Mid East Trip Wrap Up

August 7, 2007

POST TRIP HAZE

that’s me on the left getting a shot of Secretary boarding her plane in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Days after I’ve unpacked my luggage, off-loaded the gear, and generally adjusted to this time zone, I still find myself in a bit of a post Mid-East trip haze. Just a week ago, I embarked on a trip with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to the Middle East. I was the US TV pool camera for the journey that included stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories.

Not only are the trips physically grueling, but they pack so many stops in so few days that the entire experience is a blur. There are always memorable moments though. After a refuel stop in Shannon, Ireland we arrived in Sharm El Sheikh where Rice met with Gulf state leaders and Egyptian President Hosni Mubuarak. It was that meeting with Mubarak that cemented my street credz as a “seasoned” photojournalist.

Egyptian photo ops are by far, the most insane crushes of humanity i’ve ever encountered. Think Who concert. It’s amazing that no camera crews aren’t trampled to death entering these meetings for 30 seconds of shooting. In the first photo op, I held my own, but a bunch of Egyptian press elbowed and squeezed past me. No problem.. so those are the ground rules eh??

Gates, Rice, Mubarak in Sharm El Sheikh

On the Mubarak photo-op, I decided that I would be the first camera in the room, and I enforced that decision in vigorous fashion, shall we say. We all got stuck in the doorway, but finally with a strong final push I broke through and got in. Well, seems as though the Egyptian press were not at all pleased with my determination and cried foul to our Embassy representative. Oh Mary please! Look… if you’re going to dish it out you’d BEST be able to take it! The don’t fly me all around the world NOT to get the picture.

“When the Egyptians complain about you.. it means you were doing your job.”
- Israeli cameraman

Later at stops in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories, my counterparts in camera there confirmed that the Egyptian photographers were, bar none, the most ruthless. An Israeli cameraman remarked that that when the Egyptian crews complain about you: “It means you were doing your job!” As i did an end run around the same camerman, to get into a photo op later, he jokingly remarked: “no wonder the Egyptians complained about you! How did you get in front of me!?”

What can I say… it’s a gift.

Here’s the TV Pool team. Front row, L-R: me, CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier, Back row, L-R: NBC soundman Johnnie Roth, NBC State Department producer Libby Leist

This picture was taken as we motorcaded to the airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We’re reminded of the instability of the region at every stop along the trip. Each motorcade vehicle, including this one we’re seen riding in here, is heavily armored top to bottom. So much so that the strain on the engines caused by the weight is evident. Having had a very close call myself in Baghdad a few years ago, the potential for danger is always in the back of my mind. Bulletproof glass, armor plate, and automatic weapons sitting on the floorboards are just reminders of the risk.

Imagine then, the courage of colleague, and traveling TV companion Kimberly Dozier. Dozier was gravely wounded and nearly killed in a car bomb attack last summer that took the lives of CBS cameraman Paul Douglas, soundman James Brolan, a US soldier, and an Iraqi interpreter. This was the first time I had met Kimberly, but I’d met Paul in Europe and had worked with him on Presidential trips a number of times, so the attack struck close to home for me. I was hesitant at first to ask her about her recovery and her recall of the incident, but toward the end of the trip I found that she was very open about it. Aside from being a lovely person, I truly admire her courage. She dropped off the trip in Ramallah to do some stories from the region. Frankly, if I had gone through what she had, I’d be enjoying my retirement. I hope to get to work with her again some day.

MAINTAINING VIDEO SILENCE

Click To Play

Let’s just say i was “discouraged” from doing a video blog of this trip, so I’m only able to give you a video appetizer here. Because of my video efforts on my trip around the world with Defense Secretary Gates, other networks complained that my video blog material should be distributed to the pool. NBC complied of course, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine that my mini DV footage will do anything other than sit on a shelf. It never occured to me that what amounted to an innocuous travelogue, would stir up controversy. On this Mid East trip, Rice was joined by Secretary Gates. The traveling Pentagon press confided to me that there are now new ground rules about blogging on the Secretary’s plane. Essentially there will be none of it. So for now, I’ll have to contain my video blogging to non-pool assignments.

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Posted in Condoleeza Rice, Diplomacy, Fishbowl DC, Jim Long, Kimberly Dozier, Mid East Politics, NBC News, Robert Gates, TV Newser, TV news, disruptive media, journalism, mainstream media, old media, photjournalism, tradtional media, video blogging