Journalist's Journey To Iraq

By Robert Scheer, Indianapolis Star Visuals Dept

In covering our guys in Iraq, we heard and saw a lot of things that they didn’t want us to publish — such as how fast they drive, where the commander generally is on a convoy. The key thing is to know what photo or story might jeopardize a life, and which won’t. If you embed, you’ll receive countless pieces of paper containing security concerns. They’re important, be sure to digest them.

Early on, we sent some info out that we shouldn’t have. The folks at Q-West weren’t too pleased with us. At some point during the process of being scolded over and over for about two days, by everyone from Privates to Lt. Colonels, we were led into a dark room with gaudy oversized furniture and told in no uncertain terms that every story and every image we sent had to be scrutinized by the resident intel officer, at the other end of the base. This meant a two-mile walk every time we wanted to send to our editors. Back home, our editors were ready to start calling up various generals to read the riot act, but in Iraq, it was either “live with it, or go home.”

Check it out here.