"The interviews were made when memories and experiences were fresh, and the accounts crackle with immediacy."--New York Times Book Review

"The interviews crackle with immediacy." -The New York Times "It is my hope that this outstanding piece of work will reach the widest possible distribution and readership." -Dan Rather, CBS News, on the John Burns interview EMBEDDED is a collection of deeply emotional and highly personal accounts of covering the Iraq War. Many of the world's top war correspondents and photographers speak candidly about life on the battlefield. Here are articulate and heartfelt descriptions of fear and firefights, of bullets and banalities, of risking death and meeting deadlines. With over sixty interviews conducted in Kuwait and Iraq shortly after many returned home, Katovsky and Carlson allowed these journalists to step outside their professional role as journalists and examine the lethal allure of combat reporting. Here is CBS Evening News correspondent Jim Axelrod discussing the perils of racing to Baghdad while despondent over the death of a television colleague and being unexpectedly comforted by ABC News Nightline's Ted Koppel; Newsweek reporter Scott Johnson unwittingly driving into an ambush and then kicking out the windshield of his bullet-riddled car to escape the Iraqi gunmen; New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief John Burns's brave refusal to be intimidated by his Iraqi information ministry minders; and many, many more. Each interview in EMBEDDED maps its own personal path and narrative arc, while presenting an emotional window to war and reporting. Taken individually, each offers a unique view of the most-covered war in history. Collectively, EMBEDDED is an eyewitness to history that will do for the war in Iraq what Michael Herr's Dispatches did for Vietnam.

Introduction i
Charging into Bad-Guy Country with Custer Detroit News Reporter John Bebow 1
Covering Wars Takes Her Far from Home San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Anna Badkhen 11
The Race to Baghdad CBS Evening News Correspondent Jim Axelrod 21
Dodging Death Voice of America''s East Africa Bureau Chief Alisha Ryu 29
Doing Good Deeds with the Devil Docs CNN and Time Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta 33
Groundhog''s Day at CENTCOM''s Media Center New York Magazine Media Critic Michael Wolff 39
"My Marines" Orange County Register Columnist Gordon Dillow 45
The Fixer Hasan Aweidah, aka PJ 55 Beyond Good and Evil CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf 59
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Washington Times Chief Photographer Joe Eddins 65
Media Gatekeeper and Troubleshooter U.S. Army Colonel Guy Shields, Public Affairs Officer 73
War-Gaming with Lieutenant General William Wallace USA Today Reporter Steve Komarow 79
Death in the Afternoon El Correo and Telecinco Correspondent Mercedes Gallego 85
Hello to All That U.K.''s News of the World Reporter Chris Bucktin 89
It''s Deacute;jagrave; Vu All Over Again GLOBE TV Executive Producer and ABC News and Nightline Correspondent Mike Cerre 93
Capturing the War''s Most Memorable Image Time Magazine Photographer Yuri Kozyrev 103
Back to Baghdad CNN International Correspondent Nic Robertson 107
Once a Marine, Always a Marine San Francisco Chronicle Reporter John Koopman 111
Truth vs. Beauty Montreal Freelance Photographer Robert J. Galbraith 123
Where the Boys Are Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville, Tennessee) Military Reporter Chantal Escoto 127
The Birds and the Bees and a Pest Named Geraldo KSTP-TV (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Reporter Dean Staley 133
Sorry, No Room Service at Saddam''s Presidential Palace Los Angeles Times Staff Writer David Zucchino 141
Ambushed on the Highway Philippines TV (ABS-CBN) Correspondents Eric Tulfo and Maxie Santiago 151
The Moral Compass of Iraq New York Times Baghdad Bureau Chief John Burns 155
Boys in the Bradley San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Carl Nolte 165
Reporting from the Trenches CBS News White House Correspondent and Weekend Anchor John Roberts 171
Trapped in the Media Crossfire Al Jazeera Correspondent Amr El- Kakhy 179
They Fight. We Report. You Decide. Fox News Reporter Rick Leventhal 185
Trying Not to Go Deaf on the Gun Line Boston Globe Reporter Scott Bernard Nelson 193
Semper Fido! On Duty to Sniff Bombs CENTCOM''s Jocko
201 The Birth of Embedding as Pentagon War Policy Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Bryan Whitman 203
The Hemingway Legacy Kansas City Star Staff Writer Matt Schofield 209
War Junkie BBC News Special Correspondent Ben Brown 217
High-Tech Desert Rats Wired Reporter Josh Davis 223
The Checkpoint Killing Washington Post Reporter William Branigin 229
What Romance Aboard the War Boat? Jerusalem Post Reporter Janine Zacharia 235
On the Road with Unilaterals Los Angeles Times Translator and Driver Mohammed Fahmy 241
Mishandled by His Iraqi Minders New York Times Staff Photographer Tyler Hicks 245
Absurdity of War British Lieutenant Colonel Robert Partridge, Public Affairs Officer 253
"All is Vanity" Los Angeles Times Reporter Geoffrey Mohan 257
My First War Newsweek Reporter Kevin Peraino 265
Making the Media Feel at Home Sergeant Major Carol Sobel, Public Affairs Officer 269
Going Live CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge 273
The Arab Perspective Abu Dhabi TV Correspondent Amir Al-Mounaiery 283
Marriage Under Fire Washington Post''s Moscow Bureau Chiefs Susan Glasser and Peter Baker 287
Measuring the True Cost of War Peace Activist Marla Ruzicka 299
Going from Ground Zero to the Ground War Newsday Reporter Graham Rayman 305
View from Across the Pond BBC News Special Correspondent Gavin Hewitt 311
The Disembed Harrisburg''s Patriot-News Washington Reporter Brett Leiberman 317
The Sound War National Public Radio Correspondent Eric Westervelt 323
Our Warrior Youth Rolling Stone Reporter Evan Wright 329
Sharp Shooters Combat Cameraman Staff Sergeant Ronald Mitchell 341
Maintaining a Family Legacy Fox News Producer and Reporter Maya Zumwalt 347
The Fallujah Incident London Daily Mirror Reporter Chris Hughes and Freelance Photographer Julian Andrews
353 Crossing the Journalistic Divide Atlanta Journal-Constitution Military Affairs Reporter Ron Martz 357
Lending Assistance to a Dangerous Profession Committee to Protect Journalists'' Michael Massing 371
Choosing the Right Target CBS News Cameraman Mario DeCarvalho 379
The Ping, Ping, Ping of Bullets Hitting My Car Newsweek Reporter Scott Johnson 389
Appendix Department of Defense Embedment Manual 401
Notes and Acknowledgments 419
In Memoriam 421