Octavia Nasr fired after 'simplistic' tweet

Senior Editor of MidEast Affairs Octavia Nasr has been fired by CNN after a tweet that raised a furor.

Commenting on the death of Shiite cleric (and former Hezbollah leader) Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, she described him as "One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot." Since Fadlallah was virulently anti-American and is, in fact, labeled a terrorist by the US, it was definitely a tweet that garnered attention on the internet.

Tuesday, Nasr posted an explanation of her tweet on one of the CNN blogs, in which she described interviewing Fadlallah early in her career, acknowledged Fadlallah's terrorist acts but also pointed out that he was one of the most liberal clerics on women's rights. (A point also made by others on Twitter... even some CNN reporters.) But the post was not enough to undo the damage, in the eyes of CNN brass.

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Dispatches from the Middle East

It was an unusually hectic week in the Middle East, and CNN correspondents were on top of a lot of events...

YEMEN 

On Wednesday, Peter Bergen appeared on AC360 to discuss the suicide bombing in Sanaa, Yemen:

The next day, Ben Wedeman was in Sanaa and toured the site:

(Ben also wrote a short blog report on it, which has a great line in it about CNN's ability to get access:  Aftermath of a suicide bombing)

IRAQ

Cal Perry is back in Baghdad,  and on Monday he reported on SecDef Gates' arrival for the handover from General Petraeus to General Odierno:

On Tuesday, Cal did a background piece on Odierno:

Friday, Cal reported on a soldier whose family is desperately trying to learn his fate. Apparently, he was murdered by one of the men under his command:

(For some good news coming out of Iraq, read the article by Dexter Filkins that ran in yesterday's NYT: Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm)

SAUDIA ARABIA

Octavia Nasr reported on a fatwa leveled at Mickey Mouse...

PAKISTAN

Saturday, a truck bomb nearly brought down the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. Nic Robertson reported early from Jalalabad:

Sunday afternoon, Reza Sayah did a follow-up that included the surveillance footage of the truck burning in front of the hotel:

And Sunday night, Dan Rivers did a further follow-up and discussed how the interior of the hotel looked:

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN
and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.