A recent story in the Raleigh News-Observer ["Guardsman killed Iraqi after sex", by Jay Price, December 18, 2004] confronts us with the mystery of why Federico Daniel Merida, 21, of Biscoe, N.C., a private in the North Carolina National Guard, shot and killed his comrade, Iraqi National Guardsman Falah Zaggam, 17, following some sort of homosexual tryst while they were on guard duty together in Tikrit, Iraq.

Merida was court-martialed and sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder.

But perhaps even more mysterious is Merida's U.S. immigration status—or lack thereof.

"Friends and family members wrote the Army asking for a reduction in Merida's sentence, citing the fact that his son, a toddler, needs him and that his wife speaks little English and relies on him. Merida was born in Veracruz, Mexico, and moved to the United States as a child."

The Raleigh News-Observer apparently didn’t think this News worth Observing.

Ask reporter Price why not!