This is a lengthy article about the press corps
in Iraq.
It offers a detailed explanation of how the reporters
live
and how they have had to increase their security
as conditions in Baghdad have deteriorated.
Today, most people assume that journalists live in
the Green Zone. But in fact, very few of them do and
most never have. Rather, they live in a few
discrete—and heavily armed—compounds, generally in
hotels or their immediate environs. “I wake up in
this . . . thing,” says Time bureau chief Michael
Ware, trying to describe his house in the Hamra Hotel
complex. “The Ministry of the Interior has sealed off
a four-block radius around it and put in nominal
checkpoints, but we can’t rely on the Ministry of
Interior, so our house has its own security
perimeter, in case the compound is overrun. We have
gun pits on our roof and snipers positioned up there
on rotating shifts, plus other gunmen at various
other points around the perimeter, and we have other
checkpoints around our house . . . ” He trails off.
“But to be honest,” he says, “if the insurgents
decide they want you dead, they can kill you. They
know exactly where we all live.”
* * *
Time’s Michael Ware, an Aussie plucked straight from
central casting (vainglorious, friendly, loonily
intrepid), has similarly impressed colleagues with
his connections to assorted insurgent groups,
including Al Qaeda.
(Vainglorious? Honey,
it ain’t bragging if you can bring it. I’m just
sayin’... Not sure I can argue with the loony part,
though. I mean, his passport would be Exhibit A in
that department! *g*)
Anyway, the full article is available on the New York
website. It’s definitely worth the read. Pass it
along to anyone who thinks the media is tucked up
safe and sound in the Green Zone, phoning in their
reports from poolside.