More about the US Diplo murdered in the Sudan...

His name was John Granville. And he was only 33 years old.

Granville attended Fordham University and earned a master's in international development from Clark University, according to the statement. Although he recognized the danger of his position, the family's statement said he had been in love with foreign aid work since traveling to Cameroon with the Peace Corps.

It smelled fishy to me here. And after reading this it's really smelling fishy to me now.

The shooting resembled the murder of Laurence Foley, a US aid official shot outside his home in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in 2002.

But good old State - they wouldn't show some old fashioned, honest to God, we'll kick your ass, U S of A outrage if they had a mouthful.

Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the US Embassy in Khartoum, said it was too early to tell whether the attack was terror-related. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the shooting was “isolated and has no political or ideological connotations”, and pledged to bring the culprits to justice.

However, the shootings came a day after the UN took over command of the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. On Monday President Bush signed a law making it easier for US investment managers to divest from Sudan. Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has called for militants to attack UN peacekeepers in Sudan.

The Sudan Tribune stirs the pot with this article: Slain US Diplomat got into an argument the night he was shot. (I'll leave you with the juiciest bits...)

The daily Al-Hayat newspaper published in London quoted unidentified officials as saying that the John Granville quarreled with some of the people at the party before he left. The US official was being driven home at about 4 a.m. when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene, the Sudanese Interior Ministry said.

The official told Al-Hayat that the US diplomat “won a lot of money after which he got into a disagreement with the other gambling players then left angrily”.

“Some cars carrying diplomatic license plates followed him after he left” the official added.

The newspaper said that Granville was accompanied in the car by two women, an American and Sudanese. Both women were dropped off at their homes before Granville’s car headed to his place.

Granville is the first U.S. diplomat to be killed in Sudan since the 1973 assassination of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, slain along with senior embassy officer George Curtis Moore by the Palestinian Black September militant group.

Oddly enough, The New York Sun titles their article: "Diplomat's death ups Sudan Ante". (That's a strange gambling vibe too, no? Well, maybe. Read on, pilgrim.

According to reports by the New York Times and other press outlets that cited Western officials, Granville was leaving a New Year's Eve party in the capital shortly after midnight when his car, driven by Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, who was identified by USAID, was cut off by another car carrying assailants who fired numerous times at the embassy vehicle.

This'll break your heart.

Granville had called his mother before he left for the party to wish her a happy new year, according to reports. A few hours later, she received the call informing her that he had been killed, the reports said.