Forum Blog
Identity of ‘LT G’, former Kaboom milblogger, revealed
The man behind the popular military blog, Kaboom, is 25 year old Matthew Gallagher. His blog was shut down after he failed to allow a blog posting to be vetted by a superior. He was serving with the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment. His platoon was based in a small village north-west […]
Reporter’s Notebook 3: Do not stand near the military band
[video:youtube:SrRsTLC4Gkw] Via the good folks at Abu muqawama.
Editorial preferences
[video:youtube:L5XIhIpVUfI] Photo District News has more on the disembedding of photojournalist and blogger Zoriah Miller, “The official reason which they chose to use for disembedding me was that I had supplied the enemy with information on the effectiveness of attack,” he said. “I told the public affairs officer, listen, I really have to disagree with […]
US Army worried about falling behind new technology but still ahead of most
My Frontline colleague, David Axe, has written an interesting piece over at Wired.com about the US Army’s use of social media tools. He reports that Army Secretary Pete Geren is worried about senior army leaders falling behind new technology. David nevertheless thinks the Army is ‘way ahead of the other US military services when it […]
War Reporting Links: The ‘state’ of the British military
1. Standpoint have published an article by a Ministry of Defence insider claiming that the department is ‘unfit for purpose’. Though I’ll be glad to see the back of the cliché, there’s some interesting observations here. Too many civil servants and consultants, not enough military understanding the insider claims: “I once attended a meeting of […]
Zoriah Miller says he was censored
Democracy Nation talk to Zoriah Miller, the American photojournalist we previously blogged about here and here, who was booted out of Iraq last week. He describes the aftermath of the attack he photographed that led to the US Army immediately disembedding him, I immediately began to take as many pictures as I possibly could, which […]
Covering counter-insurgencies: Afghanistan vs Iraq
Kip is a contributor to the Abu Muqawama blog. He’s served with the US Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. In reaction to the recent deaths of 9 US soldiers in Kunar province, Afghanistan, he explains why he believes the difficulties facing coalition troops in Afghanistan haven’t received as much coverage as the war in Iraq: […]
Blocked in Chad
Frontline blogger David Axe writes on the Danger Room blog about the joys of getting around Chad. Roadblocks equal a local road tax. He’s got through $500 in just a month paying off the blockers. At least at one roadblock the ‘guards’ let him hold onto his wallet, I was driving through a U.N.-administered refugee […]
Web 2.0 for warzones… not there yet
Our man in Chad, David Axe, writes a great post summarizing the strengths and the weaknesses of using a Nokia N95 and live video broadcast software Qik to report from a war zone. It’s not rocket science, if the mobile phone networks are flakey and/or you can’t get to a decent wifi connection live reporting […]
Is this the end of the FARC?
Bogotá based Frontline blogger Anastassia picks up the story of the recent escape of French/Colombian kidnap victim Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others, There are still political hostages being held by the Farc (including 27 policemen and 3 politicians). Some families fear that the guerrillas will carry out reprisals against their family members held in jungle […]
Blogger booted out of Iraq
Zoriah Miller, a photojournalist and blogger whom we’ve featured here previously, has been ordered to leave Iraq for taking photos. Well, one photo in particular appears to have rankled the American military powers that be. The image, of a dead American soldier lying on his back his face unrecognisable due to a bomb blast, was […]
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan
If you want to follow the efforts of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit against the Taliban in Garmsir, Helmand province, there’s various places you can do it. There are a couple of embedded journalists reporting on the activities of the 24th MEU: Michael Phillips for the Wall Street Journal and Daily News Reporter, Jennifer Hlad. […]
An update on former milblogger LT G of Kaboom
The news of this milblogger’s demise has now reached the virtual pages of Wired.com, and seems to have sparked further debate about the role of military bloggers in the US. (If you want the back story read my post on it or follow the Wired link above.) Before this blog was shut down a number […]
War Reporting Links (WRL): War coverage
Here are some War Reporting Links, a ‘new’ ‘feature’ for the blog (hardly ‘new’, and ‘feature’ rather oversells it). I think I’m going to shorten it to WRL because we all know that anything connected to war or the military needs to be shortened to an acronym that nobody else can understand. 1. In fact, […]
School exams in Iraq
Iraqi blogs (Last of Iraqis and Healing Iraq) and interestingly a US-funded Arab radio station are reporting news of a shooting at an Iraqi school. They say at least four students were wounded when the guards of Iraq’s Education Minister, Khudhair al-Khuzai, started shooting at them. The incident occurred last Thursday during a routine visit […]
Milblogger bites the dust for writing ‘too much unfiltered truth’
LT G, author of Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal, says he will have to stop updating his milblog with immediate effect. In a post entitled ‘Tactical Pause‘, LT G explains that although he ‘committed no OPSEC violations’, ‘extenuating circumstances’ meant a post he wrote on 28 May did not go through the ‘normal vetting channels’. […]
Many journalists are now ‘war’ reporters
“Meanwhile, for journalists in many countries, any distinction between peace and wartime reporting has become meaningless. If they’re investigating corruption or powerful vested interests, drug dealing or organised crime, they’re always on the frontline.” Kate Allen, The Director of Amnesty International UK, on the perils of human rights journalism.
David Axe on Radio 5 Live
Chris Vallance, presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pods and Blogs show, interviews David Axe in Chad. You can hear the report here and you can follow David’s trip on the border of Sudan on his Frontline blog. To listen direct click here – I think this link is good for one week or so […]
Trouble in Abeche
Frontline blogger David Axe and photographer Anne Holmes think they’re onto a story when they hear gunfire in the Chadian city Abeche. The story appears to have been little more than a misunderstanding that finds David in the wrong place at the wrong time, We’d seen plenty of shooting and lots of soldiers, but no […]
A view on the security situation in Baghdad
I thought I’d take Arianna Huffington’s advice and point you to someone claiming to be giving the facts on the ground in Iraq. Dr Mohammed blogs at Last of Iraqis. He’s been blogging about his life as a dentist in the Iraqi capital for some time now and has contributed to the BBC’s iPM radio […]
Arianna Huffington slams media coverage of war in Iraq
Just back from listening to Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, at the BBC. In between some interesting comments on the American election and her citizen journalism project, ‘Off the Bus’, she thought she’d spend a bit of time telling assembled journalists how much of a disaster she thinks the Iraq war has […]
Bloggers around the world being arrested
More bloggers are being arrested by repressive regimes than ever before according to this article in The Guardian. The report that the article is based on can be found here. It says that collectively bloggers have served 940 months in jail and that ‘China, Egypt and Iran account for more than half of all arrests […]
Zoriah in the red zone
Latest shots from Zoriah inside the red zone in Baghdad are on Flickr. Click the image above to watch the slideshow. His blog is here.
Alex heads back to Afghanistan
Live from the streets of London via Twitterpower. Alex begins the process of heading back to Afghanistan.
David Axe heading to Chad
Frontline blogger David Axe is heading to Chad and Sudan tomorrow. He’ll be blogging when he can. He’ll also be the second Frontline blogger to experiment with the mobile phone live streaming video tool called Qik. Kyle is already a big fan, but David will see how (and if) the service works in the field. […]
The view from a British soldier in Afghanistan
As I’ve discussed previously finding a British military blogger updating from Afghanistan or Iraq is a difficult task. This is about the best I can find at the moment. Lachlan MacNeil is section commander of Section 1, 2 Platoon, A Company, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He’s currently in Helmand province in Afghanistan fighting the […]
Fighting for peace
zoriah_graffiti_latrine_toilette_soldier_war_iraq_diary, originally uploaded by Zoriah. Zoriah is a photojournalist reporting from Kuwait and into Iraq. He’s using a blog to document his work and some of the quirkier sights he encounters. For example, the toilets stalls on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Photography in Ali Al Salem is strictly forbidden, but I […]
Picture blogging to support the troops
I try to read a fair few blogs so every now and then it’s refreshing not to have to trawl through pages and pages of writing. Military Motivator is one of the blogs I like ‘looking at’ rather than reading. I got in contact with the author of the blog to see how it started. […]
Top 10 journalistic uses for Twitter
Here’s a brief guide to the top 10 journalistic uses of the microblogging tool Twitter. It’s not all useless banter about cats and cookery… Sources – Use Twitterlocal to find out if anyone is tweeting from where you want to report, see what they’re tweeting about, whether they might be useful/interesting and see if they […]
