A new, possible alleged motive for the killing of newsman/blogger Steven Vincent has emerged, according to the Scotsman:
AN American journalist who was shot dead in Basra last week was executed by Shiite extremists who knew he was intending to marry his Muslim interpreter, it has emerged.
Steven Vincent was shot a week before the planned wedding to Nouriya Itais and had already delivered a $2,500 dowry to her family.
The disclosure casts new light on the grip of Islamic religious sects in the British-run south- east of Iraq – raising concern that they will take control once troops start to withdraw. Mr Vincent was abducted from his hotel three days after writing a piece in the New York Times accusing British officials of allowing religious parties to infiltrate the Basra police.
In America, his death was taken as retribution for his article. But in London yesterday, British officials pointed out that the police in Basra believed it was retribution for his affair.
“We warned him to look after his security in a more professional manner than he was doing,” said the official.
Vincent and Itais were both shot — but she lived.
So does this explain it? No. Until the people who did it are caught, we’ll really never know. In reading a story such as this you can’t tell how many “officials” are saying this is the case. Is it four? Five? Do others agree? Or is it the interpretation of one official?
And then there is this possibility: perhaps he was killed for a several reasons. But the main reason seemed to be to send the world a message….
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.