The 52 minute documentary film by director Thomas Nordanstad is almost exclusively based on raw footage, rushes and DV tapes from the reporter’s camera, building up narrative stories with elements that could represent “a day at work” for a war reporter. Adler spent nearly 20 years of traveling around the world, covering wars and conflicts in more than 30 countries.
For two exhausting months, he had been asking military advisers to give him a range of options for the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he felt that they were steering him toward one outcome and thwarting his search for an exit plan. He would later tell his White House aides that military leaders were “really cooking this thing in the direction they wanted.”
A massive cache of previously unpublished classified U.S. military documents from the Iraq War is being readied for publication by WikiLeaks, a new report has confirmed. The documents constitute the “biggest leak of military intelligence” that has ever oc
The documents constitute the “biggest leak of military intelligence” that has ever occurred, according to Iain Overton, editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit British organization that is working with WikiLeaks on the documents.
More than one quarter of the translators working alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan failed language proficiency exams but were sent onto the battlefield anyway, according to a former employee of the company that holds contracts worth up to $1.4 bi
“There are many cases where soldiers have gone out into the field and have spoken to elders [who] handed messages to the interpreter that a possible ambush three miles up the road would occur. The interpreter cannot read the message and they are attacked,” Funk said. “We’re talking about soldiers lives here.”
Adam Ferguson believes that facing difficult moments honestly — without emotionally separating himself from the situation at hand —yields more engaging photographs.
The much talked about August 9 Time magazine cover, unabashed in its aim to shore up support for the war effort in Afghanistan, has left many still shaking their heads in disbelief at such brazen exploitation of a woman’s suffering. It’s not the first time the plight of Afghan women has been used to manipulate public opinion. It’s a narrative we have become so accustomed to since the 2001 invasion, that many of my most intelligent female friends did not recognize it for the subversive emotional blackmail that it is. More important, they said, was the attention it brought to women’s issues. Well, let us talk about those issues in earnest, then.
Dima Gavrysh, who was born in Ukraine, is a New York-based photographer. He has photographed for a number of major publications worldwide and collaborated with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations Population Fund in Uganda, Senegal and Niger. For his most recent project, he spent last summer with the United States Army in Afghanistan for The Associated Press.
Mr. Gavrysh sat down with James Estrin to talk about his experience in Afghanistan.
This past month, much of the attention focused on Afghanistan centered on the release of thousands of classified documents from the war effort by WikiLeaks. While the consensus appears to be that nothing significantly new was revealed by the release, the
This past month, much of the attention focused on Afghanistan centered on the release of thousands of classified documents from the war effort by WikiLeaks. While the consensus appears to be that nothing significantly new was revealed by the release, the picture painted by the documents remains rather bleak. NATO and the United States now have 143,000 troops in Afghanistan, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as they take a counter-insurgency offensive into the insurgents’ southern strongholds. Taliban control remains difficult to dislodge, and once removed from an area, Taliban forces often return once larger forces leave a region, especially in rural areas where local government presence remains small. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan. (47 photos total)
A TALIBAN spokesman announced Thursday that the group is poring over the tens of thousands of classified military documents published by WikiLeaks this week, looking for the names of pro-American Afghans.
As in the past, those identified will likely be added to lists of people to be assassinated, or rounded up once the United States and its allies leave the country.
There’s been a lot of talk about the danger posed by WikiLeaks’s disclosure of tens of thousands of military documents from Afghanistan. But so far, our cyber-sleuths aren’t seeing a lot of chatter on the Takfiri side of the internet. One notable exceptio
so far, our cyber-sleuths aren’t seeing a lot of chatter on the Takfiri side of the internet. One notable exception: a leader of the Haqqani Network, a faction aligned with al-Qaeda, who wished he’d seen the documents earlier.
An archive of classified U.S. military logs spanning six years, more than 91,000 documents, and 200,000 pages, was today made available by WikiLeaks. The papers show a picture of the war in Afghani…
An archive of classified U.S. military logs spanning six years, more than 91,000 documents, and 200,000 pages, was today made available by WikiLeaks. The papers show a picture of the war in Afghanistan that is far more grim, and far less hopeful, than previously portrayed.
A trove of military documents made public on Sunday by an organization called WikiLeaks reflects deep suspicions among American officials that Pakistan’s military spy service has for years guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants.
I didn’t want the Pentagon to write this story like a screenplay, with expert scene-setting, and the temptation, irresistible in conflict, to manipulate reality.
I didn’t want the Pentagon to write this story like a screenplay, with expert scene-setting, and the temptation, irresistible in conflict, to manipulate reality. The project to embed reporters with U.S. troops as those soldiers prosecuted the war was a worthwhile endeavor, offering a perspective otherwise unavailable.
So I started to chat up soldiers. Just as I had finished the formalities of name, age, rank and hometown with a young private from Michigan, I was interrupted by an officer who explained that a handful of soldiers had been chosen to speak to the press, and that the remainder of the group was off limits.
What skeptics fear is that reporters come to identify with the military to such an extent that they no longer have the will, even if they have the means, to report bad news. Whether conscious of it or not, they self-censor.
What such skeptics fear is that reporters come to identify with the military to such an extend that they no longer have the will, even if they have the means, to report bad news. Whether conscious of it or not, they self-censor.
Certainly anyone who has embedded for any length of time is familiar with remarks such as: “You didn’t hear that/You didn’t see that…”, “Do you have to use that…?”, “That’s not what he meant to say…”, “That was off the record…”, “Can you leave that out…?”.
This Friday, June 25th, it will have been sixty years since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. After decades of Japanese occupation, Korea was divided in two by Allied Forces at the end of World War II, with the south administered by the U.S. and th
This Friday, June 25th, it will have been sixty years since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. After decades of Japanese occupation, Korea was divided in two by Allied Forces at the end of World War II, with the south administered by the U.S. and the north by Soviet Russia. Deep divisions built over several years, leading to skirmishes and finally an invasion by North Korean troops on June 25th, 1950. The United Nations sent troops and support from 21 countries to support South Korea, primarily from the United States and Britain. The war lasted for three years, with large advances and retreats on both sides, and many casualties. Over two million Korean civilians lost their lives, and nearly two million soldiers from 17 different countries were killed. The two Koreas are technically still at war since hostilities ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty in 1953. Though it is often referred to as “The Forgotten War”, I hope this collection of photographs helps us to remember the events of 1950-53, those involved, and the legacy that still remains, sixty years later. (48 photos total)
Deep within the treacherous terrain of the Uzbin Valley, young soldiers of the French International Security Assistance Force had a mission to fulfill: to take the valley, the same valley that saw a dozen French soldiers killed in an ambush by Afghan militants in August 2008. During the course of six months, the troops took the valley and every last village within, using what little mental and physical strength they had left. Not once during this time had they used their weapons, nor had they seen a Taliban. There had been an occassional attack upon them, but no one knew from where. Most days, the valley was hauntingly still, like a ghost, heightening the tension and fear of confrontation–as though scenes from Dino Buzatti’s “The Tartar Steppe” had come to life.
The documentary “Restrepo,” directed by Mr. Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will open Friday. Last week, Mr. Hetherington sat down with Mr. Kamber in Midtown Manhattan to talk about the film — and much else besides. Their remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity.
