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Frontline Club: Iraq film premiere and debate

January 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

How has risk rewritten the rules for Iraqi journalists? The Frontline Club in London premieres A Strange Animal, a short film featuring me and my colleagues in Iraq. The film, directed by Richard Pendry, reveals some of the techniques reporters have developed in a conflict where they are targeted for kidnap and murder.

The screening at the Frontline Club was followed by a debate about the growing role of local journalists in covering conflict. The Frontline website has a short article summarising the debate, as well as video and podcast of the entire proceedings. A short version of A Strange Animal was screened by Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

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Filed Under: Film / TV, Iraq Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Daily Beast: Raid in Kirkuk

October 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Can the thrill of frontline reporting offset the pressure of a desk job?

Richard Pendry interviews me in this five-minute film for The Daily Beast, examining the risks and rewards of embedding with an Iraqi police unit.

Photograph by Kamaran Najm/Metrography

Filed Under: Film / TV, Iraq Tagged With: , , , ,

Sunni Militia’s Struggle for Relevance

September 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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A bomb attack outside an Iraqi military base has killed scores of Sunni Sahwa militiamen who were queuing for their wages. The manner in which the men died seems to embody their leaders’ concerns: picked out by vengeful enemies at the gates of an institution that remains wary of them. The Sahwa (Awakening) fighters partnered the US against their former allies in al-Qaeda – but now feel betrayed by the Iraqi state.

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Filed Under: Iraq Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Iraqi Interpreter’s Killing Pits Faith Against Law

September 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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An Iraqi man who worked as an interpreter for the US military is shot dead for having apparently converted to Christianity. The reaction to his murder illustrates the difficulty of balancing ancient articles of faith against a democratic obligation to guard religious minorities.

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Filed Under: Investigations / Editing, Iraq Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Financial Times Weekend magazine: Policing Kirkuk

August 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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Kirkuk’s anti-terrorist police ride around in battered pickup trucks, keeping a nervous lookout for the bombers that have killed scores of their colleagues. With the American military eying an exit from Iraq, the force has become a central player in a seemingly intractable conflict over land and oil.

I accompanied the officers as they carried out overnight raids in pursuit of an insurgent cell linked to al-Qaeda.

Photographs by Kamaran Najm/Metrography

Filed Under: Iraq, Magazine / Long Form, Radio / Audio Slideshows Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

BBC Radio Four’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’: Legacy of Bosnia’s jihadis

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In the decade before al-Qaeda was deemed a direct threat to the West, a small band of jihadis came to Europe to wage war on behalf of the Bosniak government of besieged Sarajevo.

The Bosniak’s foes, the Bosnian Serbs, are keen to project their wartime cause as a precursor to the US-led “war on terror”. But the jihadis’ legacy is fading and they have few friends today on the streets of secular Sarajevo.

Filed Under: Balkans, Radio / Audio Slideshows, Short Features Tagged With: , , , , , ,