embedded reporting
Posted at 3:12pm on May 22, 2008 President Bush speaks at Ft. Bragg, presents awards to Army heroes
By Jeff Emanuel
President Bush speaks to soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division today at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina
President Bush spoke today at Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- home of the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as several other units. His message was simple: that, according to him, "we are on our way to victory" in Iraq.
Among other activities, the President presided over the presentation of the Distinguished Service Cross to Specialists Eric Moser and Chris Corriveau -- the two heroes of a nameless battle in Samarra last August 26 that saw a massive al Qaeda kidnap-and-execution operation foiled by a team of four paratroopers. Specialist Tracy Willis and Sergeant Josh Morley tragically lost their lives in the incident.
UPDATE: Lake Charles, LA's local CBS affiliate has a brief story on SPC Moser today.
Posted in 82nd Airborne | embedded reporting | Iraq | President Bush | War — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:02pm on May 11, 2008 Embedded War Documentarian, (and former Marine & Brownback staffer) on Dennis Miller show Monday morning
By Jeff Emanuel
More information here. J.D. Johannes is a guy who is definitely worth listening to, as he has a wealth of knowledge and experience on counterinsurgency in general and Iraq in particular. Tune in and check it out.
And swing over to his place and buy a DVD while you're at it. It doesn't get any more real than his inside-the-surge, inside-the-Anbar-Awakening, on-scene-for-combat documentaries.
Trust me -- it's worth the $20 price tag.
Posted at 6:00am on May 6, 2008 LWJ: "Iraqis begin to 'despise' the Mahdi Army"
The Surge and Counterinsurgency Got the Ball Rolling. Now it's up to the Iraqis to keep it in motion.
By Jeff Emanuel
The latest in kick-@$$ war reporting comes from Bill Ardolino, currently embedded in Baghdad and reporting for the absolutely indispensable Long War Journal.
(As an aside, I'd like to take a moment to exhort my colleagues at RedState and across the 'sphere to rely on the hands-down best news source of the Global War on Terror, the Long War Journal, instead of linking the NYT, WaPo, etc. when they have their one-in-a-million informed, honest articles. The Long War Journal is the AP/AFP/Reuters/insert-wire-here of the GWOT. Unfortunately, it lacks the recognition and accolades that it deserves, especially since it offers the best, most timely, most accurate, and most comprehensive reportage on the Long War of pretty much any outfit in the known world. Want to know what's going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else that matters in the GWOT? Get your up-to-the-minute and accurate reportage -- including eyewitness reports from key embeds who go where mainstream "journalists" don't dare -- from the Long War Journal...and tell all of your friends about it, as well.)
Anyway, back to Ardolino's latest. He's in Rusafa, a "large district in central Baghdad bordered by the Tigris River to the southwest and Sadr City to the northeast." The district, which is "predominantly Shia, but contains significant Sunni enclaves and a small Christian population, with a surprising number of openly practicing churches," and which has been known in the past to have heavy Jaish al Mahdi (Mahdi Army) activity.
Aside from its bordering on the suddenly-flagrant Sadr City, Rusafa is important because the district "contains Baghdad’s largest and most famous markets, including the Shorja, Saria, and Bab al Sharji, some of which were the scenes of high-profile suicide bombings during the sectarian-fueled carnage of 2006-2007."
Read on.
Posted in embedded reporting | Mahdi Army | Media | War — Comments (23)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:50am on Mar. 4, 2008 Re: The Surge is Working, Part 3,927
By Jeff Emanuel
Backing up Pejman's post from this morning, I spent the first three weeks of August, 2007 embedded in this very area, with Baker Company 1-15 IN of the 3rd Infantry Division. Full reports can be seen here. A few highlights include the following:
Iraq's "Concerned Local Citizens" Program Grows into a Bona-Fide Phenomenon
Posted at 1:01am on Feb. 9, 2008 "Anbar Awoke"
By Jeff Emanuel
My good friend J.D. Johannes (an embedded documentarian) will be screening the Anbar portion of his new documentary trilogy at CPAC tomorrow morning. J.D. was on the ground at the fron in Anbar from the beginning of the now-famous Awakening, and this documentary is well worth seeing.
Following the screening, there will be an embedded reporter Iraq panel discussion featuring J.D., Bill Roggio, Bill Ardolino, and yours truly. It'll be in Capitol Congressional B at the Omni Shoreham, at 11:00am. If you're at CPAC, come on by.
Posted at 7:13pm on Jan. 21, 2008 Three years later, the NYT realizes that there are independent journalists in Iraq
And that they are doing the jobs that Americans won't do
By Jeff Emanuel
The New York Times has a long-overdue article up today profiling my good friend Michael Yon, one of the two longest-serving independent journalists in Iraq. Yon first traveled to Iraq shortly after the Blackwater contractors were killed and defiled in Fallujah, and has been in and out of the country (more in than out) for the better part of the last three years. Only J.D. Johannes, a documentary filmmaker and another good friend, has been conducting independent journalism in-country nearly as long.
Read the whole thing. Then, if you still have any stamina remaining, click over here and read what it is that makes these people different from 95% of ordinary journalists who go to Iraq and try to cover the war there.
[Updated below the fold]
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | Media | Michael Yon | War — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 1:50am on Jan. 5, 2008 A Marine's miracles
By Melanie Morgan
Promoted from the diaries by Jeff, for obvious reasons. As we focus on petty politics in the aftermath of Iowa, this story can serve as your daily dose of perspective and "what's really important".
Even in death, Lance Cpl. Travis Layfield is reaching back to his family.
The Fremont, Calif., Marine was just 19 when he laid down his life in Iraq, one of 20,000 Camp Pendleton Marines fighting off murderous Islamic radicals around Fallujah and Ramadi on April 6, 2004.
Ten others died that day for freedom.
Read on.
Posted in embedded reporting | War — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:30pm on Dec. 13, 2007 The "Concerned Citizen" Phenomenon Takes Hold
Or: "The Iraqis are taking their country back"
By Jeff Emanuel
The Concerned Local Citizens phenomenon in Iraq has continued to grow throughout the year that General Petraeus and his counterinsurgency force have been on the ground in Iraq. At the Long War Journal, the indispensable Bill Roggio has posted a map showing the location and development of these citizens' groups which have mobilized themselves to fight against militias and terrorists for the purpose of protecting their tribe, their city, and their country.
When in the small village of Ja'ara, Iraq (between Baghdad and Salman Pak) this summer, I had the privilege of sitting in on the first meeting between an American officer and a Sunni tribal leader (Auth. note: The empty red chair in the foreground is mine). The prospect of establishing a prototype Concerned Citizens group -- the first ever in the region -- was discussed at that meeting.
That was at the end of August. As you'll see from the information provided at the Long War Journal, what began as the smallest of meetings has now become a literal phenomenon, with over 35,000 concerned local citizens participating just in that small region -- with almost 50% of the groups being combined Sunni and Shi'a.
If there's a term for this besides "unimaginable success," then I don't know what it is.
Posted in concerned citizens | embedded reporting | Iraq | Not In Your Name | War — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:10pm on Oct. 27, 2007 Does independent journalism from Iraq make a difference?
By Jeff Emanuel
This is in response to kowalski's commentary here.
Note: By the way, lest any get the wrong impression from this diary or from kowalski's comments on the other thread, Alex has been one of the most supportive folks out there, both to my efforts and to those of others. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.
First, my work (and Roggio's, Yon's, etc.) does get exposure, from the Washington Times to the Weekly Standard to AmSpec. One of my breaking news stories was linked by Drudge, as well (bottom of linked graphic).
While that's not a page A1 story in one of the nation's top three most-read newspapers, it does mean that there are eyes-on my and our reports -- and, when you get down to it, that has to be enough (at least as a starting point). We do what we do not for glory or gain (clearly), but because we see it as being of paramount importance that accurate, eyewitness information be made available to the people here at home -- and, as a result of our work, it is. People still have to find it and decide to read it (in my case, they can hear about it on Laura Ingraham and on Melanie Morgan's show out in San Fran, and they can read about it in the Weekly Standard, the JPost, Human Events, the Washington Times, the American Thinker, AmSpec, here at RedState, the Hawaii Reporter, and more -- all of which should point them to my website, where I hope they'll stick around (or keep coming back) to get more information and more reports and analysis. (As an aside, the copious emails and comments I receive from eternally grateful parents of the soldiers I cover are reward in themselves, though that is not, of course, why I do this).
Please read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | War — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:24pm on Oct. 26, 2007 Yep, I still stand by it. Yep, I could be bitten in the backside by it, but I'm not changing.
By Jeff Emanuel
TNR claims that the Army is the main bad guy in all of this (along, of course, with the Weekly Standard and Drudge, and also claims that Beauchamp contacted them without military supervision to say that actually stands by his fiction as fact after all, but is simply being forced not to say that by the Army (by the way, if that is in any part true, then Scoblus and Foer have again tried to throw him under the bus in their stead, as it's pretty obvious that STB's higher-ups are following TNR's version of the story to see what they'll say next).
TNR is pathetic. P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. That's about all I have to say to and about them. As far as Beauchamp goes, I'm still 100% willing to stand by what I said yesterday, and to proceed in good faith with the belief that he is learning from his mistakes. He can easily prove me wrong, but as a young (and formerly younger) man who has made more than his share of "Oh S**t!"s, and has learned from them to become who he is today, I will give STB that benefit of the doubt, and trust that he is doing the same.
That is all.
Posted at 5:09pm on Oct. 26, 2007 Thank you for all of your help. This wouldn't have been possible without you.
By Jeff Emanuel
I arrived back at home earlier this week from just under three months in Iraq, and am settling back into American society (late wake-ups after actual sleep, wonderfully fattening food, fall weather, occasional rain, and the sounds of traffic instead of explosions and gunfire, among other beautiful differences). I'm still slowly-but-surely running the last of my news and (moreso) analysis pieces from my time there, and will continue to do so -- all leading up to the crown jewel of this embed, the exclusive unbelievable story of Medal of Honor-worthy heroism in a fight to the death against al Qaeda in Samarra only weeks ago. The article, which is the cover story for the November issue of the American Spectator magazine, will come out online (at http://www.spectator.org and at http://www.JeffEmanuel.com) November 1, and will be available in stores (Borders, Barnes&Noble, etc.) the first week of November.
Read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | War — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:00pm on Oct. 24, 2007 Coming in the Nov 2007 American Spectator: The Exclusive Story of Heroism and Loss against Impossible Odds in Samarra, Iraq
By Jeff Emanuel
The November issue of The American Spectator magazine will feature as its cover story the exclusive recounting of a chilling tale of heroism, courage, and loss one morning in Iraq -- an article by yours truly, which was only made possible by the fact that I was there at the front lines in Iraq (thanks in large part to your help) to cover it.
Here's the skinny:
Six weeks ago in Samarra, as a small American sniper team was set upon by dozens of al Qaeda terrorists who had but one goal in mind: to humiliate America in front of the world, only days before General Petraeus's internationally televised testimony before Congress, by kidnapping and slaughtering these American soldiers.
Four U.S. paratroopers faced impossible odds, against dozens of dedicated enemy fighters.
Not all would survive -- but all would become heroes.
Read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Heroism | Iraq | War — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 1:25pm on Oct. 23, 2007 The situation in Iraq is incredibly complex--and the products of the 'Surge' are far too fragile to survive a Coalition drawdown
By Jeff Emanuel
Part 2 of 2
Click here for Part 1.
**Note: Click here for the rest of Jeff's reports from the front lines in Iraq.**
Samarra, Iraq
In April and May of this year, and again from the beginning of August through October, I was embedded with the U.S. military in some of the most kinetic combat zones in Iraq, observing Gen. Petraeus’s strategy from the ground level in several different locations – including with the undermanned units and in the sparsely covered areas mentioned above -- and I have seen the outstanding effort being made by the coalition forces there, as well as clear evidence of the strategy’s effects on the overall situation.
 |
I have personally observed public clinics, in which coalition medics and doctors provided Iraqi tribesmen and villagers with a level of care that had been unheard-of in this country even before the fall of Saddam Hussein. I have toured reconstruction sites being worked on by Iraqi contractors, and have ridden along in gun-truck escorts whose job is to protect these men as they work to rebuild their own country – while terrorists, whether to prove some unfathomable point, or simply because, to their deranged minds, it is the correct course of action, try not only to kill them, but to destroy any and all improvements they have managed to provide for their own countrymen in infrastructure and quality of life.
Read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | War — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:27pm on Oct. 22, 2007 The situation in Iraq is incredibly complex--and the products of the ‘Surge’ are far too fragile to survive a Coalition drawdown
By Jeff Emanuel
Part 1 of 2
Samarra, Iraq
In January of this year, General David Petraeus was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to take command of multinational forces in Iraq. After the failed strategy of General George Casey, now Chief of Staff of the Army, Petraeus and his new ideas for how best to handle the situation in Iraq were seen as a breath of fresh air -- not to mention a last option for an administration whose Party and legacy have been tied inexorably to the outcome of its abortive nation-building effort in the Middle East.
A successful commander in Iraq (with the 101st Airborne in Mosul), the holder of a Ph. D from Princeton, and the author of the Army’s new field manual on Counterinsurgency (FM 3-24), Petraeus brought with him a new approach to the fight to secure Iraq from the insurgent and terrorist population which had taken hold there. To carry out his plan, he requested – and was granted – a 30,000-soldier ‘surge’ in troop levels, the main effort of which was tasked with securing Baghdad, the extremely large capital city which is as rife with sectarian fault lines and, in many areas, as violent as can be imagined. Further, the Coalition’s combat power would be moved out of the obscenely large (and, believe it or not, relatively plush) ‘Super FOBs’ (Forward Operating Bases) established and built up under General Casey, and would once again (like in 2003-04) be based out of myriad tiny Patrol Bases and Combat Outposts, located out in the midst of each occupying unit’s area of operations and sector of responsibility.
This sustained presence is a key difference between Petraeus’s strategy and that of General Casey, which involved pulling Coalition forces back to giant bases and minimizing the friendly foreign presence in sector in favor of putting forward an Iraqi security force and government which simply, and unfortunately, was not ready to take that step.
 |
Read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | War — Comments (18) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:24am on Oct. 16, 2007 Iraqi Police thwart al Qaeda suicide car bomb attack in Samarra
By Jeff Emanuel
This weekend, for the first time in four attempts this year, Iraqi National Police in Samarra were able to avoid being hit with a devastating suicide car bomb (or ‘SVBIED,’ for Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device). Terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq (or ‘ISI’ – also known as ‘AQI,’ or ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’), attempting to drive a VBIED up to an NP outpost in the southwestern part of the city and detonate it, encountered a surprising amount of resistance from the National Police there. The NPs succeeded in destroying the rolling bomb before it was able to reach their position.
Read on . . .
Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | ISF | War — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
