Lakeport mourns its loss Town recalls lively spirit of activist killed in Baghdad

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Tuesday, April 19, 2005 | Jim Doyle and Joe Garofoli

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Marla Ruzicka would slip into town to recharge herself, physically and emotionally. For the human rights crusader, this was home -- light-years away from the world's deadliest flash points, the machinery of war, the corridors of power.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

"Ruzicka was elected student body president in middle school, where she led a walkout to protest the first Gulf War."

Early Start.

[johniegrad]

Ruzicka's parents are collecting donations for CIVIC in her memory. Checks may be sent to CIVIC, P.O. Box 1189, Lakeport, CA 95453.

Sorry. I gave at the office.

[tet68]

"She was such a good chile, I can't believe it's come to
this! Like, you know!", said neighbor Dawn Roqufort-Smith-Darian.

[angkor]

In recent weeks, Ruzicka was interviewing Iraqi women detained in Abu Ghraib and other prisons and was trying to firm up evidence she said she had found that the U.S. military was keeping count of the number of civilian casualties in Iraq. "The information she received related only to a brief period in the Baghdad area," according to a statement from Human Rights Watch, "but was important in establishing that the U.S. did in fact record civilian injuries."

Yes, her concern for innocent Iraqi victims was admirable, but I can't find in the article where Marla showed concern for the thousands of Iraqi citizens being victimized, kidnapped, blown up, robbed, beheaded, and intimidated by ex-Baathists and sadistic jihadis.

Did I miss that section?

[happinesswithoutpeace]

"Ruzicka was interviewing Iraqi women detained in Abu Ghraib and other prisons and was trying to firm up evidence she said she had found that the U.S. military was keeping count of the number of civilian casualties in Iraq. "

I can hear it now, all the tin foil heads will be claiming she was whacked by the agency because she was "getting too close to the truth".

[SIDENET]

She didn't like the status quo and wanted to change injustices where she found them

Funny that this little Soros-funded brat couldn't seem to find any injustices under Saddam, but was "relentless" in going after the US military. It's also a bit ironic that she got blown up by a fellow enemy of the US military. Good riddance.

[Deetes]

She was a Code Pinkio ....

[Petronius]

"She had the ability to connect with the victims and to talk with the U.S. military and be acceptable and authentic to both," Neier said. "I think that was because she was concerned with the victims. It wasn't about the morality of the war, or the politics."

What a shameful and inappropriate response to the war! Tending to the collateral damage from our smart bombs? She should have slapped several "Support Our Troops" stickers on her car, blabbered to anyone within earshot how this grand liberation is a priori justified, and became incensed over the Schiavo fiasco.

Her priorities speak volumes about her character.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

"Tending to the collateral damage from our smart bombs?"

And never tending to the damage done to Iraqi civilians by Zarqawi's Vehicle borne bombing operations, and in the end, killed by such an operation.

Fearful Symmetry, is it not?

[Texas_Jarhead]

Yup. She made her pilgrimage to Cuba in high school.

[rrrod]

One down...no apologies.

[rabidralph]

You're making that up!

[rabidralph]

LOL!

[vetvetdoug]

NPR devoted an entire segment of their newscast to this woman. IMHO she was a hit man for the left and did all she could to taint the US in all we were doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. NPR made her out to be like the pope which is not surprising. I won't be surprised if NPR runs a 24 hour money raising effort in her honor.

[em2vn]

"She was working on getting compensation for 10 families of war victims....."
From whom I ask? She was working to shake down the United States. Most wars have thousands or even millions of innocent victims. It's war not a police raid gone bad.
I wonder how the U.S. military will be blamed for the terrorist bomb that killed her.

[SIDENET]

Her priorities speak volumes about her character

I agree...and I don't mean it as a compliment, either.

[tet68]

"Some people have accused me of making things up about little Marla, complained Dawn Roqufort-Smith-Darian,
I just don't know why they would do that to me!
Certainly I knew Marla as well as anyone. Why we even
went to different schools together. "

"Now she lies broken and bleeding, parts of her scattered
hither and yon, blown into gory chunks by a
freedom fighter she was in solidarity with, I tell you
there's no justice," sobbed Dawn Roqufort-Smith-Dorian.

[angkor]

Stars & Stripes (Iraq edition) ran an LA Times paen to her, front page, with a huge half-page photo of the little angel. You'd think she was Mother Theresa until reaching the description of her travels to CUBA.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

I want more quotes from Dawn Roqufort-Smith-Darian! Do you have the transcript where she called for an investigation into the 500 Iraqi children killed when a JDAM struck the volkswagon they were traveling in? Or the report that 6 out of every 2 Iraqi children were killed in the last 9 months?