Posted on 04/02/2003 12:14:52 AM PST by HAL9000
Freelance photographer contacts family
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) The family of a missing freelance photographer was overwhelmed Tuesday after receiving a telephone call from their daughter who was safe at the Iraqi border.
Barry Bingham Jr., former publisher of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, received a call from his daughter, Molly, at 1:15 p.m. EST.
''His heart was pounding, you could see it in his throat,'' said Edie Bingham, referring to her husband's phone conversation with their daughter.
The Binghams held a news conference Tuesday afternoon in downtown Louisville.
''Molly said she is OK,'' Barry Bingham said. ''She said she had had a rough week and sounded tired, but she said she was all right.''
Bingham described his daughter as ''bubbly and full of energy.''
''She was clearly happy to be in Jordan but she sounded worn out,'' he said.
Molly Bingham, 34, a Louisville native, arrived in Baghdad on March 17, but family members became concerned last week after they did not hear from her for several days.
On Tuesday, Molly Bingham told her father that she was safe at the Iraq-Jordan border, and was heading to Amman in Jordan.
''We know police packed up her equipment and clothing,'' Bingham said. ''We assumed she was in custody.''
Bingham's belongings were collected from the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by Iraqi officials.
Bingham told her family that she was traveling to Amman with two Newsday journalists, who had also been declared missing, Danish freelance photographer Johan Rydeng Spanner and American peace activist Philip Latasha.
The group had been held in a cell inside the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad since March 25, according to Charlotte Hall, Newsday managing editor.
Newsday correspondent Matthew McAllester, 33, and photographer Moises Saman, 29, had been out of contact since March 24, when they e-mailed the Long Island-based newspaper from Baghdad to say they would be filing material. The two contacted the newspaper Tuesday.
''We're just euphoric,'' Newsday publisher and chief executive Raymond Jansen said in a statement.
Emily Bingham, Molly's sister, said the family was not extremely concerned after the first few days of not hearing from her, but their fears grew as days passed.
''We changed our strategy over the weekend focusing with national media,'' said Emily Bingham, who appeared on national morning news shows this week and contacted the United Nations and the Committee to Protect Journalists. ''I'm really excited to present her with my cell phone bill.''
Bingham began her professional career at The Courier-Journal and worked in New York before launching her independent career. She graduated from Harvard College in 1987.
The award-winning photojournalist's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and overseas publications. She was an official photographer for then-Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. On Sept. 11, Bingham photographed the burning Pentagon after it came under terrorist attack. She later traveled to Afghanistan.
''I'm so excited that she's back,'' said Calli Musi, a contract photographer for Time. Musi worked with Bingham photographing Gore.
''I'm very relieved, glad that she's safe, said Musi, who was covering a news event at the Pentagon when she learned of Bingham's whereabouts.
Donna Brazile, who was Gore's presidential campaign manager in 2000, said everyone was ''overjoyed'' at the good news.
''We're happy she's safe,'' Brazile said Tuesday night in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. ''Hopefully she'll go back home. Knowing Molly, she'll go back to the action. She's that kind of person. She's very dedicated and extremely diligent in her work.
''My heart goes out to her family,'' Brazile said. ''I'm just so elated that she's safe.''
Molly Bingham did not say whether she would be returning to the United States, but her family would like for her to come home.
''We hope to lay our eyes on her very soon,'' Emily Bingham said.
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