Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
March 28, 2008
Pg. 7
By New York Times
CAIRO — President Bush apologized to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on Thursday for the killing of an Egyptian vendor when a cargo ship chartered by the United States opened fire on his small boat near the Suez Canal on Monday in an episode that has enraged Egyptians.
“President Bush expressed his deep regret and sympathies for the incident in the Suez Canal,” a White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said Thursday morning aboard Air Force One.
The vendor, 28-year-old Muhammad Fouad Afifi, was a licensed trader selling cigarettes and antiques to ships in the Suez Canal. He was shot on Monday evening as he approached a cargo ship, the Global Patriot.
On Wednesday, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, acknowledged the killing, calling it accidental. In a statement, he said a security team on board the ship had fired two sets of warning shots as three small boats approached. After the first set, two boats turned away, but the vendor’s boat did not.
March 28, 2008
Pg. 7
By New York Times
CAIRO — President Bush apologized to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on Thursday for the killing of an Egyptian vendor when a cargo ship chartered by the United States opened fire on his small boat near the Suez Canal on Monday in an episode that has enraged Egyptians.
“President Bush expressed his deep regret and sympathies for the incident in the Suez Canal,” a White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said Thursday morning aboard Air Force One.
The vendor, 28-year-old Muhammad Fouad Afifi, was a licensed trader selling cigarettes and antiques to ships in the Suez Canal. He was shot on Monday evening as he approached a cargo ship, the Global Patriot.
On Wednesday, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, acknowledged the killing, calling it accidental. In a statement, he said a security team on board the ship had fired two sets of warning shots as three small boats approached. After the first set, two boats turned away, but the vendor’s boat did not.