"American Woman Travels Door to Door to Count Iraqi Casualties"

From this ABC Nightline piece:

Marla Ruzicka, 26, from the San Francisco Bay Area, has been in Baghdad since the day Saddam's statue fell in the city center. She has been doing a headcount of the Iraqi injured and the dead. She's found more than she expected.

She has formed her own nonprofit organization, called the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or CIVIC. She has organized 150 surveyors to fan out across Iraq. So far, they say they have documented 620 civilian deaths in Baghdad, 256 in Najaf, 425 in Karbala and as many as 1,100 in Nasiriyah. It is only a preliminary count.

"Somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 people died in this conflict," Ruzicka said...

Ruzicka does not represent the U.S. government. She's not affiliated with any big relief agency. She is a lone peace activist who has taken it upon herself to help the civilian victims of war...

The article goes on and on, heaping praise by the wheelbarrowful, finally ending with:

But while other aid agencies are still getting organized in Iraq, still tentatively working out the difficult security situation, Ruzicka is already out there, trying as much as one person can to help.

By the end, if you aren't willing to give her the Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps it's because her name sounds a bit familiar.

In fact, Marla Ruzicka was one of the NY Times' sources for civilian death statistics in Afghanistan:

When The New York Times ran a front-page report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan ("Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead"), bloggers descended on the article like ants on a picnic...

On his site, The Politburo [*], blogger Michael Moynihan noted that the Times' source for the toll of 812 dead was Marla Ruzicka, identified as a field worker in Afghanistan for Global Exchange, "an American organization." What the Times didn't say, Moynihan wrote, is that Global Exchange is a "far-left" group that opposes globalization and the U.S. military. Ruzicka, he said, is a fan of Fidel Castro's Cuba and the winner of an award from "the Marxist group Refuse and Resist..."

Marla may no longer be working for or with Global Exchange, but I'd think her past history and affiliations might be of interest to most of Nightline's readers. If you want to suggest something like that to Nightline, you can contact them from this page, and the article linked above contains the email addresses for the story's author and for Ruzicka.

[*To see the original post, go here and enter 'ruzicka' in the search box, or click 'media criticism' in the left-hand menu and go to the 7/22/2002 entry. No direct link is available.]

Comments

I, unfortunately, just learned of this woman too.
My heart goes out to her family and friends.
I only wish her ironic death could be a wake up call to the madness and futility of war :(
We as a country seem to simply refuse to get to the root of problems so that true healing can never take place. What happened in 911 and our response in the form of this war point to our deeper problems in international relations.
At a time we desparately need a Gandhi as an ambassador we may get quite the opposite in the form of John Bolton. I pray he never makes
it in.

I'm embarassed to say I only first heard of Marla this morning when NPR did a story on her efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. No matter what your political position, she should be an inspiration to millions. If everyone (present company included) had 1/2 the courage and commitment Marla did, imagine how the world would be improved. She should be recognized by the US government and the global community as a truely outstanding young woman.

She's dead. Killed in a Blast. Add 1 more to the body count.

Republicans are the true axis of evil, not any country. Bush is the number one clown on team destruction. If reelected he will force the true patriots of this country, the ones with brains, to revolt in a fassion that will show the world we are not for killing the friendships we have around the world, and we are not for killing any economy or the environment. We must sow a new mentality!

Republicans are the true axis of evil, not any country. Bush is the number one clown on team destruction. If reelected he will force the true patriots of this country, the ones with brains, to revolt in a fassion that will show the world we are not for killing the friendships we have around the world, and we are not for killing any economy or the environment. We must sow a new mentality!

Republicans are the true axis of evil, not any country. Bush is the number one clown on team destruction. If reelected he will force the true patriots of this country, the ones with brains, to revolt in a fassion that will show the world we are not for killing the friendships we have around the world, and we are not for killing any economy or the environment. We must sow a new mentality!

I am Iraqi. I personally know Marla. I haven't had the chance to work with her, but I will do anything to support CIVIC. Marla did make a lot of difference. She changed a lot of people's lives. God bless you Marla. God bless all of you in CIVIC.

Get a Life lonewacko. I am a republican and support Marla 110%

The author of this site is a fucking idiot. Nice attack on a 26 year-old woman who has done more in her life so far than 99.9% of the people I know of any age. It's easy to criticize, but much harder to take action. But I suppose you consider your web editorializing some kind of action. Bullshit!

This has to be one of the most puerile, ad hominem attacks I've come across recently. That the source is some fringe, obscure lunatic is not surprising.

The main point of NIGHTLINE's piece was to bring light to the work of documenting and aiding innocent civilian casualties. The major news cycle has since picked up on this relevant and pertinent issue (as can be seen with the AP civilian casualties count).

Furthermore, the work in Afghanistan was not only referenced, but is a precedent, as the Congress (through the great work of Sen. Leahy) has now appropriated about 3 million to aid Afghan civilians hurt and damaged by the war.

The military does not count civilian casualties for some valid, and some selfish, reasons. The Defense Dept has yet to mention any major results from the infamous 'Wedding Party bombing' incident last fall, even while acknowledging mistakes occurred. However, this does not mean other Americans should not lend out a helping hand and should not make a concerted effort to help those civilian casualties. In fact, this nation is so strong and vibrant because of our generosity, and our drive for moral duty.

You should applaud these crusaders of civilian casualties, because they understand we're more than the simplistic platitude of "liberators" ... we're here to help, comfort, and support.

I think Lonewacko has missed the point of the story. It wasn't the Marla Ruzicka expose; it was about civillian casualties in Iraq and what to do about them. It may only be one person's compassion that separates us from today's accidental victim and tomorrow's hardened terrorist.

In the same way Lonewacko's past childish attacks don't rule out his one day writing mature commentary; neither should her past affiliations prohibit Marla from doing the right thing.

As for her Afghan figures a year ago, what are you trying to say, those civillians didn't die?
Well tell their families, cuz it's news to them.

Thank god for Lone Wackos. How this woman consistantly flies under Big Media's radar is beyond me...especially now that Eric Alterman has cleared up the media bias issue.

Michael

How does going door-to-door counting the dead (and not telling us WHO killed them) help in any way, shape or form? Today, the Pope sent his envoy to coordinate Catholic relief efforts. I'll be writing my check. We've been chomping at the bit. 3 months ago, my daughter, who's behind our sponsorship of children in India (the mission gave her money for the medical care that saved her life last year), Mexico and Africa, is waiting not-so-patiently for the chance to help in Iraq. But we're not in the paper. We're not "helping" by providing numbers for a soundbite.

How does going door-to-door counting the dead (and not telling us WHO killed them) help in any way, shape or form? Today, the Pope sent his envoy to coordinate Catholic relief efforts. I'll be writing my check. We've been chomping at the bit. 3 months ago, my daughter, who's behind our sponsorship of children in India (the mission gave her money for the medical care that saved her life last year), Mexico and Africa, is waiting not-so-patiently for the chance to help in Iraq. But we're not in the paper. We're not "helping" by providing numbers for a soundbite.