Taliban talks, al Qaeda raps, and a Brit in prison in Laos

Nic Robertson obtained an incredible exclusive interview this week with a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban. If you haven't yet seen it, the piece ran Tuesday on AC360:

Throughout the day, Nic was interviewed by other anchors about the situation in Afghanistan. Here, John Roberts on American Morning:

Later, TJ Holmes on NewsRoom:

And last is Roland Martin (and panel) on No Bias, No Bull:

That same day, Paula Newton had a piece on American Morning about al Qaeda's latest recruitment drive, aimed to attract young American and Western European men to come to Somalia for terrorist training. Clips posted on the internet use modern music and graphics to make them more accessible to the current generation of TV watchers:

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You may have heard reports about Samantha Orobator, the 20-year-old British woman who has been locked up in jail in Laos since the beginning of August on charges (no trial so far) of drug possession. She is five months pregnant. (Do the math.) Laos has said that if she is found guilty at trial she will not be executed while pregnant; now England has worked out a deal whereby she may be allowed to serve her sentence in a British jail. Arwa Damon reports from Laos on what's been happening:

So what is it like for a Westerner to be locked up in a country that did not write their laws based on the Magna Carta? Phil Black talks to a woman in Brisbane, Australia who spent 10 months in the same prison in Laos:

And that's a look at some of the international coverage so far this week. See you Saturday with WITW!

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CIA: Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan

Blogger is being grouchy again today...

Havana Bureau Chief Morgan Neill got a chance to do some man-on-the-street interviews Thursday as Cubans react to the lifting of travel restrictions for Americans:

Paula Newton reports on the Taliban attacks in Kabul:

And on TSR, the continued threat of acid-throwing attacks on schoolgirls:

Meanwhile, in Baghdad Nic Robertson reported on Tuesday's suicide blast:

And Chris Lawrence covered Pentagon concerns that attacks are once again rising in Iraq:

Friday, Nic reported on the verdict for the Iraqi journalist convicted of throwing his shoes at then-President Bush:

And John King previewed one of the pieces he'll have on State of the Union this Sunday: an Iraq war veteran whom John first interviewed just prior to his third deployment. (And don't be frightened by the photo at the end of the piece; it's just a graphic promo for John's interview with the former VP this week. Why they use a pic of Cheney smiling is beyond me!)

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Where in the World...?

SUNDAY: Jill Dougherty is back in Washington; Nic Robertson is in Baghdad.

MONDAY: Michael Ware was in New York; Anderson Cooper hosted AC360 from one of the other US bureaus, possibly Atlanta; Ali Velshi was in for Larry King.

TUESDAY: TJ Holmes was in for Tony Harris; Joy Behar was in for Larry; Anderson still away from home.

WEDNESDAY: Sean Callebs reported from Samson, Alabama on the spree killings there; Sanjay Gupta was in for Larry; Anderson hosted from Los Angeles.

THURSDAY: Rob Marciano was in for John Roberts (who was in Toronto; above); Don Lemon was in for Kyra Phillips; Judge Jeanine Pirro was in for Larry; Anderson still in Los Angeles.

FRIDAY: John King was in The Situation Room with a preview from his Sunday show that he filmed earlier this week in Savannah, Georgia; Rob was in for John Roberts again; TJ was in for Tony; Roland Martin was in for Campbell Brown; Joy was in for Larry; John King hosted AC360 from Washington.

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Monday Warzone Updates

Nic Robertson is doing a rotation in the Baghdad bureau, and this morning he spoke with John Roberts about whether Iraq is stable enough to start the drawdown of American (and Brit) troops. It's sandstorm season in Baghdad, as you can see from the yellow sky:

Barbara Starr had an interesting report about two generals who have spoken out about getting treatment for PTSD in the hopes of removing some of the stigma the military still wrestles with. Personally, I'd be a lot more worried about someone who witnessed battle and its aftermath and had NO problems coping with it... and it is well past time that we got our troops the help they need:

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Last Tuesday, Paula Newton reported from Kabul on the difficulties facing troops in Afghanistan:

And on Friday, Chris Lawrence took a look at a new Rand Corporation report on the failures of intelligence-gathering in Afghanistan. I love Gary Berntsen's comment about "Pashtunistan" ... and it certainly is astonishing that we still are not training interpreters in that language:

This morning John spoke with Berntsen about the idea of trying to split off some Taliban fighters to turn against al Qaeda, a strategy that worked in Iraq:

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Also last Tuesday, Stan Grant reported from the site in Lahore where a deadly attack was launched against the visiting cricket team from Sri Lanka. Footage from news cameras shows the actual attack as it took place:

Immediately following Stan's report, Wolf Blitzer spoke with Fareed Zakaria about concerns over the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal:

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Finally, Michael Ware was on from New York this morning to discuss concerns that a terrorist group such as Hezbollah might use the Mexican drug cartel wars as a way of establishing a base close to our border:

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A couple of events happening Tuesday:

* Campbell Brown will host the "Wonder Women & Women to Watch" Luncheon, held at the Hilton in NY.

* Ed Henry will be the keynote speaker at FOSE 2009, in Washington D.C.

And that's a wrap for me!

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Iraq update

Peter Bergen appeared on AC360 on Monday night to discuss the situation in Iraq and the increasing use of women as suicide bombers:

Meanwhile, a report has come out about an expensive (unneeded?) prison that was built so shoddily that it will never be used. Jamie McIntyre on The Situation Room:

Wednesday, Morgan Neill updated the issue of the IOC ban of the Iraqi team -- a deal was reached to allow some athletes to compete:

(Since that report, two more athletes -- the rowers -- have also been allowed back in.)

Thursday on Newsroom, Arwa Damon filed a report that outlines the concerns of and about security contractors in Iraq:

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Paula Newton did a report about a new documentary that features former CIA agent Bob Baer discussing the power of car bombs as a terrorist weapon -- far more so than WMDs because they are so much easier to make and are nearly impossible to stop. (I realize Paula is based in London, but I find it curious that she didn't even mention Oklahoma City in the report...)

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: John King hosted This Week in Politics;  Miles O'Brien hosted Your Money (or $$$$, if you prefer).

SUNDAY: Suzanne Malveaux was a moderator at the Unity '08 convention for minority journalists in Chicago; Candy Crowley was also in Chicago to cover the event.

MONDAY: Dana Bash was in Boston in the morning and DC in the afternoon; Arwa Damon reported from Baghdad; Rick Sanchez filled in for Ali Velshi on Issue #1, as he would all week; Campbell Brown hosted AC360 (as she would through Wednesday) while Anderson Cooper is filming great white sharks in South Africa.

TUESDAY: Ed Lavendera was enjoying a family holiday at Disneyland ... until the earthquake hit; Dr. Sanjay Gupta was in NYC and appeared on Election Center to discuss Senator McCain's biopsy and AC360 to discuss the AIDS statistics among blacks; Randi Kaye was in Minneapolis for the one-year anniversary of the horrific bridge collapse there; Alina Cho was in for Kiran Chetry on American Morning; Tony Harris was off.

WEDNESDAY: Miles O'Brien was in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to try out a personal jet-pack; Susan Roesgen was in Los Angeles for follow-up on the earthquake; Nic Robertson (above) was at the Hague for the arrival of Radovan Karadzic.

THURSDAY: Roland Martin hosted Election Center; Wolf Blitzer hosted AC360.

FRIDAY: This may be a record: all four evening show hosts were off: Lou Dobbs had Kitty Pilgrim filling in; Campbell Brown had a pre-recorded special on; Larry King and Anderson Cooper showed repeats. Must be summer!

That's it for me today. hope wherever you are, you're enjoying this summer weekend... assuming it's summer where you are!

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and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Media Secrets

This week saw one of those stories break that quickly became a story about how the media handled the story.

Britain's Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, has been serving on the front lines in Afghanistan for the past ten weeks. Due to concerns for his safety as well as the safety of his fellow soldiers, major media outlets in the UK -- including CNN -- agreed not to disclose his location until after he was home. Thursday, however, internet gossip site The Drudge Report picked up an item run by an Australian gossip magazine in mid-January and broke the story worldwide.

Here, Paula Newton gives some background on the blackout:

On CNN Newsroom a few hours later, Brianna Keiler spoke with media critic Howard Kurtz about the media's role in handling stories of this sensitive nature:

But the story was far from over, as discussions broke out on news programs and blogs all around the world: should the media agree to not disclose information or does the public's 'right to know' trump all, even when it puts lives at risk? Personally, I was astonished to discover that even in this day and age, a story so headline-grabbing could be kept quiet at all.

(For more details on the blackout and how it ended, check out this excellent New York Times article, which includes this quote from CNN International's executive vice president and managing editor Tony Maddox: "Newspapers and broadcasts can behave themselves better than people think they can when a security situation is involved.")

On a slightly lighter note, Thursday night Michael Ware ended the day's discussion of the matter with some choice words for those who had put profit before common sense and put the lives of the Prince's unit at higher risk; since the words he used were not common to US viewers, Anderson Cooper and Erica Hill had some fun chasing down a translation:

This story is destined to be one of the big stories about the media (right along with the 'Chasing Britney' insanity) of 2008. I'm sure there will be much more on Kurtz' Reliable Sources tomorrow.

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Now... what would you give to see a picture of Ali Velshi riding a longhorn steer? Well, luckily, we don't charge a dime for it...

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Where in the World...?

Sunday, John King hosted Late Edition, while Suzanne Malveaux toured Ohio with the Obama campaign, making stops in Akron and Toledo. Candy Crowley reported from DC.

Monday, Alina Cho reported form Pyongyang, North Korea, covering the New York Philharmonic's historic concert there. (And major kudos to CNN Domestic for carrying the live International feed of the concert itself. It was incredible.) Christiane Amanpour also reported from Pyongyang after touring a nuclear plant in Yongbyon that is being disassembled. Elsewhere, Ali Velshi checked in from his bus tour, with stops in Bandera and Devine, Texas. Gerri Willis was in Atlanta for her special series that ran in place of Your World Today all week, and Rick Sanchez was also there and filed reports for her show. Dana Bash was with the McCain campaign in Parma, Ohio; while Candy Crowley was with the Clinton campaign in Dayton. And Kyra Phillips reported from Baghdad.

Tuesday, Dana and Candy were both in Cleveland, while John King reported from Covington, Kentucky. Ali Velshi was now in Goliad, Texas. On Wednesday, Dana was in Tyler, Texas; John was in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Candy reported from Cleveland, Columbus, and Zanesville, Ohio.

Thursday saw John Roberts co-hosting American Morning from Washington DC, where Sanjay Gupta also appeared; Ali was in San Antonio, where he would report from for the next couple of days. Suzanne and Dana were both in Houston. Nic Robertson (above) reported from London. Friday, Dana was in Round Rock, Texas and Suzanne was in Waco; Soledad O'Brien anchored AC360.

That's it for me... enjoy the weekend!

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