If you want to be stunned by war photography, and in the process reach a deeper understanding of what war means and does, the VII photo agency has just published an amazing book. It’s entitled War: ...
The Wars in Photos
Category: Blog
North Korea to Iraq
My latest stories include a political piece about North Korea, in The New Republic, as well as two brief stories in the Ideas issue of The New York Times Magazine.
Post-Modern War Reporting
The lead of today’s story in The Washington Post refers to “rocket-launcher-equipped donkey carts” that were used to attack the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad. The story describes it ...
My Famous Interpreters, Cont.
Earlier this year, I happened to learn, belatedly, that my Baghdad interpreter, Salam Pax, was famous. This weekend’s issue of The New York Times Magazine brings 15 minutes of fame to another of my interpreters–Minka Baros, who worked ...
Satellites and Prison Camps
The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea has just released a devastating report that includes satellite images of prison camps in which several hundred thousand North Koreans are held. As Anne Applebaum, who’s just published a book ...
The Last Emperor
Who is Kim Jong-il? A few months ago my editors at The New York Times Magazine asked me to find out, and the result is the cover story of this weekend’s issue. The story is also posted here.
“The Dear Leader is a workaholic,” it begins. “Kim Jong Il sleeps four hours a ...
The First Casualty
John Burns is getting a lot of attention for his comments in a new book about media coverage of the war in Iraq. Burns notes that some journalists pulled their punches in Baghdad so that they would not be expelled by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Here’s the money graph:
In one case, a correspondent ...
From Baghdad to Beirut
I’d like to promise that this is the last time I’ll mention the musings of Salam Pax, but I can’t be sure of that, because his insights into what’s happening in Iraq are just too damn good. From his blog today: “Maybe we ...
Darkness in Baghdad
After the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Iraq, Salam is upset: “I am plunging into a fucking depression, do we have a future? Is this country going to be hijacked by shit extremists who want to prove a point?”