Posted on 02/22/2012 7:52:55 PM PST by Texas Fossil
LONDON (AP) — She was instantly recognizable for the eye patch that hid a shrapnel injury – a testament to Marie Colvin’s courage, which took her behind the front lines of the world’s deadliest conflicts to write about the suffering of individuals trapped in war.
After more than two decades of chronicling conflict, Colvin became a victim of it Wednesday, killed by shelling in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.
Colvin, 56, died alongside French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, the French government announced. Freelance photographer Paul Conroy and journalist Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro were wounded.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
It did state that she went on patrol with the KLA. And that she interviewed Kadaffi shortly before he was killed.
Looks like a one eyed female reporter did better than most of the frauds like Horaldo.
I was half expecting to read about another helpful Florence Nightingale, but this woman seemed to be only a news reporter, and what her personal bent was, is not clear.
I can’t seem to find any of her articles. She was an American, but served as a war correspondent for the Sunday Times of London.
The Wikipedia article is incomplete, and looks as if some of it was just put up when the news of her death broke. Anyway, here’s an extract from it:
Career
Colvin started her career a year after graduating from Yale as a midnight-to-6 a.m. police reporter for United Press International in New York City.[5] In 1984, Colvin became the Paris bureau chief for United Press International, moving to The Sunday Times in 1985. Starting in 1986, she was the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent, and then from 1995 was the Foreign Affairs correspondent. In 1986, she was the first to interview Muammar Gaddafi after Operation El Dorado Canyon.[6] Although specializing in the Middle East, she also covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and East Timor. She won the International Women’s Media Foundation award for ‘Courage in Journalism’ for her coverage of Kosovo and Chechnya.[7][8][9] She wrote and produced documentaries, including Arafat: Behind the Myth for the BBC.[10] She is featured in the 2005 documentary film Bearing Witness.
She began wearing an eyepatch after losing the sight in her left eye when coming under Sri Lankan government RPG shrapnel fire on April 16, 2001; she was attacked after calling out “journalist, journalist!” while reporting on the Sri Lankan Civil War.[11][12][13][14] Colvin was also a witness and an intermediary during the final days of the war in Sri Lanka and reported on war crimes that were committed during this phase.[14]
In 2011, while reporting on the Libyan civil war, she was offered an opportunity to interview Muammar Gaddafi, along with two other journalists that she could nominate. The first international interview since the start of the war, she took along her friends Christiane Amanpour of ABC News[15] and Jeremy Bowen of BBC News.[16]
[edit] Personal life
Colvin was married twice to journalist Patrick Bishop; both marriages ended in divorce. She also married journalist Juan Carlos Gumucio, who committed suicide in 2002.[2] She lived in Hammersmith, West London. She had no children.[17]
[edit] Death
In February 2012, Colvin illegally crossed into Syria on the back of a motocross motorcycle, due to the Syrian government’s attempts to prevent foreign journalists from covering the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising. Colvin was stationed in the western Baba Amr district of the city of Homs, and made her last broadcast on the evening of February 21, appearing on the BBC, Channel4, CNN and ITN News via satellite phone.[17]
Colvin and award-winning French photographer Rémi Ochlik were killed on February 22 by a rocket, while fleeing a temporary media building that was being shelled by the Syrian Army.[12][18][19] Fellow journalist Jean-Pierre Perrin and other sources reported that the building had been deliberately targeted by the Syrian Army, identified using satellite phone signals.[20] On the evening of February 22, people of Homs mourned in the streets in honor of Colvin and Ochlik.[21]
It doesn’t sound as if she had a very satisfying personal life.
RIP.
I had never heard of her, but sounds like she specialised in global hot spots. Very dangerous.
Her ride with the KLA did not impress me, but she might have been assigned to do that. Not sought it out.
The interview with Kadaffi might not have indicated much. It did say she new him well. Good or bad.
Sad she was killed. Syria is a very very very bad place. Life is not valued there. Evil cretin run the nut house.
Nadine Hurley...
Too bad. Too much journalism is about Whitney Houston and not enough is about world events.
Amen. Unfortunately, we think that the likes of Diane Sawyer are journalists.
Check out her glorification of Jeningrad in this article: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/670151/posts
Thanks for the information. Looks like she was not “Western” oriented.
When I read about her patrols with the KLA the red flags went up. But I had no knowledge of her.
I don’t know anything about her, either. But, 20 years in war zones, and among those savages - even after losing an eye? That’s what I call one VERY brave woman, may she rest in peace. Prayers for her family and friends, as well as the family and friends of the photojournalist who also lost his life. Prayers for healing for those wounded.
The Syrians who are currently attempting to rise up against Assad’s regime, as far as I have heard, are actual “Freedom Fighters” who, I believe, took Obama and the World’s rhetoric about the “Arab Spring” seriously - thinking that the world would come to their aid. Much like the Iranians (Persians) who keep trying to rise up against the Mullahs and their theocratic regime with no real hope of success. That these people keep trying when facing such horrible odds - basically unarmed against a pretty modern army/police force with more than enough power to crush them literally - should tell us something about their motives.
I’ve been praying for the innocent and righteous in all of these countries for some time now - it seems to be the only thing we can do at the moment.
Unfortunately, Russia (neo-Communists/Soviets and their friends) seems to be willing to let the Muslim Axis Powers and their “jihadists” do their dirty work - no doubt feeling assured that in the end they will ultimately be the last ones standing. North Korea (and consequently S. Korea, Taiwan, and Japan) will all be at risk of invasion due to China and Russia perhaps trying to take those areas while we are bogged down with war in Iran, Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Libya, Syria, etc...
I hope to God I am wrong, but that’s how I see this playing out. What role America will play will all depend on how long we can forestall the Muslim Axis’ advances - I don’t think Israel will (or should) wait much longer. Waiting for the first strikes may indeed be too late for the majority of those in Israel - even though I do believe in the Bible and do think perhaps this could be the war foretold many centuries ago...
Important information, thanks Zhang Fei. I too thought the KLA and other interviews were worrisome, but regardless of my disagreement with her philosophy on life, it looks like she lived by her convictions. I can’t fault her on that - just that I will never understand how people can be so deranged as to believe these people are some kind of righteous people.
I’ll pray for her soul, and her family and friends all the same. I really try to follow what God said about loving one’s enemies, even though it’s rather difficult at times, if not nearly impossible at times. I mostly feel very sorry for them because their souls have to be so corrupted and in so much pain.
Still, I’m not going to fail to defend myself and my unalienable rights against these people, just so people don’t think I’m saying to not fight against this evil.
Yes, we are seeing the convergence of the Communist and the Muslim worlds against the West. (Christians, Jews and some other faiths)
Is this Armageddon? God knows.
I do think the pact with the Totalitarian Left and the Muslim world is a pact with the Devil.
Our current Traitorous “leadership” do not speak well for our nation. We shall soon see what we are made of.
>>>”Syria is a very very very bad place. Life is not valued there. Evil cretin run the nut house.”<<<
True. Although there are many places where life is not valued and Evil cretins run them. Examples: China, Iran, Iraq, quite a few countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, North Africa & South/Central America, Pakistan, Afghanistan, a few in the Gulf States and so on...
‘Course not all of the above are currently going through civil war or an uprising, and our attention seems to be focused on Syria at present. But life is definitely cheap in those countries, a great deal is happening behind the scenes, and more than a few are not very stable. For most, all they need is a fire to be ignited. That’s why they are ruled or governed with an iron fist.
In fact, I think it is easier to name those countries where, relatively speaking, there is both political and social stability. Most are Western countries. Hence, a key reason for the ongoing, one way traffic, immigration to “Western” countries we have witnessed for decades.
In the ME and countries you’ve mentioned (Syria & Iran), and generally the moslem world, the problem has been allowed to breed for too long. Am afraid there are no easy or gentle solutions.
Imo, the core of the problem is religious (Islam) & cultural. What we call “radical Islam” (which in fact is Islam) has tremendous support in the moslem world. We can’t change that by replacing one strongman in those countries w/ another. If the idea is to spread democracy, then as we’ve seen in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, the majority will elect an Islamic gov’t. That’s the bulk of the mentality there.
Iran may be an exception because the majority of people have already experienced living under an Islamic regime, for the past 33 yrs. But that remains to be seen, once the mullahs & their minions (I mean ALL their thugs & goons) are exterminated, and the Iranians have a chance to vote in a fair & free referendum, which gives options, and the people are not manipulated through threats & intimidation as was the case soon after Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979.
For Iran at least, my point is that what we in the West call “Radical Islam” requires Radical Change to get rid of, before they can embark on building stability that will, hopefully, lead to prosperity in the long run.
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