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February 22nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Abu Abdu al-Homsi, an opposition activist, said the Syrian
Army had cut phone lines into the city and were bombing any buildings where
they detected mobile phone signals.
A video posted on YouTube by opposition fighters purported to show the
aftermath of the attack on the house, with two unidentified bodies lying in
the rubble.
At least two other Western journalists – including the British photographer
Paul Conroy who was on an assignment with Colvin – were reportedly wounded
after more than 10 rockets hit the house.
Colvin, who had worn a black eye patch since losing an eye to a shrapnel wound
while working in Sri Lanka in 2001, was the only journalist from a British
newspaper in Homs.
Only yesterday, she had reported on shelling in the city in a video for the BBC,
as well as CNN,
in which she described the bloodshed as “absolutely sickening”.
She accused Assad’s forces of “murder” and said it was “a complete and utter
lie that they are only targeting terrorists…the Syrian army is simply
shelling a city of cold, starving civilians.”
Colvin was reportedly staying next to a hospital in a house that was widely
known to have been set up as a makeshift press centre by opposition
supporters.
Yesterday she visited the hospital and described seeing a baby die there after
he had been struck in the chest by shrapnel.
In a report published in the Sunday Times over the weekend, Colvin spoke of
the citizens of Homs “waiting for a massacre”.
“The scale of human tragedy in the city is immense. The inhabitants are
living in terror. Almost every family seems to have suffered the death or
injury of a loved one,” she wrote.
Her editor, John Witherow, spoke of his “great shock” at her death,
describing her as “an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday
Times” who would be “sorely missed”.
He said she was: “Driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that
what she did mattered. She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail
the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take
notice. Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her
thoughts were with the victims of violence.”
Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Sunday Times, described Colvin as “one of
the most outstanding foreign correspondents of her generation” who had
a “determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the
victims did not go unreported”.
David Cameron said her death was “a desperately sad reminder of the risks that
journalists take to inform the world of what is happening and the dreadful
events in Syria”, telling Parliament: “Our thoughts should be with her
family and her friends.”
Ed Miliband described her as “an inspiration to women in her profession” while William
Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said he was “deeply saddened and shocked
by the tragic news” and said Colvin was “utterly dedicated to her
work, admired by all of us who encountered her, and respected and revered by
her peers”.
He added that “her tragic death is a terrible reminder of the risks that
journalists take to report the truth”.
Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, said: “Just
yesterday, after she filed her news story, one of the first things Marie
Colvin did was get in touch to tell me just how horrible the situation was
in Homs. It was vintage Marie Colvin–I could just imagine her happily
chatting away with me as the shells fell around her building, and being
totally in her element. She was one of the most fearless and dedicated…
reporters I have ever met, and someone I looked up to as a hero and an
inspiration.
“For Marie, covering war wasn’t about doing a few quick interviews and writing
up a quick story: she experienced war alongside those who suffered in war,
and her writings had a particular vividness because of what she had dared to
see and experience.”
In 2010, Colvin spoke about the dangers of reporting on war zones at a Fleet
Street ceremony honouring fallen journalists, at which she was introduced to
the Duchess of Cornwall.
She said “Craters. Burned houses. Mutilated bodies. Women weeping for
children and husbands. Men for their wives, mothers, children.
“Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without
prejudice.
“We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the
story. What is bravery, and what is bravado?
“Journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face
difficult choices. Sometimes they pay the ultimate price.”
On Tuesday night Colvin, who was in her fifties, also appeared on Channel 4
and ITV news bulletins, reporting on the bombardment of the opposition
stronghold.
Ochlik was born in France in 1983 and first covered conflict in Haiti at the
age of 20. Most recently he photographed the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt
and Libya.
Earlier this month, he won first prize in the general news stories category of
the World Press Photo contest for images taken during the Libyan conflict.
Omar Shaker, an opposition activist, told the Reuters news agency that Colvin
and Ochlik were killed in the Baba Amr district of Homs.
He said that as well as Mr Conroy being injured, a female American journalist
was in a very serious condition.
“Up to this point we have two dead. They are still under the rubble
because the shelling hasn’t stopped. No one can get close to the house.
“There is another American female journalist who is in a really serious
condition, she really needs urgent care.”
Pro-opposition areas of Homs have been under a sustained bombardment from
government forces since February 3, leaving several hundred people dead.
Colvin, who was married three times, won the British press award for Best
Foreign Correspondent on two occasions, as well as awards from the
International Women’s Media Foundation.
The journalist from Oyster Bay, New York, specialised in the Arab and Persian
world but also worked in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka.
Last week New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid died of an asthma attack
while trying to reach an opposition zone.
French television reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs last month as a
shell exploded amid a group of journalists covering protests in the city on
a visit organised by the Syrian authorities.
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