An Ordinary Tale ... In Baghdad.

Lara Logan: A CBS News Translator Was Kidnapped And Killed, Now They Are Calling For His Brother

(CBS)  By CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

I want to tell you a story, just the way it was told to me. These are not my words, they are the words of an Iraqi man whose name I cannot tell you because his life is under threat.

Does that sound hollow to those of you who feel like you've heard words like that many times before?

Well, it isn't hollow to this man and I'll tell you why. The same people who said they were coming back to kill him and his nephew, just took his brother and executed him...

I think in any language, in any part of the world, it's fair to say the men making these threats mean business. What is fair to say in Iraq, is that when the threat is made, most people here assume it's already over. A done deal.

Those who stay - die. And the rest run for their lives.

But back to the story of the man who is condemned to death. His brother was Anwar Abbas Lafta - our CBS translator who was take from his home by a militia death squad nearly two weeks ago and executed.

This is a harrowing account of what happened, and strangely, sadly, it is also a story of love. The kind-of love any of us anywhere can understand...

"It was about eight thirty at night when Anwar returned home from seeing our uncle at the hospital. He had only been home a few minutes, asked my mom for a cup of tea, when there was a very soft knock on the door".

"It was the kind-of knock a child would make and that's who I expected when I opened the door but instead there was a man standing there who put a pistol in my chest. I tried to push it away, but two more men put pistols at my legs and the first man smashed the butt of his weapon into my head..."

"I screamed to Anwar for help and he reached for his pistol but before he could put the magazine inside, it was too late. They had three men on him, two were huge and they held him from his head and his legs. They looked like body-builders, men who work as professional soldiers or guards during the day and then become death squads at night".

"My mom was near Anwar, bringing him his tea and she shouted out so they beat her. My nephew shouted from the second floor but suddenly there were two men beating him - they knew exactly the layout of the house, who they were coming to find and everything. It was extremely professional, and they knew exactly where they were going and what they were doing".

"They wore body armour and uniforms and would say nothing except that if we did not keep quiet we would be killed".

When Anwar's middle-aged sister saw them taking her brother she knew what it meant. She also knew she had no chance against ten armed men, but that did not stop her.

"My sister threw her arms around Anwar, holding on, trying to stop them but they turned around and shot her in the arm and she let go screaming...," her brother says.

I ask if she is all right now and he says he thinks so, but without much conviction. "It is my mother we are worried about," he adds, "I think she will be dead soon".

As a result of her injuries, the shock, and the trauma she experienced, Anwar's mother has developed extreme levels of sugar in her blood, drastically swollen legs and is now bed-ridden, nursing her grief into an early grave.

Because Anwar kept fighting all the way to the vehicle and because his family kept fighting for him, his brother and nephew have now been threatened.

The phone call came a few days after Anwar's body was found, "We are coming back for you".

Anwar's brother said the hospital post mortem concluded he died two days after being kidnapped. He was killed by a single shot to the back of his head, execution style. But there is one more chilling detail: both his hands were badly broken. In many places. Smashed.

This is in a terrible, weird way, easier to bear than electric drills and nitric acid and other means now widely associated with militia death squads, but it leaves us with the same reality:

Anwar is gone.

I lead his brother up the grand Iraqi-style entrance hall steps to the second floor of our new bureau, (we had to move from the old one after it was blown up by a suicide bomber in June), and there on the wall, under a photo of our CBS crew, James Brolan and Paul Douglas, who were killed in a car bombing over a year ago, is a beautiful framed photograph of Anwar.

We stopped together on the stairs and looked at it for a while. Words were exchanged in Arabic. Glances and silent thoughts shared.

Then Anwar's brother's eyes filled with tears and he turned away...

"I can't look, I can't look," he said to me. And my heart broke all over again.

We know Anwar's story is not unique. We know he is one of many thousands of innocent victims of this war and I know that even as I write this story, someone, somewhere is being pulled out of their home by a death squad, tortured and executed.

I stop almost every time I pass that picture of Anwar on the steps. I sometimes hesitate for just a moment. But I am glad not to forget.

The pain is still with us. It is still too fresh and new. And terrifying.

I wish people who blame the media for not telling the truth about the Iraq war had even the vaguest understanding of what it takes to survive even one day in this place.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by nolalou,

"they are the words of an Iraqi man whose name I cannot tell you because his life is under threat."

Accompanied by a photo of the man who was murdered, and the statement that the man she was talking to was his brother.

With that she revealed that the man''s brother was still talking to the "enemy" press. That is a setup that the whole world (except you) can plainly see.

[clarencebev-2009]

To FeelFree1,

Who is "You"?

[nolalou]

FeelFree1,

You obviously have not heard Lara Logan speak as you have no earthly idea what the hell you are talking about! She has not been ''pro war cheerleading''! I don''t understand where you get that? She was interviewed a while back on CNN, being criticized for not reporting the positive stories about the war. She gave a very impassioned response that there were no good stories to report. I suggest you look at it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6I420_fPM2E

brianbwb, she DID NOT SET up his brother for murder, that happened already when he received the death threat by telephone, YOU F_ING IDIOT! I''m TIRED OF YOU JERKS FOR BLAMING THE MEDIA FOR EVERYTHING!

[oakishpines]

'' ... if i starve, don''t let it be in a jurisdiction of non charity and taxation ... ''

'' ... the more big empire must be no more big than the more little one: most market share must go to the poorest soul, not the malnourished pauper, but the trillion dollar war lord ... if the militant baby girl may have her claim to all in the land, then that man too may rest easy ... ''

'' ... giving away free advertising to many entrepreneurs for small tips from a few is the ultimate capitalist adventure ... ''

'' ... don''t dance porno hike naked dance dressed get sick tax world get well feed world songs rallied round tens millions sick beds drifting tens millions studio cottage farm trail groups ... ''

'' ... eternal storyboards swimming infinite oceans of eternal storyboards ... ''

'' ... gathering wealth has little to do with harvesting at the neighbors but with assuring the neighbors have plenty to harvest ... ''

'' ... people don''t throw themselves off the backs of dragon to break all their bones for fun, silly ... ''

[oakishpines]

'' ... the pharoah dictator, not an individual, just some phantom amalgum of sociological institutions, anyway the the princess had a problem, 7 billion fraid ends that were no problem, that come and go and swap and interchange free and easy, but tied together with a string that connected all the people, like two cups and a string, but seven billion fraid ends and a string, the string a fickle dragon more fickle than most, the princess was confused, at times she felt good about the dragon and the backups in reserve, and at times she knew just how high maintenance a string was that dragon, it drove her to kicking stars and planets out of the sky to save the galaxys, just ridiculous as it only leads to kicking universes to save eternitys, the men loved her, she tried to feed them and they loved that, it was a prequisite, but she did it wrong and in all the worst ways, and that, to them, made her priceless and adorable, to try to save them was noble, to screw it up royally was irresistable, though they could loathe her at times, they''d suffer hell like huvans cannot imagine for her, they were born, the men, in basic training, girls though, they were born with scarcely any teflon and kevlar in their veins whatsoever and tho it oft improved with age, many of them started out horribly equipped ... and the men all were enamored by that tremendously ... ''

[clarencebev-2009]

I commend Lara Logan for writing the story.The people that are being murdered need a voice.
This goes on in the name of Religion. Where in Religion, does it say to do this? Therefore, that awaiting door is closed to those who execute in behalf of their Religion.

[andrew_693]

it''s incredible that there are imbeciles out there that think that this invasion was legal. Even the UN inspectors said there were no weapons of mass destruction, even Bush has been saying that. The moron in chief is saying it and still some don''t get it, I guess it''s too hard!!!. What''s even more funny is that these people vote for that bunch of closet queers, they can''t distinguish a real man from a homosexual, even though they are bigots. I remember when Clinton tried to attack Bin Laden, you know, Bush''s friend and freedom fighter, and the repubs were saying that he was "wagging the dog", and look at them know.........how nice it is to not have a conscience nor memory, or simply "being dum, and retarded is bliss"

[andrew_693]

Let me tell the hypocrites of the media why we don''t believe they tell the truth.....first of all, the were accomplices in the invasion of this country, not one voice expressed an opinion against it and those that did were put out of the air, none of their colleagues said anything about that......second of all, these days they are trying their best to confuse the american people by telling them the surge is working, while at the same time posting articles like this one that demonstrates once again that they were lyiong and that the surge never worked, since death squads operate at will.

[cbs_oliver]

A horror story laced with provacative descriptions.

It reads alot like teh stories of familys terrified and brutalized by soldiers who break in to their homes in the middle of the night.

It is important when reading such horror stories to hold on to our better values and not allow ourselves to be beguiled into rage and a desire for vengence. It is easy to be seduced even into seeking to reek pain and horror on people who had nothing to do with the events.

The follow up to 9-11 is a good example of that.

Then we become monsters too.

And that is too bad.

[cbs_oliver]

A horror story laced with provacative descriptions.

It reads alot like teh stories of familys terrified and brutalized by soldiers who break in to their homes in the middle of the night.

It is important when reading such horror stories to hold on to our better values and not allow ourselves to be beguiled into rage and a desire for vengence. It is easy to be seduced even into seeking to reek pain and horror on people who had nothing to do with the events.

The follow up to 9-11 is a good example of that.

Then we become monsters too.

And that is too bad.