Print Casualties of War
(New York Post)
Friday, June 02, 2006
By KEITH J. KELLY
June 2, 2006 -- ONE of the first - and toughest -
tasks facing incoming Time magazine editor Richard
Stengel is replenishing the Baghdad bureau.
While the bureau has certainly earned its stars -
most notably by reporting the apparent shooting of
unarmed civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha last
November - it has been hit by two big departures.
Tim McGirk, who shepherded the original story which
broke in January, moved last month to be Jerusalem's
bureau chief, while the other principal architect of
the story, Bobby Ghosh, is now the Baghdad bureau
chief.
This week, veteran Time reporter in Iraq, Michael
Ware, who spent more than three years in the war-torn
country, said he is jumping to CNN as a TV
correspondent in Baghdad.
Ware was on book leave when Time was piecing together
the story on the deaths in Haditha.
Military investigators now say the version of events
surrounding the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians does not
appear to jibe with the Marines' first account.
At least 15 of the deaths now appear to have been of
noncombatants shot at close range.
Getting volunteers to move into harm's way is always
one of the tougher assignments for an editor of a
newsweekly.
"It is unimaginably dangerous for journalists in Iraq
every single day, every single minute," said Ware,
who Media Ink caught up to in Australia where he is
relaxing with his family.
"You risk kidnapping every time you leave your gate,"
he added.
Ware may have missed out on the big Haditha story -
but he hasn't missed much else.
"I've been in just about every major battle in Iraq,"
he said. "I recently returned from Ramadi, which is
just a major war zone."
He said that in October 2004, he was captured by Al
Qaeda supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who pulled
him from his car, threatening to murder him.
"They were going to use my own camera to record my
death," he said. He said he was saved when Iraqi
nationals vouched for him and convinced the
insurgents to free him.
On at least three other occasions, Ware said he was
in rooms with insurgents when debates broke out over
whether he should be killed on the spot.
So, why go back?
"This is the greatest story of our age," he said.
"We need to understand what is happening in Iraq
because the reverberations will be rippling across
the world for many years to come."
Asked about his move from print to TV, he said, "I
think it will allow me to better relay the
experiences of the war."
Times' Managing Editor Jim Kelly said of Ware, "He's
been leaving us for a while. He did well by us and we
did well by him. But we have a deep bench in Iraq."
Kelly will move to his new job as corporate managing
editor of Time Inc. in two weeks.
Ware said his move has nothing to do with the switch
at the top. "I believe Time will proceed from
strength to strength," he said, "but I just felt for
me it was time to try a new medium."