Juarez deathtoll climbs

An absolutely chilling report from Michael tonight on AC360 about one of the drug cartels slaughtering the residents of a drug rehab facility in Juarez because they believed a rival cartel was recruiting them. The report began with footage of family members trying to find their loved ones amid the bloodbath, and I’m sure I was not the only person reminded of the worst times of the civil war in Baghdad.

Clips are converting now posted here.

More on Mexico

Off the wires…

CNN’s Cooper to Anchor from San Diego After Discovery of Major Tunnel to Mexico

AC360CNN’s Anderson Cooper will anchor from San Diego this Thursday night after the discovery of a tunnel from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico. The tunnel, which was not complete on the US side, is approximately 850 feet long and began under a false floor in a bathroom. Equipped with an elevator to take smugglers down to the tunnel, it was headed towards a US warehouse.

Anderson Cooper will have exclusive access to the tunnel, which was apparently intended for human and drug trafficking.

AC360° Correspondent, Michael Ware will update on cartel violence which is still happening at a record pace.National Geographic special correspondent Lisa Ling will also provide reports on drug trafficking.

Anderson Cooper 360° airs weeknight at 10pm ET on CNN.

Notice that it doesn’t specify that Michael will be in San Diego or Mexico — he may just be updating info from NYC — so we’ll have to wait and see.

LA Times column

First, some quick business … obviously I still have not got the clips from Tues/Wed posted on the site. A lot of behind-the-scenes problems, I’m afraid. And this morning my poor old PowerBook won’t even open the software program I use for the site. Obviously given my current situation I don’t have $1500 to drop on that new MacBook Pro I am lusting after, but this weekend I will borrow a computer if need be in order to get those clips posted.

Meanwhile, the LA Times has a column about Michael today. The writer gets a lot of things right, but I think he and the people he quotes anonymously are way offbase on others. My impression of Michael is that he is not driven to do what he does because of any kind of ego or “cowboy” issues, but because he has witnessed so much of what is happening on the streets of these warzones — the stuff that is not shown on TVs because the American public couldn’t stomach having the carnage come into their living rooms every night. How do you stay home in peace and comfort when people you know — local residents who work for the bureau, shopkeepers who wait on you, the children who should be playing in your street — are suffering and dying every day? Maybe some people can switch off their caring, but I know that if I had the guts to do what Michael does, I would be just as torn up, just as emotionally shredded as he is. That he keeps going at all is another reason I admire him and his passion for the truth.

And what he shows us on TV is Michael being Michael. He doesn’t compromise and he doesn’t pretty things up. What sets him apart from other reporters is not his broken nose or the fact that he doesn’t own a tie, it’s the fact that he won’t airbrush the ugliness out of war or put ruffles and bows on the political realities in other countries that we are trying to mold into modern societies.

Anyway, here’s the column; I’ll add it to the website when I can:

Michael Ware speaks on CNN about President Obama’s plan to send more troops to Afghanistan. (CNN / December 3, 2009)

ON THE MEDIA

Reporter crashes into the ranks of pundits
James Rainey

December 4, 2009

All this talk about the couple who broke into the White House state dinner has been kind of interesting. But, for my money, the most fascinating gate-crasher this week on the Washington scene had to be Michael Ware.

I’m talking about the CNN foreign correspondent who, though invited, descended on the cable station’s otherwise temperate panels on Afghanistan like some feral creature from the vast, untamed Outback.

The unshaven, unruly and apparently unfettered Aussie appeared on seemingly every one of the cable station’s platforms in recent days, chiding President Obama for being unspecific, mocking the idea of anything like a clear “victory” in Afghanistan and warning of atrocities if America throws in with unsavory partners.

I’m told that news executives at the cable station quietly cheered Ware’s star turn after Obama’s Tuesday address on Afghanistan. I wouldn’t disagree that Ware’s brand of shock and awe — arguing with one colleague and returning repeatedly to the contradictory realities of war — made for great TV.

But what worries a few of Ware’s overseas colleagues, as one told me, is that the correspondent has morphed “from a really good, passionate reporter into a television personality.” In other words, Michael Ware, war correspondent, risks his considerable credibility the more he plays Michael Ware, political pundit.

He’s not the first and won’t be the last journalist on television who needs to be careful that his gifts as a reporter aren’t overwhelmed by the ratings-driven imperative to put on a better show.

I wrote not long ago about how a couple of other correspondents with substantial time in Iraq and Afghanistan — CBS’ Lara Logan and NBC’s Richard Engel — also risked their more powerful role as impartial witnesses by staking out positions on the Afghan war. (Logan favored Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s buildup, while Engel favored withdrawal.)

I tried but failed to reach Ware, who in previous interviews has revealed a connection to the wars that seems to have crossed from committed to obsessive. On returning to New York, he told a writer for Men’s Journal a year ago that he was struggling to adjust. “I don’t know,” he said, “how to come home.”

A native of Brisbane, Ware attended law school and played a lot of rugby, as evidenced by his wrong-way nose. He began writing for Time in 2001 and gained acclaim in Iraq as the rare journalist who reported from within insurgent encampments. Ware jumped to CNN three years ago.

Colleagues describe him as a daring and inquisitive reporter, garrulous and hard-drinking among the small fraternity of Western journalists abroad. His reputation grew after a fling with Logan and an alleged brawl with a rival suitor.

Going back several years, a fellow reporter said that Ware struggled to accept rotations out of the war zone that most correspondents craved.

“He looked forward to going. Then, when the time came to leave, he would already be talking about coming back to Baghdad,” said the associate, who asked not to be named lest he alienate Ware. “If he is not in a danger area, if he is not on television, then he believes he is a lesser person.”

In Afghanistan in September, Ware rode in an Afghan police truck that narrowly avoided an improvised explosive device. Now he’s based in New York and deployed to assignments around the world.

Sitting in the midst of one of CNN’s over-packed studio panels after Obama’s speech, Ware seemed not just interested but impelled to speak, intent on not having the prospects in Afghanistan romanticized.

He told host Anderson Cooper how crucial it was to engage not just the central government but also the far-flung warlords who control much of the country. Yes, some local leaders might fight the Taliban for cash, but that would present its own complications.

“If they say ‘There will be no Taliban in my district,’ then there will be no Taliban in their district,” Ware said. “And if they show up, they won’t just kill their wife and their father and their mother. They’ll kill their goats, their dogs and everything.”

A day later, Ware had tucked in his rumpled shirt and thrown on a sport jacket, but his picture of the war zone remained relentlessly unkempt realpolitik. “Bottom line, America did not go there to save Afghan women,” he said, “to educate Afghan children.”

Host Erica Hill seemed taken aback, arguing that many Americans would fight the notion they couldn’t do much to help average Afghans. Ware smiled and shrugged, responding: “It is what it is.”

You might think Ware’s rap would draw raves from the left, but he argued that Obama’s 30,000 troop buildup could help. The soldiers and Marines can’t “win” the way some conservatives imply, but they just might be able to clear enough space so the parties — including tribal leaders and the Afghan, Pakistani and Indian governments — can hammer out a political deal.

“With a couple of miracles and a sprinkle of luck,” he said, “it’s theoretically possible.”

I talked to several other war correspondents about Ware and, to a person, they admired his intelligence, bravery and reporting skills. They also wondered if he had become a little too enamored of his own persona.

Watching Ware, I was struck by competing impulses — charmed by this rough-hewn character, even as I wondered how much it has become studied; impressed by his repeated forays into danger but saddened at the thought he’s become a prisoner of his own compulsions.

He has many reasons to be impressed by his own knowledge but also should remind himself of what he can’t know.

“A lot of us can think we have spent so much time here that we see the big picture. But we don’t see the big picture,” said one reporter who worked with Ware in Iraq. “We were not in Washington or Brussels or wherever else the rest of the story was being told. We need to remember, no matter how much we learn, perhaps there are others who see the big picture better than we do.”

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

latimes.com/news/local/la-et-onthemedia4-2009dec04,0,11542.column

A man, a plan, Afghanistan

Michael was on TSR and Campbell Brown’s program this afternoon. Clips are converting and will be up ASAP now posted on the site.

Wolf also confirmed that Michael will be part of tomorrow night’s coverage of the president’s speech.

Belated holiday wishes!

Hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving, lots of turkey and parades and football and especially family and friends!

As many of you may already know, Jenmelia (one of our regular posters) was in a serious car accident Tuesday night — she is lucky to have only minor injuries, and that was one more thing to be thankful for today.

I’m hopeful that Michael will do some commentary Tuesday when the Afghan plan is announced… but you know how good I am at predicting when CNN will have him on, so we’ll see.

AC360 tonight

Thanks to Sharon for passing this along — Atia Abawi tweeted about tonight’s program:

AtiaAbawi Getting some sleep before our live hit for AC360, watch tonight, joining the panel on Afghanistan with Peter Bergen and Michael Ware.

There certainly is a lot to discuss, hopefully they will have a good long time to talk.

UPDATE:

AtiaAbawi Just finished a pretape for tonight’s AC360 with Erica Hill on a panel with Mick Ware and Fareed Zakaria. Airs tonight at 10pEST.

US publisher set

Michael now has a US publisher for his book. Random House was the high bidder at an auction set up by his literary agent. The description: CNN foreign correspondent and former Time Magazine Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware’s BETWEEN ME AND THE DEAD, the author’s unvarnished first-hand account about the brutal experience of war, by one of the few mainstream reporters to have lived in Baghdad near-continuously since before the American invasion of Iraq … no date information was included in the announcement.

Playing catch-up

Well, it’s Sunday, and I’ve pretty much spent the entire day catching up the clips from the past few days! I’ve just posted the CB and AC360 clips from Thursday, the AC360 from Friday, and NewsRoom from Saturday. (Michael has been busy!)

Still no fix for auto-tweeting the site posts. This may be something I can’t do until I can upgrade to RapidWeaver’s latest version, which I can’t do until I get a new computer. Which… well, doesn’t look likely to happen soon. Apartment-hunting is the first priority I have to think about now, so hopefully the duct tape will keep holding my PowerBook together for a few more months!

Meantime, while dealing with some RL drama the past few days I missed posting Happy Birthday wishes to Mavis (Friday) and to Délie (Saturday)! Darn, here we missed a couple great excuses to party! I hope they both had wonderful birthdays and will have a great year ahead of them!

Thursday’s clips

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get Michael’s two pieces from last night posted yet, but I did get the panel discussion from Campbell Brown’s program uploaded this morning before I ran out the door. (I must confess… I have not even had time to WATCH it yet!!! My life is a bit insane these days, and not in a good way!)

Here are the links if you want to watch it ASAP, and I will get it and the AC360 interview posted on the site tonight. I hope. (!!!)

Large version
Small version

Analysis: Iraq not ready to face al Qaeda

Michael has an article on CNN.com. I’ll add it to the site when I get home tonight.

Analysis: Iraq not ready to face al Qaeda
By Michael Ware
CNN
October 28, 2009 — Updated 1752 GMT (0152 HKT)

NEW YORK (CNN) — The bombs that ripped through Baghdad on Sunday immediately brought more bloodshed — and bode only of the promise of more to come.

The attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq — a group affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq — and there’s nothing to suggest the attacks will come to an end.

It’s part of a long-running campaign to destabilize the U.S. mission, the Iraqi government and to reignite sectarian civil war.

The slaughter is not new but the extent of the killings in these bombings — 160 dead and more than 500 injured — do punctuate a seemingly never ending campaign.

While al Qaeda in Iraq has been gutted from within, principally by Sunni insurgents turning on them and assassinating them over recent years, the network still exists.

Al Qaeda, an organization built with the expectation of loss, has endured and will continue to do so until Iraq’s slated January election and beyond.

Under the international agreement between Washington, D.C. and Baghdad signed by the then-outgoing Bush administration, America’s war in Iraq has all but ended with command of the war shifting permanently to the Iraqi government.

Al Qaeda attacks took place during the U.S. command and now persist under Iraqi command.

While many are thwarted, while car bombs are found and defused, it’s an ugly matter of fact that in war some bombs will always get through.

And Iraqi security forces in no way can be said to be ready to face the threat posed by al Qaeda or any insurgent group.

The devastation of the bombings has had the effect al Qaeda desired — chipping away at Iraqi public confidence in government, even prompting the governor of Baghdad to call for the resignation of the security officials in charge of the capital’s safety.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is not the network it once was, it’s not able to deliver multiple suicide bombings on an almost daily basis.

When I was last in Baghdad nationalist insurgents told me there were but a handful of operational al Qaeda cells in the city. Nonetheless, they warned five committed al Qaeda members can “wreak havoc.”

The weekend bombings are testament to that. While the tempo of al Qaeda’s suicidal strikes — largely targeting Iraq’s Shia community — have slowed, they have not stopped. While al Qaeda in Iraq maintains its capacity to kill it will keep striking.

This is the environment that the U.S. is likely to leave in Iraq — a fragile state plagued with an ever present al Qaeda threat.

The question is how that state counters the threat and maintains its credibility with its own people. And that, ultimately, will be the final measure of the American mission — how well the Iraqis stand up.