The New York Times Magazine
May 11, 2003
Najaf is one of the great spiritual centers of the world’s 120 million Shiites because it is home to the tomb of Imam Ali, founder of the Shiite faith and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. But the true heart of Najaf today, and the place where the political ...
The New Republic
May 3, 2003
A few days after American troops entered Baghdad, I went to Saddam City, a sprawling slum inhabited almost exclusively by Shia Muslims. But, by the time I got there, Saddam City was gone. Yes, the people were still there, as was the poverty–the kids playing barefoot ...
My latest story, in The New Republic, about Shia fundamentalism in Iraq, is posted here.
It’s been a while since I lasted posted because I have been covering the war in Iraq. Internet access has been limited, and blogging will remain infrequent until I return to the United States. My stories on the war (and related issues) are posted on the “Magazine Articles” page of ...
The New York Times Magazine
April 20, 2003
As the war in Iraq is debated and turned into history, the emphasis will be on the role of technology–precision bombing, cruise missiles, decapitation strikes. That was what was new. But there was another side to the war, and it was the one that most ...
The New York Times Magazine
April 13, 2003
(The following is an interview I conducted with Lance Corporal Derrick Jensen)
First off I want people to understand that there is more than just combat. We’re not seeing fighting at all times. Sometimes accidents happen. The other night, a good friend ...
The New York Times
April 6, 2003
AL KUT, Iraq–A few days ago I drove with a Marine convoy into the desert north of Nasiriya, heading toward Baghdad. The landscape was as unforgiving as it comes–parched and barren, like the moon with an atmosphere of dusty oxygen. As we moved forward, mostly ...
The New Republic
March 31, 2003
Last week, I watched nearly a dozen British tanks and armored vehicles storm across the Kuwaiti desert on cue–literally. The British military had arranged a “press facility,” as they call such affairs, and, although the men and women of the media had ...
If a captured terrorist does not wish to talk about attacks that his colleagues are planning, should he be made to talk? If so, how? That’s the subject of my latest story, in the Week in Review section of The New York ...
The New York Times
March 8, 2003
KUWAIT — The Philippine police knew they had an unusual case when they arrested Abdul Hakim Murad on Jan. 6, 1995. After Mr. Murad accidentally set a small fire in his Manila apartment, the police reportedly found gallons of sulfuric acid and nitric acid, as well as ...
