April 2007 - Posts
By Yuka Tachibana, NBC News Producer
VIDEO: As the one-time "breadbasket of Africa" plunges ever deeper into crisis, two prominent Africa-watchers discuss President Robert Mugabe’s devastating legacy.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
My nose started twitching even before I set foot outside the airport in Beijing.
While not quite hot, the air was thick.
Thick with white fluff the size of grapes.
"What is that?" I asked our driver, Mr.Guan, as he steered the car onto the highway.
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| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| Beijing in a spring haze. |
"It's pollen. From those trees," he pointed to the rows of tall poplars lining either side of the road. "They're a problem. People feel worse because of it."
I started digging in my bag for antihistamines.
"This morning, I had to wipe the car off," he continued. "It covers everything and gives people all sorts of allergies."
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By Karl Bostic, NBC News Producer
VIDEO: The abduction of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in Gaza on March 12 illustrates the dangers facing journalists in the Middle East.
Watch video of the protests and rallies held over the last month by Israeli and Palestinian journalists demanding the release of Johnston and hear journalists discuss how his abduction will affect future reporting from Gaza.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
NBC News correspondents and producers often embed with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to get a closer look at the war and the lives of the troops.
But traveling around on a military embed can be a fairly unglamorous experience for the TV crew. Take a behind the scenes look at the journey Martin Fletcher and a crew took from Kabul to a U.S. base in Jalalabad last December.
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
The world used to be a blank page for the press. We came, we saw, we reported. We felt protected by our notebooks and pens, and by every government’s self-interest – it didn’t do any good to harm the press.
But look at the list of no-go areas for journalists today.
Iraq is mostly out apart from military embeds and limited forays from heavily-guarded compounds.
Reporters based in Kenya who normally cover Somalia refuse to go there, saying it is too anarchic and dangerous. Sudan won’t let reporters travel to Darfur, nor will Zimbabwe permit coverage of its troubles.
In earlier days journalists would probably have ventured there anyway, trusting in luck or hoping to slip in and out under the radar. But today we’re no longer perceived as uninvolved messengers; we’ve become targets. In Gaza foreign reporters are routinely kidnapped while the Palestinian government pleads helplessness.
All these places have managed to scare reporters away by threatening to kidnap them, beat them or kill them, and sometimes all three. And that’s without mentioning the killing of reporters in the former Soviet Union and parts of Latin America and Asia.
I’ve particularly been thinking about this since foreign reporters based in Israel and Palestinian journalists in Gaza demonstrated Wednesday in support of a BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza six weeks ago. The event made it even clearer how the dangers to reporters have changed.
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By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
Sony, you can relax -- for now...
The well publicized scare that copies of the anticipated blockbuster movie “Spider-Man 3” are already being peddled on the streets of Beijing even before the film’s U.S. release on May 4 are bogus, at least for now. At least that’s based on our experience with a discreet camera and a journey to the pirate’s cove of illegal movies in downtown Beijing.
We ventured to a market frequented by Western tourists, a place where guys on bikes peddling pirated DVDs come to catch them in their web. Sure enough, one man pulled out a shiny new DVD jacket with the “Spider-Man 3” logo.
Could this be the real thing -- a bootleg copy somehow ripped off from the premiere in Japan? Or was this a copy of “Spider-Man 2” -- reportedly finding its way into a newer jacket, something being reported here?
It was neither. We discovered that inside that “Spider-Man 3” jacket was actually a copy of "Earth vs. The Spider," a 2001 movie starring Dan Aykroyd. The pirates might be out to dupe tourists, but they upheld the idea of honor among thieves with their bait and switch by sticking to the same spider theme.
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By NBC News' Mushtaq Yusufzai in Nuristan, Afghanistan and Carol Grisanti in Islamabad, Pakistan
This time I was scared. I had crossed over from Pakistan into Afghanistan to interview Taliban commanders before, but the situation in Afghanistan hadn’t been this bad. Now journalists are prime targets for kidnapping and ransom; victims of a well-organized Afghan gang who are actually looking for journalists to sell to the Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
I had been offered a meeting with Mullah Munibullah, commander of Taliban forces in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. He has never given an interview before. This could have been a trap.
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NBC News' Mushtaq Yusufzai, left, speaks with Taliban Commander, Mullah Munibullah, in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. |
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I told my mother and gave her some phone numbers to call in case I went missing. She started to cry and forbade me to go. By the time I had convinced my mother that I would be fine – after all, I have known the people who arranged the meeting for me for more than two years and I trusted them – I had convinced myself of that as well.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
I often exchange e-mails with soldiers, officers and, sometimes, their families back home. Last week, I received an e-mail from Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, a smart, energetic commander I know in western Baghdad.
But the e-mail wasn't sent to me. It was from Kuehl to his wife, Ellen, in the States. She forwarded it to me, and I am quoting from it with Kuehl's permission.
The e-mail describes an attack on his troops. But something more than that also comes through -- how acts of individual heroism by these soldiers, and many others, are often overshadowed by the grim state of affairs in Iraq in general. And they deserve to be recognized, no matter what ultimately happens in this troubled country.
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| Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, left, and a colleague from the 1st Battalion - 5th Cavalry Regiment, U.S. Army. |
Trying to bring order to chaos
I first met Kuehl on his combat outpost last year. The outpost (Bonsai II) is a former Iraqi wedding hall that the soldiers have converted into a small operating base.
These soldiers don't live on big bases like Camp Victory with Internet connections in their bunks, a food court and world-class gyms.
Their home is an old worn-out building with no running water, no bathroom, no showers, no privacy, and only as much security as the soldiers themselves can provide.
When the troops first arrived, the wedding hall was full of trash, diseased stray cats and feces. Now, while still a dump, it is a functioning base that soldiers use to launch raids and patrols in west Baghdad as they try to stop Sunni insurgents and Shiite death squads from killing each other, local residents and the troops.
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By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Col. John Nicholson, commander of Task Force Spartan, has a lot on his mind:
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He must lead a brigade of some 3,500 U.S. soldiers in the rugged and lethal eastern Afghan mountain ranges near the border with Pakistan.
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His tour of duty and that of his men has been extended from one year to 15 months, without prior notice.
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The winter lull in the war against the Taliban is over and – once again – Taliban fighters and al-Qaida operatives are infiltrating from Pakistan into his “area of operations” in large numbers.
But this is not what was preoccupying this West Point graduate, who has led his brigade through at least three major military offensives in Taliban country during the past year. What was disturbing him, he confided to me after we caught up at Jalalabad Air base on Wednesday, was that his daughter just lost her best girlfriend. Her former high school classmate, Erin Peterson, was one of the 30 killed in Norris Hall, on the Virginia Tech campus.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
The disturbing and cryptic video clips, photographs and manifesto the killer Cho Seung Hui sent to NBC News instantly reminded me of the taped testimonials suicide bombers leave behind to justify their crimes.
It looked so familiar -- an angry young man dressed in battle clothing preaching a message full of hate in front of a drab background. I have seen many of these videos over the years in the Middle East.
The attackers always stress a desire to battle injustice and moral turpitude; they all believe they are avengers of the righteous. The videos are also replete with religious references. Cho's message seems little different.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
This week Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his six ministers out of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, allegedly because the Iraqi leader refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. But officials close to Sadr told me today that's not the real reason.
"Maliki violated an agreement he had with Sadr. He crossed certain red lines by arresting so many of Sadr's men," I was told.
When the Baghdad security plan began a few months ago, backed up the U.S. troop "surge," Sadr's officials claim to have had an understanding with Maliki that the military crackdown would not target his fighters, the Mahdi Army. Many of the Mahdi Army leaders went underground, hid their weapons or left Iraq for neighboring Iran.
Sadr feels Maliki broke the deal. Officials in the Mahdi Army say U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested 800 members of Sadr's movement in the last several months, including Sheikh Qais Khazali, who is reputed to be one of the movement's top commanders.
Sadr sources say when U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Khazali about two weeks ago in southern Iraq they also seized a laptop computer containing key information about Sadr's militia.
"I expect Sadr will soon return to the armed fight," I was told.
By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer
Today is the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and I thought to myself that this is the right time.
The right time to introduce my eight-year-old daughter to the atrocities that took place just over 60 years ago. But how do you tell a little girl about Hitler’s systematic killing machine? About shooting men, women and children in the back, starving families to death, and putting them into gas chambers.
The real problem I faced was how to get her attention away from watching Dora on T.V. to a serious matter like this. Of course the way to do it was to get the backing of the educational system, which kicks into full action when memorial dates like the Holocaust come up.
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By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer
As I sit here in Moscow and read about Sanjaya and American Idol, I can’t help but be amused. Here in Europe (yes, Moscow is part of Europe. At least it is for this blog – but more on that later), singing and controversial performances have long ago been elevated to an art form known as the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held next month.
The Eurovision was first held in 1956 in Switzerland with 14 countries participating and the winner selected by a jury (surprisingly, it was Switzerland). The Eurovision has since become more democratic in voting -- now by viewers calling in and sending text messages -- and the definition of Europe has expanded -- 42 countries will compete this year, including Israel and Georgia.
What’s at stake? The winning country hosts the Eurovision (and the assumed tourism euros) the following year. OK, so it’s not the Olympics. But let’s face it --Andorra, Malta, Albania, and Belarus don’t have a shot at 2016 anyway, so hosting the ESC isn’t such a bad consolation prize.
And despite the fact that few Eurovision winners have gone on to large commercial success (with the notable exception of ABBA’s 1974 victory with "Waterloo"), it doesn’t stop singers from trying to win.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
Maha didn’t sound like the murderer she wants to be.
The 20-year-old sounded polite and soft-spoken as she told me about her plans to become a suicide bomber. Her motivation, as she told me over the phone (she was too scared to meet in person), is not political, patriotic, religious or even, like some male suicide bombers, bizarrely sexual; for her there would be no 72 houris, the dark-eyed female attendants some Islamic teachings say care for male martyrs in paradise.
There is no equivalent for female martyrs, no male houris.
Our talk took me back to a trash-filled street in Cairo where in 1997 I spoke with a group of young men, all poor, unmarried, undereducated Islamic radicals who were trying to convert me. They repeatedly stressed how virgins would dote me on me in heaven. One of the men pulled a cigarette lighter from his pocket and held the yellow flame under my outstretched palm. I pulled back my hand in pain.
"Does that hurt you?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Just this tiny little flame hurts you? Now imagine what Hell fires would feel like for eternity. But in paradise there are virgins… virgins who smell like mangos," he said.
But Maha didn’t talk to me about rewards in paradise, but revenge in this life.
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By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
It must be the world’s strangest industrial zone - a zone where cell phones and western newspapers aren’t allowed, but described by its supporters as a blueprint for a unified Korea.
Reaching the Kaesong Industrial Complex isn’t easy, since it sits just the other side of the world’s most fortified border, the rather inappropriately named demilitarized zone (DMZ), separating the two Koreas. A dedicated road has been laid across the DMZ, passing through four fences - two on the southern side, two on the north, the gates manned by soldiers from the opposing armies. The road itself is fenced in, the land on either side littered with mines, watchtowers and bunkers. Yet everyday around 300 vehicles make the journey, servicing the rapidly expanding complex beyond.
Click here to read the rest of Ian Williams blog about the North Korean industrial zone in the Daily Nightly blog.
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter kidnapped in Gaza, is in his fourth week of captivity without a sign of life. The word in the Gaza Street is that he could be released in a moment - for a substantial sum.
Palestinians say money has changed hands before to achieve the release of other kidnapped foreigners. But the price is going up.
The BBC is pursuing diplomatic means to try to secure the release of Johnston – holding high level talks and appealing to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who is also a member of the militant Hamas movement.
But, Palestinian sources in Gaza, who do not work with NBC, also say it’s no mystery who is holding Johnston. At least seven of the 32 kidnappings of reporters and foreigners in the last three years in Gaza are said to have been carried out by one family, the Daghmash clan, who number an estimated 8,000 people, and reside in Gaza City. They are also said to be holding Johnston. The kidnapped foreigners have previously all been released unharmed. Sometimes kidnappers demand jobs in the police force; recently it's about money.
Only one news organization that works in Gaza has named the family, a Palestinian news agency called Ma'an based in Bethlehem. Its Gaza reporters immediately closed up shop after their lives were threatened. And when we called a Gaza source for this blog, he said, "wait a minute, I must go inside. I cannot mention this family's name in the street." Threats work.
The truth is that the conflict here is portrayed as Israeli versus Arab. That's true, but it is only part of the equation of violence. Hamas versus Fatah is reported, but barely. The real violence that regular Palestinians in Gaza face daily, and is now overflowing to involve kidnapped foreigners, is between families.
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By Mike Taibbi, NBC News Correspondent
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Babil Province, Iraq -- I looked up at the cold, starlit sky and saw I was bedded down beneath the handle of the Big Dipper. It made me smile to see something so familiar, because nothing else about the night was.
In a convoy of Bradley tanks and Humvees, producer John Zito and cameraman Bill Angellucci and I had been returning with an infantry company from a frustrating raid on a suspected al-Qaida stronghold in Diyala Province only to run into a nest of IEDs -- the dreaded improvised explosive devices that have become one of the signatures of this protracted war. One explosive had been touched off by Zito’s Humvee, and another, a huge one, literally blew the track off the 37-ton Bradley tank that was next in line, disabling it completely and blocking the narrow dirt road that was our way home. Amazingly there were no casualties or serious injuries, though a piece of flying shrapnel sliced the cheek of one of the Humvee gunners. When help had been summoned, those support vehicles ran into more IEDs -- we counted seven in all and were told later there'd been at least a dozen -- and the decision was made to stay put, keep a rotating watch of soldiers for protection, and wait for daylight when the rescue could resume.
Click here to read the rest of Mike Taibbi's blog from his series of "On the Line" reports from Iraq in the Daily Nightly blog.
By Ali Arouzi, NBC News Producer
The bizarre turn of events that lead to the release of the British sailors and marines, who had been held captive in Iran for almost two weeks, began with a somewhat surreal news conference Wednesday.
The news conference started with about 15 minutes of prayers, followed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launching into his usual rhetoric against the West, lambasting them as always.
Then something very odd happened. A couple of the commanders who had arrested the 14 British service men and one woman were awarded with medals for valor and courage in arresting the British.
When that happened, a lot of the press corps looked at one another slightly worried – thinking that this could indicate something quite bad to come – if the Iranians were giving medals to these commanders, then their hard-line attitude towards the British was bound to continue.
Then all of a sudden, the Ahmadinejad dropped his bombshell – that he was releasing the captives as "a gift" to the British people.
It was a strange turn of events and the whole thing felt rather staged – Ahmadinejad had his rhetoric, he handed out the medals, and then he said that the hostages were going to be freed. And within 10 minutes, there were the British sailors and marines shaking hands with the president in their ill-fitting suits!
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By Alexa Chopivsky, NBC News Producer
President Aleksander Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Condoleeza Rice, rules Belarus with a Soviet-style fist.
The country is nestled in Europe's womb, sandwiched between Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.
Independent media are banned and attending a political rally can land you in jail. Last year's presidential elections were called everything from "fraudulent" by the U.S. government to "clownery" by a U.S.-based Belarusian blogger.
Since he was six years old – when Lukashenko came to power – Franak Viacorka, a 19 -year-old activist, has watched his country of 10 million people stagnate. While other former Soviet republics developed civil societies, albeit to varying degrees of success, Belarus was frozen in a Cold War-era time warp.
Yet there is a trace of change in the Belarusian air. And it's coming in the form of Bluetooth, Skype, and rock videos as Viacorka is challenging his generation to be catalysts for change – and he is getting his message out using modern methods capable of evading government censors.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
Cuddly and cute, "Knut," the German polar bear cub, has made a big splash on the international media landscape.
Photos of the playful little fellow have been plastered across international newspapers, magazines, and on TVs around the globe. His first public outing at the Berlin Zoo drew over 200 journalists from around the world and German television broadcast it live.
The hype around Knut has been so enormous that the wave of extra visitors to the Berlin zoo - up to 30,000 on one recent weekend – has required the facility to employ additional staff.
Among the extra visitors was Annie Leibowitz, the celebrity photographer, who flew in from New York to take pictures.
Knut memorabilia has been flying off the shelves - from fluffy little toys to polar baby t-shirts. The first 2,500 stuffed animals that went on sale in Berlin were sold out within a week. A Berlin bank even issued a new debit card for its customers featuring a Knut motif.
Ever since his birth in December, Knut has been raised by a zoo keeper because his mother abandoned him. His situation gained global attention when an animal rights activist complained that that hand-feeding is not appropriate for polar bears and would condemn the bear to a dysfunctional life. German media interpreted the animal activist’s charge as a call for euthanasia for the cub. But zoo keepers and veterinarians alike have assured the public the bear will be fine.
Joining the ranks of supermodels
So Knut may be a grown polar bear within the year, changing from a cuddly little cub to a large animal with wild instincts, but in the meantime, he will get a little more of the limelight previously enjoyed by other famous Germans like Claudia Schiffer and Heidi Klum.
Knut will appear on the cover of the German edition of Vanity Fair magazine on Thursday. The glamour magazine will feature a 16-page cover story called "I, Knut -- A World Star From Germany."
And while appearing as a star standing alone on the German cover, Knut may have to share the spotlight on an upcoming "Green Issue" of American Vanity Fair with another pin-up boy and environmental activist: Leonardo DiCaprio.
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
The blog I posted last week "Holocaust survivors always 'survivors'" provoked so many interesting -- and contradictory -- comments that I’d like to respond.
Many readers shared memories, others sympathy, but a surprising number either denied the Holocaust ever happened or basically took the line: You weren’t the only ones, and stop whining already!
Now there’s nothing new about that. Martin Gilbert, the historian and Churchill’s official biographer, noted that in 1942 a British Member of Parliament stood in the House of Commons, and in response to growing rumors of the slaughter of Jews in Nazi concentration camps, complained about "those whining Jews."
Clearly genocide has not only targeted Jews, yet some readers raise the question, why do the Jews uniquely make such a meal out of it? Why can’t they get over it?
Personally I think it’s a stupid question, but since it appears to be a frequent one, I will try to give an answer.
The way I see it, remembering, and honoring the victims of genocide, is not a Jewish thing, it is a universal need.
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