ware~abouts

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Délie sent me a clip of Michael appearing on IC over the weekend, the clip is now converted and uploaded. I have been wondering what he thought about this case; now I know… one additional thing I didn’t know I should have been worrying about…

Looks like this was recorded the same day as this week’s TWAW, which is normally Friday but may have been done on Wednesday due to the holiday?

that my prognostication skills are so truly bad… another interview done in Paris, coming to newsstands soon. And a tasty photo to whet your appetite (please note that I refrained from saying mouth-watering. Barely, but I did refrain…) 

  

CNN’s man in Baghdad, Michael Ware is one of few western journalists to have reported from insurgent camps. An avid rugby fan, we met him in Paris where he was covering the World Cup. He selects the touristy Thai restaurant Asian for his last meal.

(”Last meal” being the name for the recurring feature in the magazine.)

Judging solely by the attire, this was taken Saturday, October 13, the day of the England/France semifinal. (Sorry for the reminder, Délie!) I expect to have the accompanying article next week.

So here I was thinking it would be a quiet week from Baghdad, and in addition to TWAW Michael was on once Monday and twice Tuesday! Guess I won’t be making it as a prognosticator anytime soon! Heck, I’m not even good enough to be a pundit, and you know what low standards those guys have!

So, thanks to Liz I finally checked my TiVos… and yes, there was the return of the winter coat. (Bet he wished he’d had that thing with him in Paris!) He almost always is on during the second hour of TSR, and never live… my best guess is that it’s a satellite issue, anyone else have a theory? But I imagine it was recorded no later than midnight Baghdad time. (According to the BBC, nighttime lows are around 4 degrees Celsius, or 38 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Judging by the last couple of weeks, it would seem that a quieter Iraq translates into fewer reports from Michael… Based on what he said on TWAW this week and just the general fact that we’re all waiting for the Iraqi parliament to step up and get things moving, I assume he’s interviewing a lot of politicians these days. And one truism the world over is that if you stick a microphone in front of a politician, he or she will say whatever serves their interests. Makes for a lot of useless tape. (Or I guess I should say useless data, since it’s all done digitally these days…) And since here in the States the news is filled to bursting with politicians droning on with their platitudes and platforms, I doubt that a piece about Iraqi officials doing the same thing would get a green light. 

 So…things are better in Baghdad, which is wonderful news for the Iraqis and for the world at large, even though it means we see less of Michael. And if he sticks to his “normal” schedule, he will be leaving on holiday sometime late next month. Not that there is anything normal about his schedule, but you get my drift: we should expect only a handful of reports for the next five weeks or so, followed by none at all for the following six weeks or so. 

And while I haven’t declared this a No Whining Zone keep in mind that there are, at least, very good reasons for his absence…  so, respectful whining only, please!

The show is pre-empted on Saturday, so we’ll have to wait until Sunday, but:

“Breathing Space” in Iraq: Will Iraqi politicians throw away this opportunity? 
Rend al-Rahim, United States Institute for Peace (DC) 
Jamie McIntyre, CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent 
Michael Ware, CNN International Correspondent (Baghdad)  

I just posted a terrific Q&A with Michael that was in an Arabic newspaper today. A lot of very interesting insight. His love for the country and people of Iraq really comes through. It made me want to go there (I hear the State Department is hiring…) although, sadly, the place he speaks about is alive only in memory now, and there’s no telling how many years or decades it will take to bring it back to life…

Sharon noticed that Michael is listed as a guest on This Week at War this weekend:

Battle for Iraq: Are we losing focus as the death toll drops?
Michael Ware, International Correspondent, (Baghdad)

Well, it sure is quiet… Darn it all… *listening to the crickets*

Just so you know, I am currently in the midst of editing and converting the rugby videos from Mavis. My goal is to have them up tonight, but it all depends on how fast the process goes. I can tell you this: so far there are eight new ones, so a bit of new/old videos are coming! (I haven’t yet figured out exactly how I’m going to display these, but I will post a list of the ones I didn’t have before, in case that’s all you want to watch.)

I’m into the Finals weekend now, so just about a dozen more to edit/convert and then the uploading begins!

Well, the Wiki page I originally wrote oh-so-long-ago finally has a legal photo of Michael, taken at the MEI conference yesterday, and it is breathtaking. Run, don’t walk, and be sure to get to the full-size 1093×1000 pixels version.