Putting the "Porter" Back in "Reporter"

Nic Robertson, producer Tommy Evans, and their cameraman Chris recently took a bumpy helicopter ride to Balochistan, Pakistan and did a Back|Story piece on the trip. Nic says that Chris likes filming these pieces because they put the 'porter' back in 'reporter' -- which Nic demonstrates by lugging the luggage (and tripod!) to and from the chopper during unscheduled stops. Fun clip, and at the end, BKS host Michael Holmes talks to Nic about the political situation in Pakistan.

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Freedom and Death in Afghanistan

Yesterday Atia Abawi reported on the rescue of New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell (above, left) who was abducted by the Taliban on Saturday. His Afghan translator, Sultan Munadi (above, right), was killed during the rescue, as were a British soldier and two Afghan civilians:

This morning Atia updated the situation, especially the protests surrounding the death of Sultan Munadi:

Yesterday on International's BackStory, Michael Holmes talked with Michael Ware about the Farrell rescue and the general state of events in Afghanistan, especially the IED that Ware's truck hit last week. (This piece is so long that I had to shrink it to pass Blogger's size limits, so it may look a bit funky):

During their time in Kandahar, producer Tommy Evans filmed a BackStory piece as well:

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This morning Cal Perry reported on five bombings in Iraq as the attempts to reignite the sectarian violence:

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Yesterday Ivan Watson reported on the aftermath of a horrendous flash flood in Instanbul. It is stunning to see the damage -- cars and trucks were just twisted into unrecognizable heaps of metal:

Christiane Amanpour will be the guest on The Colbert Report next Tuesday, 9/15.

And that's all for me this week!

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Boots on the Ground

During Saturday's The Situation Room, Nic Robertson and Chris Lawrence take a look at what the conditions are for the Marines going into Helmand province and why the assault started now, during the heat of summer:

I was trying to add a video of Atia Abawi from the 4th of July festivities at Baghram AFB in Afghanistan, but Blogger isn't cooperating and the video was not uploaded to CNN.com. Sorry!

What I do have from the 4th: Michael Ware travelled to FOB Hammer near the Iranian border to spend the holiday with the troops. The sandstorm still swirls, but the "lads" played softball anyway!

And Tommy Evans did a a report on the game for BackStory that has been uploaded to the video page:

(Oh, and ... Happy [Belated] Birthday to Tommy, who turned 32 on Sunday.)

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Where in the World...?

MONDAY: Don Lemon was still reporting from Los Angeles. TJ Holmes was in for Tony Harris; Ali Velshi was in for Rick Sanchez; Suzanne Malveaux was in for Wolf Blitzer. AC360 was two hours in length.

TUESDAY: Richard Quest, Anderson Cooper, and Sanjay Gupta were all reporting from Los Angeles; Arwa Damon reported from Jakarta. Betty Nguyen was in for Heidi Collins; Ali was in for Rick; Suzanne was in for Wolf; Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs.

WEDNESDAY: Cal Perry was in Washington; Anderson was in Los Angeles. Melissa Long was in for Heidi; Suzanne was in for Wolf; Kitty was in for Lou.

THURSDAY: Karl Penhaul was in Tegucigalpa, Hounduras; Sanjay was back in New York; Larry hosted his program from the grounds of Neverland. Suzanne was in for Wolf; Kitty was in for Lou; John Roberts was in for Campbell Brown.

FRIDAY: Sanjay was back in Charleston, SC (where he had been last week before Michael Jackson's death; have to wonder whether his family vacation got interrupted?); Rob Marciano was at Disney World in Orlando, Florida; Phil Black was in London; Soledad O'Brien was in New Orleans. TJ was in for Heidi; Suzanne was in for Wolf; Kitty was in for Lou; Anderson was in for Campbell and Larry.

SATURDAY: Michael Ware was at Forward Operating Base Hammer in SE Iraq; Atia Abawi was at Baghram Airbase in Afghanistan; Richard Lui was in Gaffney, South Carolina. Brooke Baldwin was in for Betty; Melissa Long was in for Fredericka; Suzanne was in for Wolf (recorded Friday).

SUNDAY: John King was in New York; Ed Henry was in Moscow; Reza Sayah was in Philadelphia; Fareed Zakaria had been in London to film his program. Brooke was in for Betty.

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Here's a look at the plans for tomorrow, knock yourselves out:

CNN Coverage Plans for Michael Jackson’s Memorial

CNN will broadcast Michael Jackson’s memorial service live on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, on CNN, CNN International and CNN.com. Web users will also be able to share thoughts with others on Facebook while viewing the events on the CNN.com live video player if they choose.

Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Don Lemon and Soledad O’Brien will host coverage live from Los Angeles, with Campbell Brown and Roland Martin anchoring live from New York, starting at 12:00 p.m. (ET) on CNN/U.S. and CNN International. CNN’s international bureaus will provide coverage of memorial events happening around the world. Kiran Chetry will anchor American Morning beginning at 6:00 a.m. (ET) live from Los Angeles.

Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor live coverage for HLN, driven by perspectives on and analysis of the day's developments.

CNN en Español will offer live coverage with Juan Carlos Arciniegas from Los Angeles and will then air a wrap-up special at 9:00 p.m. (ET) on Panorama Mundial anchored by Patricia Janiot.

Online at www.CNN.com/MichaelJackson, CNN.com will provide special coverage of Jackson’s memorial service and all related events in their entirety through a wide variety of elements, including live streaming and on-demand video, in-depth articles, photo galleries, and special interactives. In addition, CNN.com producers and correspondents will blog live from Los Angeles throughout the day.

CNN.com is once again utilizing Facebook Connect granting Internet users across the globe the ability to watch the memorial service live while communicating with their Friends on Facebook – and other Jackson fans around the world – without leaving the CNN.com Live video player. CNN.com Live begins live coverage starting at 8:30 a.m. (ET) with a special noon show before the complete live coverage of the memorial service begins at 1 p.m. (ET.) Additionally, CNN.com will offer replays of the entire memorial service at 4 p.m. (ET) and 7 p.m. (ET.) iReport.com, the network’s user-generated online news community, continues to invite contributors to share their thoughts and memories of Michael Jackson, as well as submit and share their videos and photos.

We were also asked to make sure everyone knew about this:

CNN will be airing Michael Jackson: The Memorial tomorrow (Tuesday July 7, 2009 @ Noon ET) on the life and legacy of the one and only King of Pop! Tune-in and log on to Facebook as CNN hosts a LIVE video partnership with Facebook, so fans around the world can share their memories in real-time.

That's it for me today.

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Michael Ware: Back in Baghdad

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to do an all-Michael Ware post, but here we have one. Michael is back in Baghdad in the run-up to the beginning of the end of the American-led war in Iraq -- per the SOFA signed by the Bush administration, as of June 30th US troops are required to pull out of the cities and can only re-enter them at the invitation of the Iraqi government.

Monday, Michael spoke with International's Hala Gorani about the latest rash of bombings:

A few hours later he spoke with Hala again with the latest death tolls:

On Tuesday, Michael Holmes interviewed Michael for BackStory. It was 8pm in Baghdad, and things were a bit casual; however, Michael apparently felt that if he was going to be interviewed he ought to at least be shod. (I'd say "Crikey!" but he'd probably hurl one of those shoes at me... so instead I'll just quietly grumble about his pesky journalistic ethics.) This very short clip teased the interview (and yes, for you Tommy Evans fans, there he is in the background at his familiar post):

Due to some technical glitches, the interview itself was split into two segments, running Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the full clip as posted to CNN.com:

Wednesday and back on Hala's program after another heartbreaking major bombing:

Domestic finally got some airtime with Michael, as Wolf Blitzer talked to him about the bombings and the increase in tensions. Jack Cafferty also had a comment:

And this morning, John Roberts talked to him briefly as well:

It's always good to hear Michael's perspective on what's going on in Iraq, even though we seem to be heading into yet another very dangerous time there; nobody knows the players and reads the currents as well as he does. (We're also looking forward to the AC360 special that he and Tommy were working on in Pakistan recently, which is slated to air next month.)

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Rotations, Trafficking, and Divorce

Last week, Frederik Pleitgen ended his rotation in Baghdad and flew out to Afghanistan. But he did it in style, aboard a C-17 cargo plane carrying a unit of road-clearing men and machinery into Kandahar. Thursday on NewsRoom, we got a look at what it takes to make such a massive move:

That same day on International's BackStory, a look at the behind-the-scenes hurry-up-and-wait effort that went into making the move. And yes, that is legendary CNN producer Tommy Evans making a rare appearance in front of the camera:

That same day, Cal Perry started his Baghdad rotation covering a dubious report of an arrest (still unconfirmed as of today) and the start of the bloodiest 24 hours Baghdad has seen this year:

Friday, Cal's news from Baghdad was even more grim, and if several months of relative quiet has let you forget what hard news out of Iraq looks like, this will remind you in a hurry:

Back to Afghanistan, as Atia Abawi reports on drug trafficking there and how it is being used as a weapon in a political campaign:

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, women become even more disposable, with a court allowing divorce via text message. Mohammed Jamjoom reports:

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From the ATC calendar: Campbell Brown will receive a 2009 Matrix Award tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria.

That's it for me today ... I'm back on Thursday this week, see you then!

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Taliban Takeover

It's been quite a week in Pakistan, with Taliban forces accepting a "peace" deal with the government in which they would surrender their weapons in return for keeping control of the Swat Valley region, and then the Taliban doing what they always have done in the past: saying thank-you-very-much and continuing to advance.

Tuesday Reza Aslan was on American Morning to discuss the situation with John Roberts and the possibility of the Pakistani government collapsing:

(I'm currently reading Reza's new book -- it is excellent, of course!)

Wednesday John spoke with Ivan Watson in Islamabad, who reported on the overnight move that brought the Taliban within 60 miles of Islamabad:

Later that day, Ivan had a piece on The Situation Room that showed how Islamabad's residents were reacting to the advance:

An interesting piece from International's Jim Clancy that shows how the Taliban really advances -- by using Sharia law to intimidate their way to power:

Friday, Roland Martin spoke with Ivan about the situation on the ground, and with Peter Bergen about the long-term possibility of the Pakistani government collapsing. Ali Velshi and Erica Hill also take part in the conversation:

So, time for a reality check -- just how close to Islamabad are the Taliban forces? Thursday on International's BackStory, Michael Holmes used Google Earth to show just how far that 60 miles "as the crow flies" is -- and a look at the mountainous terrain is quite reassuring. (Well, maybe not if you live there, but...)

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Suzanne Malveaux was in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago with President Obama.

MONDAY: John Roberts co-hosted American Morning from Atlanta, where he emceed a fundraiser for the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children. TJ Holmes was in for Heidi Collins.

TUESDAY: Randi Kaye was in Boston to cover the "Craigslist Killer." TJ was again in for Heidi.

WEDNESDAY: Jeffrey Toobin was in San Francisco; Ivan Watson was reporting from Islamabad; Frederik Pleitgen (above) traveled from Baghdad to Kandahar with an Army unit that specializes in clearing bombs from roads... legendary producer Tommy Evans also traveled with him (clips in Monday's post.)

THURSDAY: Cal Perry is back in Baghdad.

FRIDAY: Nic Robertson is back in Islamabad. TJ was in for Rick Sanchez; Dr. Drew was in for Larry King.

That's it for me today... have a great weekend!

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Out of the Shadows

All during the week I clip stories I think may work for a post, save them into a folder, and then try to find a "theme" or common denominator running through them. Often there is none, and the post is just a hodge-podge of randomly firing synapses.

But today when I looked at my list, the commonality was immediately evident. Five clips from people who started (and one case still is) behind the scenes.

Arwa Damon started with CNN as a producer. Currently assigned to Baghdad, she has been spending a lot of time recently in Indonesia, and on Thursday reported from Jakarta about a major terrorist arrest there:

Peter Bergen, as hopefully everyone knows by now, was the producer for the team that interviewed Osama bin Laden in 1997. He appeared on Election Center Thursday to discuss OBL's current importance:

Cal Perry started with CNN as an assignment editor in Atlanta, then went to Baghdad as a producer, eventually stepping into the Bureau Chief position. He is now based in Beirut but reported Friday from Damascus after he snagged an exclusive by convincing the Syrian army to let him travel with them to the Syrian/Iraqi border. Flying on an old Soviet-era helicopter, using paper maps and rulers to plot the course -- it is a look at kicking it old school:

Nic Robertson began his career as an engineer, famously as the only one CNN had in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. He reported this morning from London regarding the weekend bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul:

Finally, the one that was least expected: Thomas Evans is Michael Ware's Baghdad producer (and formerly a producer on AC360) but last week, with Michael out of the country on break, Tommy finally stepped in front of the camera to file a report. It was only carried on International, but I did manage to nab a copy:

(Oh, and July 5th was Tommy's birthday. Hope he was able to do a little celebrating!)

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