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911=inside job
01-11-2006, 04:01 PM
i couldnt find the other thread about this so ill post it here...
richard clack just wrote a fiction book and in it this same thing happens..

THUGS KILL POLITICAL SCANDAL REPORTER

David E. Rosenbaum spent his long newspaper career unraveling the lies and scandals of Washington, from Watergate to Iran-Contra to Samuel Alito's defense of illegally spying on Americans.

The veteran reporter was attacked Friday night by two men on the street near his home in a wealthy Northwest D.C. neighborhood where crime is unknown.

The men escaped in a black sedan after smashing Rosenbaum's skull. He died at Howard University Hospital on Sunday.

Police and firemen arrived within minutes of being called, but Rosenbaum lay bleeding on the street for another 22 minutes before an ambulance arrived.

Instead of calling a nearby ambulance, dispatchers made the inexplicable choice of sending one from the other side of the city.

D.C. police, meanwhile, have an explanation for their own bizarre behavior: They didn't pursue the suspects because they allegedly believed Rosenbaum had a seizure or stroke.

Yet police immediately told Rosenbaum's horrified family that he had been beaten and robbed of his wallet. The family was even told on Saturday that someone tried to use one of the reporter's stolen credit cards, but no details were offered and nobody has been arrested.

Stranger still, the neighbor who found Rosenbaum on the street Friday night -- Jerry Pritchett -- didn't know the 63-year-old journalist and searched for a wallet and identification. There was none. Still, he didn't suspect foul play.

Rosenbaum was found by Pritchett on Gramercy Street NW, described by the Washington Post as "a one-block street in an upscale neighborhood about a half-mile south of the Montgomery County border."

Police say Rosenbaum's watch, wedding ring and portable radio were all still with him. Nothing was reportedly taken except for his wallet.

The Nice Part of D.C.

In a city notorious for its violent crime, Rosenbaum's exclusive neighborhood didn't have a single homicide last year. Even simple robberies are rare -- two per month -- compared to Washington's 4,000 recorded robberies in 2005.

Resident Mitchell Strickler told the paper his neighbors didn't even regularly lock their houses. "There was no fear of things," Strickler said.

Another Gramercy neighbor, Peter Bass, said that "everybody's comings and goings are noticed."

"It's a remarkably safe neighborhood, or it feels that way ... until now," Bass said after the attack.

Rosenbaum's brother Marcus, also a resident of the area, agreed.

"It's a really safe neighborhood," he said. "I wouldn't think twice about walking around at 2 o'clock in the morning, and this was 9 o'clock at night."

The Political Elite

Rosenbaum officially retired from the New York Times just weeks ago but had agreed to continue as a contributing editor. It is unknown what stories he was pursuing before his murder.

He spent most of his 35 years with the Times at the Washington bureau, where he was a respected writer, reporter and editor.

Rosenbaum was considered to be an especially tough reporter when it came to the shady world of government money. He was especially praised for his work unraveling the first President Bush's disastrous backtracking on the "No New Taxes" pledge and Bush Jr.'s 2003 appointment of a crooked lobbyist as head of the GOP.

He had also covered Watergate, Iran-Contra, various Clinton scandals and the fake intelligence leading to the current Iraq War.

Like many political reporters, he had critics on both sides of the aisle. Republicans thought he was biased; Democrats thought he was soft.

Just Two Months Ago ...

On November 8, there was a similarly mysterious attack in the area.

Emilia DiSanto, a chief investigator on the Senate's finance committee, was prominently involved in the unraveling of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dirty deals.

She drove to her suburban Virginia home across the river from the Capitol. A man was waiting in the dark. He wore black clothes, black gloves and a black hat. He beat her so savagely with a baseball bat that it took nine staples to close up her head again.

He took nothing, and fled when people heard her screams. The crime was never solved.

And in June, a Los Alamos whistleblower was lured to a fake meeting with informants just before he was to testify for Congress.

Tommy Hook was horribly beaten by "three or four" assailants in a parking lot. Again, they focused on the head.

"Mr. Hook was hospitalized in an emergency room with severe trauma to his face and head, including a fractured jaw, and a herniated disk," the Project on Government Oversight announced after the attack. "He is heavily medicated today and unable to speak to the media."

Or to Congressional investigators ....