Newsweek's Tom Masland "fighting for his life" in NY

[EuroObserver]

New York Daily News: Newsweek editor slammed by SUV

<snip>

A top editor at Newsweek was fighting for his life last night after a sport-utility vehicle slammed into him on the upper West Side, police sources said.

Tom Masland, 55, was crossing W. 95th St. when a 2004 Volkswagen SUV headed north on West End Ave. struck him about 8:30 p.m., police sources said.

...

The driver, a 43-year-old woman, was not seriously injured and later drove the SUV away after talking with cops for hours.

No charges were filed.

Masland moved to the national magazine's New York office on W. 57th St. just a month ago. He has been working with the mag's Web site division.

He joined Newsweek in 1990. He has served as both an editor and senior writer, exploring topics from terrorism in the Middle East to African politics.

</snip>

Here is the Newsweek web site's current front page (Cheney main story): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/?rf=autorefresh


Here's an example of a Masland interview (Sept 2002): Transcript: Mandela: US a Threat to World Peace

<snip>

TOM MASLAND (NEWSWEEK): Why are you speaking out on Iraq? Do you want to mediate, as you tried to on the Mideast a couple of years ago? It seems you are reentering the fray now.

NELSON MANDELA: If I am asked, by credible organizations, to mediate, I will consider that very seriously. But a situation of this nature does not need an individual, it needs an organization like the United Nations to mediate. We must understand the seriousness of this situation. The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken. Unqualified support of the Shah of Iran led directly to the Islamic revolution of 1979. Then the United States chose to arm and finance the mujahedin in Afghanistan instead of supporting and encouraging the moderate wing of the government of Afghanistan. That is what led to the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the most catastrophic action of the United States was to sabotage the decision that was painstakingly stitched together by the United Nations regarding the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms. And you will notice that France, Germany Russia, China are against this decision. It is clearly a decision that is motivated by George W. Bushís desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States of America. If you look at those factors, youíll see that an individual like myself, a man who has lost power and influence, can never be a suitable mediator.

MASLAND: What about the argument thatís being made about the threat of Iraqís weapons of mass destruction and Saddamís efforts to build a nuclear weapons. After all, he has invaded other countries, he has fired missiles at Israel. On Thursday, President Bush is going to stand up in front of the United Nations and point to what he says is evidence of ...

MANDELA: ... Scott Ritter, a former United Nations arms inspector who is in Baghdad, has said that there is no evidence whatsoever of mass destruction. Neither Bush nor Tony Blair has provided any evidence that such weapons exist. But what we know is that Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody talks about that. Why should there be one standard for one country, especially because it is black, and another one for another country, Israel, that is white.

...

MASLAND: I gather you are particularly concerned about Vice President Cheney?

MANDELA: Well, there is no doubt. He opposed the decision to release me from prison . The majority of the U.S. Congress was in favor of my release, and he opposed it. But itís not because of that. Quite clearly we are dealing with an arch-conservative in Dick Cheney.

</snip>

(note the above now not found on the Newsweek site at the link given within).

[Cha]

1. Was he jaywalking?

Is that why the woman got to drive away?

[EuroObserver]

2. The article doesn't say...

Suggest we investigate some more?

ed: no mention of witnesses either... only quotes "police sources" (twice) and "authorities" (once).

[Cha]

3. I know..very

strange! I hope Tom Masland pulls through all right!

[EuroObserver]

4. Trying to keep this out of the memory hole.

No new news yet that I've been able to find...

Here's a snapshot of some of Tom's work:


A Prayer for New Orleans.
Once American slavery’s busiest marketplace, the city represents much more culturally than a place that throws a great party. WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Tom Masland, Newsweek, Updated: 10:51 a.m. ET Sept. 9, 2005 - http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9267256/site/newsweek/


Unmasking the Insurgents.
Shadow war: The elections won't stop the bombers, but quality intel—and luck—might help. Rod Nordland, Tom Masland and Christopher Dickey
Newsweek Feb. 7 2005 - http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6885867/site/newsweek/ and http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=524
- Comment: "A Newsweek investigation shows that long before U.S. and other Coalition troops blasted across the border into Iraq on March 20, 2003, Saddam had put aside hundreds of millions of dollars (some sources claim billions) and enormous weapons caches to support a guerrilla war. Since the aftermath of his defeat in the 1991 gulf war, Saddam had started preparing secret cells of younger officers from his military and intelligence services, according to Ali Ballout, a Lebanese journalist who had close ties to the former dictator. They were meant, at first, to help him defend against a coup. "He was very good at that," says Ballout, who often acted as an intermediary between Saddam and foreign leaders. Later, some of these officers would provide core leadership in the resistance." - http://warincontext.org/2005_01_30_archive.html


The Power of a Word. By Tom Masland and Holly Bailey | Jul 12 '04 - http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Newsweek/2004/07/12/502224?extID=10026
"The venue was the message. Still, in case the point somehow escaped anyone in the crowd at Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum, the rally's organizers pounded the word relentlessly: "Genocide!" They were talking about the ongoing crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, where government-backed Arab militias have savagely driven roughly 1 million black villagers from their homes and land. Relief officials say 300,000 or more of the victims could die in the next few months of hunger and disease. Protesters gathered again in Washington last week outside the Sudanese Embassy to demand U.N. military intervention aimed at "ending the genocide of Sudan's African people." An army of activists has taken up the cry. "This is genocide unfolding," says Physicians for Human Rights investigator John Heffernan. U.S. Committee for Refugees spokesman Steven Forester concurs: "It's incumbent on the president to strongly call this by its rightful name. Time has run out."


Q&A: Tom Masland - LINK INCLUDES PHOTO OF TOM MASLAND
Newsweek's Africa correspondent on shrapnel in his arm and the life of a foreign correspondent. By David S. Hirschman – August 5, 2003 - http://mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a622.asp
"Q: Do you ever think, "Wouldn't I be off better off sitting in an office in New York?"
A: This kind of thing goes with the territory of being a correspondent. People often ask me if it's dangerous to be a foreign correspondent, and over the years I've evolved the answer that I think is accurate: The most dangerous thing about it is riding around on questionable roads in funky taxis. Getting killed in a car accident is still probably the biggest risk, the same way it is in the United States. And getting sick is also dangerous. I have had malaria twice, fortunately not the very dangerous kind. But it's hard to match the job of being a correspondent. And maybe it's not for everybody, but you have an awful lot of latitude and scope, and it's a kind of assignment I thrive on, that I think I'm best suited for. I did work in the office. I worked at Newsweek for 10 years as a writer and editor, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been a reporter since 1973, and I've never regretted being a reporter."


The Road to Damascus: The Syrians know well the black art of terrorism. But they've also been key allies against Al Qaeda. Tom Masland, Richard Wolffe. Newsweek April 28, 2003 p28 - http://www.lebanese-forces.org/vbullet/archive/index.php/t-4084.html


Sayyed Fadlullah : We Don’t Trust America.
Interview with the Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah before the fall of Baghdad about the war on Iraq and its consequences on the Arab and Muslim world in general and Iraq and Najaf in particular (By Tom Masland / NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Newsweek April 7, 2003). - http://english.bayynat.org.lb/news/newsweek07042003.htm
- "A top Shiite religious leader says the war in Iraq has united the Arab world against the United States and could lead to an uncontrollable wave of terrorism"


No End to Their Woes: Allegations of sexual extortion by aid workers in Africa. Tom Masland and Miriam Mahlow, NEWSWEEK July 29 2002 - link pending
Comment - "More than a year ago, officials from the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees agency looked on as women in a Zimbabwe camp
called Tongogara depicted daily life: girls kissing and cuddling with aid
workers in order to be allowed to go to school. THE SKIT WAS A RED FLAG, but there was no investigation. Last month refugees from the same camp complained to the UNHCR of sexual harassment. They got no reply. Finally an intern at Tongogara alerted the International Catholic Migration Commission, which runs the camp under contract. A top official flew in, and this month the ICMC fired its country director and camp manager.
The alleged lapses, detailed in a confidential ICMC report obtained
by NEWSWEEK, weren’t the first. Last fall the UNHCR shelved a report by one
of its own experts that accused 67 aid workers from 40 agencies of extorting
sex from teenage girls in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Though news
reports confirmed the study’s allegations, High Commissioner for Refugees
Ruud Lubbers disparaged it as hearsay, and the expert soon lost her U.N.
contract. “There will be no investigations in other countries,” Lubbers told
NEWSWEEK last month. Still, says Save the Children’s Paul Nolan, “this is
not over, by a long shot.” At UNHCR headquarters, problems in Zambia are
rumored, and an investigative team visited Namibia last week—likely a sign
of more trouble." - http://list.web.net/archives/women-peace-and-security/2002-July/000139.html
Referenced from: Documenting Talisman Energy's Complicity in Civilian Destruction in the Oil Regions of Southern Sudan, August 6, 2001 - http://www.sudanreeves.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=366&page=1


Tom Masland, Newsweek, April 9, 2001; filed from Western Upper Nile - - link pending -
“‘They take the cattle, they take the children and they kill the others,’ said Chief Edward Nyang, 62. He added: ‘Now oil has become a weapon used against us.’”
“Hungry people were arriving daily in the rebel stronghold from villages to the east, near the oil road, after trekking overland for as much as 10 days. ‘On Feb. 6 they came to our village and started shooting,’ said Zakaria Jiech, 24, who had led a group of 14 teenagers to the makeshift refugee camp. ‘The population was around 3,000---now it’s a no man’s land.’”
“Nothing was left of the town of Nialdiu, just a three-hour walk from positions within mortar range of the oil center. It was burned out in fighting on March 5, witnesses said. Dozens of other villages visible from the air also lay in ashes, deserted.”


Will the 'Dark Continent' Still Matter? By Tom Masland, Newsweek December 25, 2000 - http://www.globalpolicy.org/unitedstates/unpolicy/gen2000/1225afr.htm
- "Africa can expect even less from the next administration. In the second presidential debate, George W. Bush said that Africa does not "fit into" U.S. strategic interests. And although Bush's prospective top foreign-policy aides are African-American, neither has so far shown any sentimental attachment to Africa. Colin Powell, the designated secretary of State, is a career military man steeped in the doctrine that U.S. troops shouldn't serve under foreign command. Condoleezza Rice, the front runner to be national-security adviser, was a Soviet expert in Ronald Reagan's White House.
To the Bush White House, Africa will first mean oil. The United States already imports nearly as much oil from Africa as from the Middle East and the share will grow with the recent discovery of huge reserves in the Gulf of Guinea, chiefly off Angola. Insiders know the territory; Vice President-elect Dick Cheney until recently led Halliburton Co., the oil-services giant, a major player on the Africa scene. And Rice is on the board of Chevron. Oil politics could reinforce U.S. reliance on Nigeria to tame regional conflicts. The first test of the strategy will come early next year when U.S.-trained Nigerian troops arrive in Sierra Leone."