Red Cross, USAid etc. The intl orgs pay about 5 times as much as what a reporter makes. I think a lot of the reporters who are still reporting are not doing it for financial reasons.
Obviously, I’m just talking about Iraqi’s who work for western media. I’ve no idea what life is like for those working Arabic media, as I don’t know the language, and don’t know how good the translations are.
For me though, I’ve photographed in a few no-go zones, and it definitely wasn’t for the money.
[quote]"Speaking through an American interpreter, Lieutenant David Wallach who is a native Arabic speaker, the Iraqi official related how al Qaeda united these gangs who then became absorbed into “al Qaeda.” They recruited boys born during the years 1991, 92 and 93 who were each given weapons, including pistols, a bicycle and a phone (with phone cards paid) and a salary of $100 per month, all courtesy of al Qaeda. These boys were used for kidnapping, torturing and murdering people.
At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family."(story continues at the link) Michael Yon Online[/quote]
His referenced Update - Bless the Beasts and Children…this is very graphic…may not be suitable for the easily sickened.[/quote]
“Yeah, this story is true only it wasn’t this Alan Qaeda guy, it was a baby-sitter and she stuffed the baby in the oven 'cuz she thought it was a turkey 'cuz she was ripped on acid- purple microdot, I think- and any way it’s true cuz my cousin’s friend knew somebody who lived in the same town where it happened.”
Seriously, this is about the third or fourth time I’ve seen this story pop up from iraq, all with minor variations and each one coming from different locations and times. Al Qaeda must have been handing out franchises- Osama’s Baked Babies, now with Islamofascism Fries.
And nothing posted yet shows that the Matt Sanchez you are obsessing about is the same person who wrote the National Review Online article under discussion.
Sorry Mikey…you lose…again.[/quote]
Now that has been shown that it is the same person, does that mean I win?
Of course I knew that before I posted- a two-second search for Matt Sanchez revealed all- in fact more than we’d like to see.
[quote]Iraq: Jihadists behead, roast Christian toddler Jihadwatch hat tip Michael
Savagery in the name of obedience to the Almighty. From “We must not let this ancient Church slide into oblivion,” by Ed West in the Catholic Herald (thanks to all who sent this in):
"When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman's baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child – beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice." The infant's crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts of Christian persecution in Iraq.[/quote]