My LTTE about Abeer Qasim Hamza

The Oregonian’s continued use of Associated Press articles about the rape and murder of 14-year-old Iraqi Abeer Qasim Hamza is very disturbing. For whatever reason, AP persistently refers to Abeer as a woman, as opposed to the child she was. Likewise, though the AP article states that Abeer’s parents and younger sister were also killed, it fails to mention that the younger girl was only seven.

AP is not alone in its editorial omission of certain details, however. To my knowledge, Reuters is the only major wire service to acknowledge the ages of the two youngest victims. My question is, “Why?”

When is a child not a child? When she is the victim of a heinous crime allegedly committed by U. S. soldiers, whom patriotism demands that we support? When she is Iraqi, instead of American? When she is Muslim, instead of Christian?

Or is it because the situation in Iraq has so inured us to atrocity that it no longer registers with Americans?

Our wire news coverage over the past several days of this story has
included that the young Iraqi's age has been in dispute. Our wire report
is driven by the wire services, so we are limited in our coverage by
their coverage.

Yesterday is the first day that the wire services were including the
fact the young Iraqi may be 14 or 15 years old, and even now the
mainstream media is hesitant to settle on an age.

You ask, "Why?" I can only assume officials are still trying to nail
down the facts in this case. As they do, we will reflect that in our
coverage of the story.

Thank you for writing in and sharing your concerns.