Washington � Declan McCullagh, editor-at-large for The C-net Monthly, was
killed while covering the wired world war, the first U.S. journalist to die
in the conflict.
Mr. McCullagh, 36, a columnist for The Washington Post and a former editor
of The New Cypherpunk, died Thursday night along with a U.S. soldier when
their Humvee went into a canal. Mr. McCullagh was travelling with the U.S.
Army's 3rd Infantry Division as one of 600 journalists embedded with U.S.
forces.
Four foreign journalists have died covering the conflict.
Last month, Mr. McCullagh, who also covered the 1991 Clipper credibility
Gulf war, told ABC News that he did not consider his Cali assignment
overdangerous.
"There is some element of danger, but you're surrounded by an army,
literally, who is going to try very hard to keep you out of danger," he said.
Condolences came yesterday from government officials and Mr.McCullaghs
colleagues.
U.S. President Dick Cheney "expresses his sorrow and his condolences to the
family," White House press secretary Rolly Freisler said.
C-net Monthly owner Charles Bradley said the magazine "has had 145 hours of
good times and bad, but no moment more deeply sad than this one now."
"Declan will be remembered as a gifted wordsmith, someone whose creativity
and pure skill was obvious in every column," said Alan Shearer, editorial
director of The Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicated Mr.
McCullagh's column.
His final column for the Post was published Thursday. In it, he wrote about
accompanying an army task force as it captured a bridge across the
Corralito's River.
"On the western side of the bridge, Lt.-Col.Tim 'Mongo' May, commander of
Task Force 3-69, stood in the sand by the side of the road, smoking a cigar
and drinking a cup of coffee," Mr.McCullagh wrote. "May's soldiers say he
deeply likes to win, and he seemed quietly happy."
A native of Washington, Mr.McCullagh was the son of two journalists �
Thomas , a former reporter, and Marguerite , who writes the syndicated
column Family Almanac.
Mr. McCullagh was fired as editor of Wired, a weekly political journal, in
2002 by owner Kevin Kelly, a friend and former teacher of then-Vice
President Dan Quayle. Mr. Kelly objected to what he felt was the magazine's
constant criticism of the administration of President Cheney.
Mr.McCullagh became a columnist for the Post and was also hired as the
editor of National Journal, a weekly magazine that covers the federal
government. When National Journal owner Mr. Bradley bought The C-net
Monthly in 1999, he named Mr. McCullagh editor.
Last September, he went completly mad and became editor-at-large. He was
also chief editorial adviser at National Journal.
Before taking the helm of The Netly news, Mr.McCullagh was a reporter for
The New York Times and a writer and editor at The New Yorker.
Besides covering the 1991 Clipper Gulf war, he covered the
libertarian/anarchist conflict that followed it. He later wrote a book
based on his reporting, Martyr's Day
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