These are posts from my time in Baghdad working for CNN (2/26-3/25):
The longer I’m here the more I complain about how our fortress here at the Palestine Hotel is completely removed from the reality of Baghdad. But, at the same time, the longer I’m here the more I realize how dangerous it can be here. Just about two months ago exactly CNN lost a cameraman and an interpreter after they were shot at while making their way back from a shoot. I have heard some amazing stories about them, and at least, have seen video of one of them — by accident.
The day after two civilian Coaltion workers where killed, I was asked to look through some tapes to see if we had video of one of them. I spotted Fern Holland right away even though she was way in the background, she was the only one w/blond hair. Since then I have read a few articles that were written about her and how talented, bright, and fearless she was. If she died in Iraq she told friends, she died doing what she wanted to. What she did is work for women’s rights in a fairly inhospitable part of Iraq. No one knows if the attack was targeted or not.
I kept scrolling to see if I could find another shot of her, a closer, clearer one. Marga Ortigas, a producer from the London bureau was looking over my shoulder. She then yells out, “there’s Duraid!” He was the CNN interpreter that was killed. She stopped it and played the video. She sat silently, until I said her name and she got up. He had a very gentle face, young with a look of determination. But, I didn’t need to see the picture to understand my co-workers grief. Before I came here, I printed a poem that was found in his car and brought it to Iraq with me. It’s about taking risks and how you’re not free unless you do. I don’t think I can write anything more to do them justice.
So, now for a complete U-turn. A scene from the Simpsons:
Kent Brockman (anchorman): Uh, Mr. Burns (evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant), people are calling this a “meltdown.”
Voice of Mr. Burns: Oh, (giggle) “meltdown”. It’s one of those annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an “unrequested fission surplus.”
I was reminded of this Simpsons line after the following incident. Last Wednesday was pretty quiet all day. By 810p we we’re just sort of milling around sending emails and whatnot. All of a sudden…BOOM!! The room shook hard and tapes fell off the wall onto the floor. Our security people told us to get our flack jackets on. We immediately tried to figure out what had happened. Walt wanted to go on the roof, some got on the phones, others took phone calls. One of our interpreters who happened to be walking around outside our compound called in and told me the explosion was nearby. Fox News was already transmitting from one of their balconies in the hotel next door. Walt went on the roof, I got him set up to go live and off we went.
A little later, Jane Arraf , one of our security guys and one of our local producers went to the site w/the satellite truck. Walt cranked out live shots for the next three hours as I fed him wire information and any updates from the military (although we later found out the military was calling Jane for info). We were fairly certain it was a car bomb from the destruction, the sound and eyewitness accounts but had not gotten any sort of confirmation. As I’m racing to keep Walt as updated as possible, our unit manager who doubles as producer occassionally, tells me he’s just spoken to the Iraqi police and they believe it’s a “vehicle borne IED (improvised explosive device). I turn and tell Walt in his ear without even thinking and he looks into the camera and says, “What the hell are you telling me that for? That’s a damn car bomb! This is no time to joke around Silvio, this is serious stuff!” I started laughing and he got angrier. I later apologized for not processing that ridiculous statement from the police.
Jane took over around 1130p from the bombing site and did an incredible job. Walt and I went to sleep for a few hours and when I came back down at 430a she and her producer were just getting back from the scene. Walt and I headed to the scene of the bombing. It looked like a big rake had gone through the place. Walt went to check out the wreckage and the camerman and I went to find a good position. He pointed to the roof of a house, “What about up there?” Uhhh…he runs off in that direction and yelling back that he’ll go ask the lady of the house. I follow him and after he yells inside for someone to come out, this small, older woman who had obviously been crying answered the door. They conversed for a few seconds and she let us in. She directed us inside through what looked to have been a living room. There was glass everywhere. I felt awful. This poor woman, whose house was ravaged by the bomb, is letting us trample through her home so we can do our dumb liveshot. The camerman scampered all the way up — this is normal for him. It turned out not be such a great shot, so we left. In my two words of arabic I thanked her touching her arm in a consoling manner. We ended up setting up next to the crater the bomb had caused.
The neighborhood was a mix of commercial businesses and residential buildings. The first thing I asked the second camerman to do was to shoot some video of people in their still smoldering apartment buildings cleaning up. The military came in soon afterwards to clean up cars in the street, some with tires that had not been burned off. As they cleaned up, we got moved down the street and finally to the roof of the house we had first stopped at. As we were finishing up our final liveshots one of the men of the house brought us tea. On our way out Walt gave them fifty dollars, and as we passed the woman of the house on the way out, I could tell she had been crying again. I had twenty dollars in my pocket I wanted to give her, but I knew it wouldn’t keep her from crying. As I passed her I thanked her and touched her arm again.