Free Republic

On a US tour, award-winning journalist Robert Fisk spoke about his life work as a veteran journalist reporting about the Middle East. Fisk is the Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper, The Independent. For almost 30 years he has been a journalist and with over 28 foreign press awards he is one of the most decorated journalists in the world. Fisk has lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for 25 years. "I'm 59, but I feel I'm 29," he said. His latest book, The Great War for Civilization, was released this fall. It is an in-depth, lucid analysis of his experiences...

EDITORS NOTE: AP writer Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 3rd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq and will be filing periodic reports on life in that unit. --- SUNDAY, Dec. 11, 5:15 p.m. local. BEIJI, Iraq. Going outside the wire. It's a slang expression for leaving the security of a military base in Iraq to travel on highways pocked with holes from roadside explosions. Silence runs deep during that moment soldiers cross the barrier lined with concertina wire and guard posts. At first their silence struck me as boredom, which sometimes it surely is if...

In spite of the wide variety of political bodies competing in the December elections, making speculations and estimations is not difficult at all when one realizes that most Iraqis will follow their emotions, rather than minds, when they vote. There will be little serious interest in exploring the platforms and programs of candidates and parties. Although we see more people and local media interviewing politicians and asking questions about programs and platforms, this increase in political awareness still cannot be considered the definitive method Iraqis will use to choose representatives. Sectarian or ethnic loyalties will still have a greater role...

In the three days since I announced my plans to travel to Iraq and embed with RCT-2 in Anbar province, the response has been phenomenal. I have received media credentials, thanks to Dr. Michael Ledeen and the American Enterprise Institute. I have received a generous offer to assist with travel by the use of frequent flyer miles and hope to purchase the tickets soon (thanks Cheryl and Justin!). The current plan is to leave for Iraq on November 19th...

[...] About fifteen seconds later our ramp dropped. We ran into combat. Folks who haven't done much urban fighting might take issue with the wild chases, and they might say that people should always "stack up" and do things this or that way, but men in Delta Force, SEALs and the like, all know that when chasing wild men into the labyrinth, soldiers enter the land of confusion. If soldiers don't go fast, the bad guys simply get away. Just a few minutes ago, these three guys were going "105 miles per hour," and outrunning a helicopter. There were shops,...

Lee Pitts Outlines His Experiences In Iraq by Suzanne Walker posted August 4, 2005 Photo by Suzanne Walker Lee Pitts told the Chattanooga Rotary Club about his experiences as an embedded reporter in Iraq on Thursday. Chattanooga Times Free Press Staff Writer Lee Pitts told the Chattanooga Rotary Club about his experiences as an embedded reporter in Iraq on Thursday. Mr. Pitts spent six months writing stories about the 278th Regimental Combat Unit at Camp Caldwell. Mr. Pitts said he wanted his stories to be “snapshots” of what was going on, creating a “word scrapbook” about soldiers. About 4,000 of...

MILITARY OFFENSIVE IN IRAQ   May 16, 2005   A published report on a week-long battle between Marines and insurgents in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, said Marines were outgunned. A discussion with embedded reporter Ellen Knickmeyer, Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post, about her report.   MARGARET WARNER: Ellen Knickmeyer, welcome. Thanks for joining us. Give us a sense, first of all, how big this Marine offensive was in the west, and why did they launch it now? ELLEN KNICKMEYER: It was the largest operation they've had since Fallujah. At one point they had -- when...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22, 2005 — National Guard soldiers from the Richmond, Ky.-based 617th Military Police Company were still reminiscing today about the extraordinary battle they fought on Sunday, when dozens of Iraqi insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol — touching off one of the fiercest battles in Iraq since the fight for Fallujah last fall. But what is more extraordinary is who the U.S. soldiers are — a shoe store manager, hotel worker, printing press operator and several students. The firefight serves as a reminder of how citizen-soldiers are shouldering much of the burden in Iraq. Of the U.S. forces...

Embed-Edd: Updated 1/27 Posted By: Edd_Hendee. Wednesday Jan 26 At 4:14 am my friend Baraka shook me awake – “We have casualties.” was his grim statement. Baraka is a reporter for WABC-7 New York. We met a week ago in Al Asad the first day in country and had become friends pretty fast. “I’ll meet you up on level 10.” he said as he rushed out of the room. I threw on my clothes and grabbed my Bible – and began to pray for these fine men. The hospital is right up on the roof – about 100 yds. from...

Where danger is all around They started arriving in this dark and deadly part of the world a year ago. Young and old. Men and women. Plumbers, police officers and prison guards. The Virginia National Guardsmen from the 276th Engineer Battalion left their families. They left their jobs. They left their homes to help rebuild and protect Iraq, a country struggling with a robust insurgency. They found and destroyed roadside bombs. They protected other U.S. troops from suicide car bombers. They gave children school supplies and soccer balls. Meanwhile, insurgents persistently attacked the Virginia engineers with rockets, mortars and improvised...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq - Hunched and haggard, Sgt. Evan Byler hobbled around his camp in Northern Iraq yesterday, wondering how a suicide bomber could have infiltrated the chow hall. "It's kind of a shock that something like that was allowed" on the base, said Byler, a Fauquier County resident and member of the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. "It is something we have been trying to prevent." "Basically, everyone is going to have to step up their alertness and have an eye out for anything suspicious. Home is coming up, but we still have a long way off." Byler...

"You drop on the top of some mountain somewhere in some tiny village in the middle of the night, and it's pitch-black all around you," Lara Logan remembers. "When you land, it's like the ground rises up to devour you, and from intelligence you know there are people with weapons in that village - and they may or may not be ready to attack." Just another mission for the Navy SEALs as they go about their top-secret business in Afghanistan. Logan, a CBS News correspondent who has reported extensively from such trouble spots as Afghanistan and Iraq, recently spent six...

<p>The dangers of the assault on Fallujah didn't really become clear to me until Thursday afternoon, Nov. 11. The U.S. military (with journalists embedded with India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment) had already been in the city nearly three days.</p>

11.8.04, Monday FALLUJAH, Iraq - Capt. Sean Sims watched artillery shells fall and explode in a blast of sand and rubble, close enough to hear but too far to see what they hit. It was Sims' first daylight look at the rebel-held city of Fallujah on Monday afternoon, just hours before he would lead his men deep into its heart. Click here for photos A Marine Harrier jet screamed overhead. A Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher nearby let loose - bomb-boom-boom - sending grenades to burst in the distance. As commander of Alpha Company, of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force...

'This Ain't Over Yet' Operation Phantom Fury lived up to its name as American soldiers stormed Fallujah. On the ground with the Marines By Babak Dehghanpisheh Newsweek Nov. 22 issue - Just as the Marines of Kilo Company closed in on their target site, hidden insurgents let loose a deafening barrage of mortar rounds and sniper fire. Pvt. Richard Sanders cursed, swerving his Humvee to a stop and pounding the steering wheel in frustration.

Into the Hot Zone After weeks of preparation, the U.S. launches a full-scale assault to take back Fallujah. TIME follows one platoon as it carries out the most dangerous operation since the beginning of the war By Michael Ware “We’re not going to die!” yells U.S. Staff Sergeant David Bellavia as his rattled platoon of soldiers takes cover from machine-gun fire in the streets of Fallujah. The platoon has been ordered to hunt down and kill a group of insurgents hiding somewhere in a block of 12 darkened houses. It is 1:45 a.m., and the soldiers have been running from...

You're Either With Us... Dispatch from Tikrit -- 11-18-03 Plastic Cuffs It is nearly 2am and there are six men, bound and blindfolded on their knees forming a crescent around an armor-plated Humvee. It is their hands that fascinate me the most -- perhaps because I can still see them, little white anemones wriggling in the darkness. Their faces have already disappeared behind dirty strips cloth or snuffed like candles with nylon sandbags. It takes only moments from when they are captured and face down in the dirt, to the click, click, click of the white plastic cuffs noosed around...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq(Nov. 07, 2004) -- With what seems an immenent assault on Fallujah coming in the next few days, media embedded with the Marines are rethinking their rolls in what looks to be the largest assault in Iraq since the end of major combat operations last year. This isn’t what they expected, said one CNN journalist while finishing up the latest edits about a patrol that took place the night before. Many of the media here have been in combat zones before but this time is different, he said. The latest display of emotion by such media has come...

Dana Lewis was embedded with 101st airborne division in Iraq. He will be on Brit Humes program on Fox News tonight. He is said to tell Brit those explosives in question WERE NOT THERE and they did search the sight.

Just flipping through the channels. Missed the name of the base. Will be broadcasting their all week? This is pretty cool.