Michael Ware

Journalist

Sep 2004

TIME: The Enemy With Many Faces

By MICHAEL WARE / BAGHDAD

The grenade was visible when the insurgent stepped in front of our car. His sinewy arm was cocked, ready to throw. Fifteen more men poured out from the corner of a nearby tenement, swirling about the car like angry floodwaters. They brandished grenades and AK-47s, pistol grips nudging out from under the folds of their shirts. Spotting me in the backseat, they went into a frenzy, yanking on the handles of the doors, thumping the window with the grenades. Across Iraq, the insurgents have gone on a kidnapping spree, seizing Italian aid workers, French journalists and American construction workers. As they ordered us out of the car, I wondered whether we were about to become their latest catch.

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ABC TV (AUS) Lateline: 'No hope' for British hostage [transcript]

'No hope' for British hostage
Reporter: Tony Jones

TONY JONES: Back now to our top story -- and what may be the last hours of a man who, having seen his two American friends taken away to be murdered on video, has been put in front of the same camera to beg his government to save him.

But the 62-year-old Briton, Kenneth Bigley, is in the hands of the most ruthless killers in Iraq.

The Tawhid and Jihad group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are simply milking Bigley's life for whatever propaganda benefit they can derive.

One of the very few Western journalists to have made contact with al-Zarqawi's group, and who knows exactly what they're capable of, is Michael Ware of 'Time' magazine.

As many of you will know, a Brisbane boy who's made his name by taking risks few other journalists wouldn't even consider.

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NPR: Iraq Update: Hostage Crisis Confusion

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with Michael Ware of Time magazine about a disputed announcement earlier Wednesday that two Iraqi female prisoners would be released in exchange for a British hostage held by insurgents.

NPR: 4:21

Dateline (AUS): "In all regards, we regard ourselves on our own."



Michael appears on an Australian show to discuss reports that two Aussies had been abducted in Iraq.
 
(This clip was posted online in .RM format, which I converted. The size of the window is the same as the original.)

Length: 7:50

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ABC TV (AUS) 7:30: Hostage claim could be genuine, journalist says [transcript]

Hostage claim could be genuine, journalist says
Reporter: Kerry O'Brien

KERRY O'BRIEN: One Australian journalist who has more feel for the motives and make-up of the different insurgency groups involved in kidnappings and murders, And has had regular contact with many of them, is 'Time' magazine's Iraq correspondent Michael Ware, who joins me now from Baghdad.

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