Michael Ware
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| Michael Ware | |
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| Born | March 25, 1969 |
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Michael Ware (born on March 25, 1969) is an Australian journalist reporting for CNN as an international correspondent based in Baghdad. He joined CNN in May 2006, after five years with sister-publication Time Magazine.
He is one of the only mainstream reporters to have lived in Baghdad near-continuously since before the American invasion and he gained early acclaim as one of the few reporters to establish contacts with the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi insurgency. Ware was one of the first mainstream journalists to report on the severity of the growing opposition Western coalition forces faced in mid-2003, and his contacts have provided him with controversial videotapes of attacks on coalition forces, including the murder of four Blackwater contractors. [1]
Ware is also known for his stark assessments of conditions on the ground and his repudiation of the overly-optimistic assessments sometimes made by politicians. Ware has also been 'embedded' with American and British military forces on numerous occasions, and the coalition forces have been the focus of many of his reports as he continues to describe conditions on the ground for both military and civilians in Iraq.
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[edit] Life and career
A native of Brisbane (Queensland) Australia, and graduate of Brisbane Grammar School, Ware received his law degree from the University of Queensland[1] and spent a year as Associate to then-President of the Queensland Court of Appeals Tony Fitzgerald before moving into journalism. He worked for the Courier-Mail in Brisbane from 1995-2000 and gained local notice after a series of articles led to a formal investigation into police handling (or lack thereof) of a pedophilia ring. Ware declined to name sources who had provided him with internal police documents in the matter.
His earliest assignments for Time Magazine took him to the Solomon Islands in late 2001, and in December of that year he went into Afghanistan to cover the U.S. search for al-Qaeda. As preparations for the invasion of Iraq began in early 2003, Ware relocated to the Kurdistan area in the north of that country. Although he has gone into battles embedded with US forces, he has also won infamy as one of the few Western journalists to travel to terrorist camps and report on their perspective of the war. His Time bylines include reports from Kabul, Kandahar, Fallujah, Tikrit, Tal Afar, Mosul, Samarra, Ramadi, and Baghdad.
In September of 2004, while investigating reports that Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's nascent "al-Qaeda in Iraq" group was openly claiming control of the Haifa Street area of Baghdad, Ware was briefly held at gunpoint by terrorists loyal to Zarqawi who had pulled pins from live grenades and forced his car to stop. The men dragged him from the car and stood him beneath one of the banners, intending to film the execution with his own video camera. By threatening them with immediate and violent retaliation, his local guides, including members of the Ba'athist Party, were able to win his release. (Ware has stated that had this happened only a few months later, when Zarqawi's group had grown stronger, he would have been killed.)
He was named Time's Baghdad Bureau Chief in October 2004. [2]
He was embedded for the September 2005 assault on Tal Afar, and his harrowing video of the battle has been included in a Frontline documentary and a 60 Minutes report.
Since joining CNN, he has been partnered with CNN producer Thomas Evans, who before working along with Ware produced for CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Additional career information:
-- August 2006, spent three weeks in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley as part of CNN's team covering the Israeli/Lebanese conflict before returning to Iraq.
-- October 2007, covered the quadrennial Rugby World Cup for CNN Sports, reporting from Marseilles and Paris.
-- February 2008, covered the parliamentary elections in Pakistan for CNN and hosted Pakistan's Vital Vote, a 30-minute special for CNN International.
-- April 2008, hosted 30-minute special for CNN International, "Iraq: Inside the Surge."
-- September 2009, publisher Hachette Australia will publish Foreign Correspondent, Ware's first book.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Sniper video controversy
On October 18, 2006, CNN aired a small portion of a videotape sent to Ware which showed snipers shooting at and apparently killing American troops.[3] The video was a tape sent to CNN to which Ware added narration for the edited broadcast that showed American soldiers being stalked and eventually brought under fire by the shooters. After the news report was shown, Press Secretary Tony Snow accused CNN of "propagandizing" the American public.[4]. Representative Duncan Hunter, then-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, asked Donald Rumsfeld to remove CNN embedded reporters following the airing of the news report,claiming that "C-N-N has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier."[5]
[edit] Heckling claim
On April 1, 2007 the Drudge Report cited an unnamed source asserting Ware "heckled" two Republican Senators during a press conference.[6] In a response on CNN April 2, 2007 Ware disputed the claim, saying that no one was willing to put their name on the report, as it is an anonymous claim, and told curious parties to view the tape.[7] According to Raw Story, a video of the press conference posted to the site confirmed Ware's claims. Raw Story asserted that the video "appeared to show a short press conference without any interruptions and with Ware himself asking no questions during the question and answer session." [8]
In an AFP article [9] on McCain's trip, Agence France-Press reporter Jennie Matthew quoted John McCain as stating "I studied warfare. I'm a student of history. If you control the capital city of a nation you have a significant advantage." Matthew noted in the article that McCain made the comments "as one reporter giggled at the back." After the story's appearance, Matthew advised Raw Story that "As far as I'm aware there was no disruption of the press conference at all. The reporter who giggled at the back was not Michael Ware, whom I don't remember giggling or making any kind of disturbance."
[edit] References
- ^ TIME Magazine - Search Results
- ^ CNN Programs - Anchors/Reporters - Michael Ware
- ^ CNN.com - Anderson Cooper 360° Blog
- ^ Video Shows Snipers' Chilling Work in Iraq. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- ^ House Defense Chair Asks Pentagon to Remove Embedded CNN Reporters. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ Drudge, Matt. "CNN's Ware heckles McCain", Drudge Report, April 2, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
- ^ "CNN's Ware heckles McCain", Media Matters for America, April 2, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
- ^ "CNN reporter slams Drudge's charge that he 'heckled' McCain; Exclusive video confirms his claim", Rawstory, April 2, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
- ^ Matthew, Jennie. "US White House hopeful shops in Baghdad market", Agence France-Press, April 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
