New blog, “War Journos”

Since we have so many links to other journalists that we post here, I set up a new blog to start archiving their work… I’m not the one who will be running it, some of our intrepid posters will be handling that. So far we have just barely begun to get stuff in there, but if you want to take a look at it: War Journos. I’m going to be mostly filling in stuff that was linked to on here. You know, in my spare time!

Less than a week to the election… I wonder whether we will get back to having international news after that? Or at least maybe after the “what went wrong” dissections, the transition discussions, the inauguration, the first 100 days…

“Back From the Battle”

Okay, so Michael WAS there at the concert Thursday night.

UPDATE: The clips are now up on the site.

The MTV concert

Gotta say, some confusion as to what Michael’s part in this is — the original press release said he would be doing a live report from Baghdad, but there is a report from an MTV staffer that says he was attending the concert in NYC last night: I knew it was going to be hard to keep my composure when Robin Meade of CNN’s “Headline News,” international correspondent Michael Ware and Anderson Cooper of “Anderson Cooper 360″ were in the room.

So I guess we’ll find out later…

UPDATE: This was posted on the 360 blog by producer Kay Jones… sounds like what was shown is the follow-up with the soldier from Fallujah (which seems likely to be either David Bellavia or Scott Lawson):

The entire night was fantastic. Not only were the performances great, but the stories told by the MTV correspondents and our own Anderson Cooper, Michael Ware and Dr. Sanjay Gupta really highlighted the issues that are facing these new veterans upon their return home from Iraq or Afghanistan, or in some cases, both countries.

Today on ATC

An all-Iraq post today — most of it revolves around “Curveball” and the exclusive interview that Frederik Pleitgen got with him; also, a look at the Iraqi stock market and the latest on the SoFA talks.

UPDATE: I just knew that if I did an entire ATC post about Iraq, Michael would be on CNN as soon as I posted, so I checked all the recordings before I hit the Publish button. Which I did at 2pm PT. And eleven minutes later got an email from Délie saying he was on International!

Infuriating!

Anyway, the clip is converting, I will post it ASAP. Meanwhile…

New title for The Book & some upcoming TV appearances

Hey kids, I’m back… still under the influence of the prescription medications, but I think I’m coherent enough to trust to post…!

Besides, I have some actual news! The intrepid Sharon has been in contact with someone at Hachette Australia and has been advised that Michael’s book now has a new title, and it is incredibly evocative:

Between Me and The Dead

Wow. That definitely packs a punch, doesn’t it? Absolutely stunning. It gave me chills when I first read her email… and I can’t wait to read this book.

Which brings me to the next point: they are now loosening the publication date from September 2009 to “late 2009″ … and it wouldn’t surprise me if even that is too specific. What I mean is, let’s hope for the best but be prepared for that date to get pushed back again. As much as I want to read his book (and I promise you, no one wants it more than I do!) it’s far more important that Michael is comfortable with it, that it feels right to him.

I want his book to be the definitive book about the war, the — and I know this is the comparison that everyone makes — Dispatches of the Iraq war. And that may take some time to first of all see how this is going to end, or at least settle into something closer to peace than to war. (And who knows what may happen if we start pulling out troops next year.) It may take some time and distance to gain perspective. I can’t even imagine what he has to sort through to get to the truth he wants to distill into this book…

The good news is that Hachette seems prepared to work around his “day job.” I’m hoping that this is why he hasn’t gone for an American publication contract yet, since our folks tend to be a bit more rigid about these things. (Hopefully once the book is done, it will be a simple matter for Hachette America to do an “Us, too!” contract!)

So while patience is definitely NOT one of my virtues, my mantra will be Good Things Come To Those Who Wait… and I am confident that this book will be worth the wait!

Also… there is a big MTV/CNN event coming on October 24 that Michael will be a part of:

“A Night for Vets: An MTV Concert for the BRAVE” will air Friday, October 24, 2008, at 8pm ET on MTV, followed by airings on MTV2, mtvU and MTV Tr3s… The special will also include an interview with CNN international correspondent Michael Ware, via satellite from Baghdad.

“Anderson Cooper 360: Back from the Battle,” hosted by Cooper, will highlight the challenges facing young vets returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan… CNN’s Baghdad-based correspondent Michael Ware reunites with a soldier he followed into the battle of Fallujah to see how much of the war in Iraq he has brought home with him.

Filling In…

Greetings, Everyone. It’s the Guppy Guest Blogging for our Fearless Leader.

Cyn’s surgery started about 2 hours late, but it went “like clockwork,” as her surgeon said, and she’s now home and resting. She has lots of meds, and a Guppy at her beck and call, so I’m sure she’ll be back in no time!

In the meantime, behave yourselves. LOL We wouldn’t want her to come home to a mess.

Lynda the Guppy
AKA Cyn’s Gofer Guppy 

More OT stuff…

Everything’s quiet from Michael at the moment — hey, I was excited that CNN used a shot of him in the promo for last night’s debate! — but I wanted to catch up some other stuff going on.

First of all, just an FYI, I have to have surgery on Friday, so I will be out of the loop for a bit, and a bit loopy, as well! (Bring on the pain meds!) Lynda the Guppy is coming up to stay with me for a few days and make sure I don’t blog too much while under the influence of opiates. (Which might be entertaining, actually…!) But never fear, the TiVos will still be doing their thing, and if anything happens, I will catch it up next week.

There is some other CNN news that’s been happening, if you missed any of it:

Arwa Damon did a very impressive report about a trip to visit the PKK in Kurdistan. I included it on my Monday ATC post.

Cal Perry blogged yesterday that he is on the way home due to a dental emergency, an impacted and infected wisdom tooth. Ouch! Poor Cal…!

Michael Holmes is hosting a new program on International called BackStory, the pieces on there so far have been very interesting, hopefully we’ll see “our” Michael on there at some point! (Oh, and Tommy, too, if Jodi has any say in the matter!)

And in non-CNN news: Rolling Stone has the scariest article on McCain yet. Read it, pass it on, 27 days to go…

That’s all I can think of for now. I will keep updating at least through Thursday night, and will try to say hey on Saturday, loopy or not!

Full PresDebate clips; today on ATC

I’ve posted the full clips of the panel from the Presidential debate last week:

Pre-debate: Moderated by Campbell Brown; panelists Michael Ware, Christiane Amanpour, John King, David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, Anderson Cooper

Post-debate: Moderated by Anderson Cooper; panelists Michael Ware, Christiane Amanpour, John King, David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, Campbell Brown

Also, my ATC post today includes a piece from Cal Perry about the Iraqi soccer team.