The retired US military officer working in Iraq has posted some sad news at alt.books.george-orwell. He knew Fern Holland, one of the two Americans civilians killed Tuesday with their Iraqi translator near Hillah by gunmen posing as police.
This was someone I had known and worked with, along with the other two people killed in this attack: one a woman from Baghdad who was working with Fern on women’s rights (they had, along with another women’s rights activist from the UK, organized several Women’s Rights Centers in Iraq. Members from these women’s rights organizations had brought a petition to the IGC to have a minimum percentage of women’s representation in the transitional assembly).
The other guy was funding local newspapers, TV and radio and free media projects. They all were coming back from the Karbala Women’s Center, where they had had a meeting with the members about how the women could make their own TV, radio and print media.
Tragic, but also inspiring that there are people risking their lives trying to do good things over there.
