CBS News' Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests

reply to post by JacKatMtn


On a related note...

During the protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists registered 53 assaults on journalists. It did not delineate the genders of the people affected. There were also dozens of cases of harassment during the weeks of protests, and some female journalists complained about being singled out by crowds. There were no other known sexual assaults.

SOURCE

reply to post by JacKatMtn

As in she made it up?

reply to post by kosmicjack


I couldn't tell you honestly, but so far I am not convinced with my skeptic's hat on...

Too many holes for me, especially considering what happened only days prior to think that her media CBS, would let her back in to the country without the highest available security... They do have liability here don't they?

It just doesn't make sense at the moment to me, naturally I don't think that it's acceptable for any journalist to have to be subjected to the beatdowns/threats that were reported during this revolution, but I am not going to let emotions get in the way of a quest for the truth, so I am just a bit on the fence as to if this happened, and if it happened, how could CBS have put her in this situation knowing that she had been in a tense situation days earlier, in the same place?

Doesn't make sense to me, though I could be wrong... just voicing my concerns on the report..

Some days I am ashamed to be a part of the human race,

reply to post by Malcram


Well, I agree - so neither of my sons were circumcised. I believe the practice is pretty barbaric and inflicts unnecessary pain. If they wanted to do it later in life then that would be their choice.

I didn't intend to imply in my post that Egyptian men are all rapists. I don't believe that at all. I think that some may have erroneously jumped to that conclusion.

My statement was a more general one reflecting my frustration over the fact that there exists a general ignorance as to such things as "freedom of religion".

"Freedom" in general and "freedom of religion" in particular sound great and I'm all for them as long as they don't include a belief that God/Allah directs me to kill all those who don't share a particular belief. We are very naive if we think that some religions don't include just that. So in that case I am NOT for freedom of religion. That's all I meant. I apologize for any ruffled feathers.

I believe in the inalienable rights of LIFE, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness. I pray for those liberties in Egypt...not simply freedom and democracy.

Democracy can simply lead to 4 out of 7 people wanting to kill you and then you're in trouble. LOL.

So "GO LIBERTY".

Yes it happened.
Yes it was a celebrating crowd that did it.
These are some of the people that live in Egypt. Not all of them....but some.

A western female alone in that enviroment has no chance if men with a grudge and the support of a few hundred other men all decide to rape her.

Lot's of people here that don't realize what humans do to other humans if given the chance and they think they can get away with it.

The world of peace, love and unicorns poopin rainbow skittles is a fantasy. The real world is brutish and dangerous. Even more so in the middle east.

reply to post by robyn


Great post.

I agree.

I also agree that freedom of religion should not include the freedom to preach hate and act violently. I just feel that some generalize too much about Islam and what it 'is' (not speaking about you here). If I could click my fingers and erase organized religion from peoples minds, i would. But we can't, so things can only be reformed rather than erased. Islam and the Koran aren't concrete 'things' with set natures, which are 'bad'. They are ideas and are fluid and many different flavours in various parts of the world. Even the Koran itself can be subject to radically different interpretations, with some seeing jihad as an internal, personal, spiritual struggle, while others see it as an external physical battle.

We cant fall into the simplistic trap of thinking 'Islam' is 'bad' and then fighting it.

Anyway, Im just rambling now and these comments arent even aimed at you

Originally posted by badgerprints
Yes it happened.
Yes it was a celebrating crowd that did it.

Ah, so you were there?

Can you share your insight from being an eyewitness to this attack in Tahrir square?

You say 'it' happened and you know who did it. What exactly is 'it' as CBS doesn't say. You speak of rape. So you can confirm that as an eyewitness?

How many times have you been to Egypt, where and for how long? It would be helpful to know a little about your credentials for your pronouncements on Egyptian society.

Originally posted by Malcram

Originally posted by badgerprints
Yes it happened.
Yes it was a celebrating crowd that did it.

Ah, so you were there?

Can you share your insight from being present at this attack in Tahrir square?

I just got back from a year in the middle east. Working in Iraq and spending my off time in Egypt.
That makes about 6 years for me working over there. I have friends in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and aquaintances in other countries. A friend of mine was in Cairo during the riots and he was in touch with friends who were there at the riots....'demonstrations'.
There was a lot of stuff going on that wasn't reported or televised and a lot of it was pretty nasty.

Yes, even mobs in Egypt get nasty and do brutal things wether you want to believe it or not.

Like I said, brutal world.

I understand the desire to stand up for the ones who didn't do this but somebody did do it.

No need to be offended when your ideals are assaulted by reality.

reply to post by badgerprints


So you have friends in Egypt. You weren't there. You didnt see what happened to this reporter nor who did it.

So there is no basis for your supposedly authoritative comments on this case whatsoever.

Tragic incident.

I am just surprised that after all this lady has been through, why would the media want to make it a public affair?

My prayers are with her.

Originally posted by Malcram
reply to post by badgerprints

 

So you have friends in Egypt. You weren't there. You didnt see what happened to this reporter nor who did it.

So there is no basis for your supposedly authoritative comments on this case whatsoever.

No less authorative than your opinions.

Maybe there was no rape...no mob....no riots....maybe Mubarak is still in charge huh?

Like I said. It happened and a hell of a lot more that you will never hear about but that's ok. Sleep easy tonight knowing that there are no people in Egypt who would ever take advantage of a woman..or a riot ...or having 200 of your angry, crazed, women-are-property and it's a riot so we can do what we like buddies with them to do this obviously falsified act just to hurt your feelings.

Grow up. People are animals and they act like this when the situation gets them going.

Like I said, no need to get your feelings hurt when reality gets in your way. Just don't wear those rose colored glasses all the time. It keeps you from seeing the blood.

kissing agains ones will , grabbing tits or slapping someones ass is considered sexual assault
if she was raped it would say so

just saying

just sad to hear it went as it went

reply to post by badgerprints


Of course your comments are less authoritative because I'm presenting the FACT that we DONT KNOW what happened or who did it, while you claim - falsely - that it WAS rape and it WAS pro-democracy protesters.

You know nothing of the sort.

What bugs me is you making claims as if you know the facts when you know no more than anyone else here, which is, so far, almost nothing.

Originally posted by Malcram
reply to post by badgerprints

 

Of course your cooments are less authoritative because I'm saying we DONT KNOW what happened or who did it, while you claim - falsely - that it WAS rape and it WAS pro-democracy protesters.

You know nothing of the sort.

What bugs me is you making claims as if you know the facts when you know no more than anyone else here, which is, so far, almost nothing.

What I said was "I understand the desire to stand up for the ones who didn't do this but somebody did do it."

You saying nothing happened?

reply to post by badgerprints


LOL, no you didn't, you said 'it' happened, that 'it' was rape, and that it was carried out by celebrating pro-democracy supporters, none of which you can substantiate.

If you are now going to change that to 'something happened' then, fine, we agree, 'something' likely happened. Ive never claimed nothing happened, we just dont know what and who did it.

Originally posted by zerbot565
kissing agains ones will , grabbing tits or slapping someones ass is considered sexual assault
if she was raped it would say so

just saying

just sad to hear it went as it went

I basically agree, but I suspect that if it was actually rape that the attack would not have been reported by her own company at all, not even as a sexual assault. I imagine that almost all women would request it not be reported. At least not so soon. Their reprting it leads me to suspect it was as you said above.

But, we dont know.

www.judithmatloff.com...

Article about foreign correspondent and sexual abuse that usually goes unreported

The committee, whose board includes Ms. Logan, said Tuesday evening in a statement: “We have seen Lara’s compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous, and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers.”
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com...
There is little information available about instances of sexual assault affecting journalists. In an article for the Columbia Journalism Review in 2007, the writer, Judith Matloff, wrote that foreign correspondents rarely tell anyone, “even when the abuse is rape.”

Originally posted by Malcram
reply to post by badgerprints

 

LOL, no you didn't, you said 'it' happened, that 'it' was rape, and that it was carried out by celebrating pro-democracy supporters, none of which you can substantiate.

If you are now going to change that to 'something happened' then, fine, we agree, 'something' likely happened. Ive never claimed nothing happened, we just dont know what and who did it.

Ok, let's be real specific. We'll just concede a point. I used the term "rape" although in context I made no assertion that sexual penetration took place so you can claim a point on semantics.
Let's go back to the quote from the news story

"She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers."

Somebody did it.

And no, you will not find anywhere in my posts that it was "carried out by celebrating pro-democracy supporters,"

Your words not mine.

Now, if you would be so kind. Show me your substantiating evidence that it was anything but what was stated in the news report.

I think people who do this type of crime will do this type of crime - regardless of circumstances. Opportunity presented itself and the thugs acted on it.

I say this because I was watching a Fox reporter (male) in the middle of a frenzy the other day. It was chaos all around him. You could barely hear anything he was saying. But you could hear the people cheering "we want freedom!" There was nothing violent that came of it. There were women cheering along side the men. Yes, you read that right - women were there too. Some of them were holding babies saying "now my children have a chance of freedom!"

With that said, I also think it was foolish to put a woman out there in a frenzied crowd of men. Because while most of the men were probably not a bunch of criminal thugs - clearly there were some in the crowd. You will find this in just about any crowd. Anything can happen in a crowd. You go to a concert and you have out of control thugs who decide to break out a fight and hurt people. Crowds during Mardi Gras, you have drunks who have no control over themselves and all chaos breaks lose.

It happens. Everywhere.

In self defense (especially self defense taught to women) you are taught to not place yourself in certain situations. IE...walking down a dark alley by yourself.... and I would add to it: being a woman in a frenzied crowd of men where you do not know all of the people surrounding you.