Snuffed Out

Via The Jawa Report comes this reprehensible reporting and photo montage from the Associated Press. One of their photographers, Rahmatullah Naikzad, embedded with the Taliban and stood by as they captured two women and brutally murdered them by daylight.

It's one thing to come upon this scene independently and film/photograph it. It's quite another to be along for the ride as the whole scene unfolds and to willingly provide a propaganda outlet for what is nothing more than a snuff film.

It's instructive because we see the barbarism of the Taliban and their fellow travelers - al Qaeda.

It's also instructive because we see that there are depths of depravity that AP will not avoid plumbing. Their stringers and reporters and photographers will go with anyone, anywhere, and document anything in pursuit of a Pulitzer. They will embed with terrorists, and provide an outlet for their propaganda.

True, this provides insight into the workings of a terrorist group and reprehensible group, but the costs are simply too high - and AP should bear the burden for their transgressions. They have aligned with the enemies of humanity and look the other way as they repeatedly have their people working closely with terrorists, insurgents, jihadis, Taliban, and al Qaeda - all of whom are intent upon doing harm to others.

Rahmatullah Naikzad had to know he was going to see bad stuff when he decided to embed with the Taliban. It's not like they were going to pass out candy and flowers and build roads or schools. They were going to kill people. And he should have seen the writing on the wall as those two women were held - to await execution by daylight.

Inexcusable.

However, the fact that he embedded gave him little choice once this situation developed because I'm also sure that the Taliban would have made it three bodies instead of two if he didn't participate. Yes, I know that the Taliban need to get their propaganda out, but if this photographer really had qualms about what was unfolding, he could have refused to take the photos/video. It would have been a principled stand and could have meant his own death. And instead of seeing this footage, we'd learn that the terrorists have killed yet another reporter.

The fateful decision was to embed with these thugs in the first place. Every decision thereafter only compounded the error.

The other possibility is that Naikzad is Taliban, and he was simply offering up his services as a photographer to further the cause. If that is the case, then the AP's problems are no less troubling as it lacks the ability to weed out terrorists from its midst even after troubling issues arose in the past.

UPDATE:
In reference to the Pulitzer Prize, there still remain serious questions around how AP photographers managed to get this photo of al Qaeda/insurgents murdering Iraqis on Haifa Street in Baghdad in December 2004. That photo was part of a series of photographs that helped the AP win a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. The AP never identified the stringer.