U.S. Writer Critical of Militias Is Found Shot Dead in Basra

A spokesman for Sadr, whose Mahdi Army last year clashed with U.S. troops in Baghdad and the southern city of Najaf, said others were responsible for Vincent's death.

"I think the Salafis and the criminal Baathists did that crime," said Sayyid Jaleel Mousawi, referring to adherents to a fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam and to former members of Saddam Hussein's political party.

Vincent was aware of the dangers he faced. On his blog, next to a link to an article of his that appeared July 13 in the Christian Science Monitor, he cautioned: "Keep in mind that for various reasons -- not the least of which were safety concerns -- the piece only scratches the surface of what is happening here."

He stayed safe in Iraq, he told FrontPage magazine, "by slipping below the radar screen, so to speak, blending in with the Iraqi people, sometimes disguising myself, keeping as low-profile a presence as possible."

In a June 28 article, Scott, the Monitor's world editor, wrote that Vincent eschewed a large entourage of guards and assistants and instead relied heavily on his interpreter, Nour, whom he often identified in print as Layla for her protection.

"Young, intelligent, vivacious, Nour is the embodiment of what liberated Iraq could become," Vincent told FrontPage. "One thousand Nours set loose in Iraq would transform the country overnight; I just pray the one I met survives."

Each entry on Vincent's blog was structured like a letter to his wife, beginning with the words, "Dear Lisa."

Reached by telephone in New York Wednesday night, Lisa said she and her husband had agreed that if anything happened to him, she would not talk about him with the news media. "He had a disgust for anyone who had suffered a bereavement and went immediately to the cameras," she said.