* 'Thugs yelled Jew, Jew at her' during attack
* Saved by group of women and 20 Egyptian soldiers
Former GMTV reporter Lara Logan will be released from hospital today as she vows to return to work 'within weeks' following an horrific sex assault in Egypt.
The mother-of-one was hospitalised after the 'sustained and brutal' assault on February 11 as she reported from Cairo on the resignation of President Mubarak.
She was surrounded by a mob of 200 men after becoming separated from her TV crew in Tahrir Square and had to be rescued by a group of women and up to 20 Egyptian soldiers.
Ms Logan seen here in another image from Tahrir Square moments before she was assaulted. The image was only released yesterday. There is no suggestion any of the men pictured were responsible for the attack
Attack: CBS News correspondent Lara Logan pictured shortly before she was assaulted in Tahrir Square while she was reporting on the Egyptian protests. There is no suggestion any of the men pictured were involved in the attack
According to U.S. website TMZ, Miss Logan is vowing to return to work and has told friends what happened to her in Egypt 'will not destroy her.'
A source told the website that the details of her assault are horrible - but that she is determined to go back to work within weeks.
According to the source, Miss Logan is 'unbelievably strong' and has been candidly discussing what happened.
'She is going to be OK,' added a friend.
The 39-year-old spoke of her safety fears just one day before she suffered a sex attack in Egypt, it also emerged today.
CBS issued a statement yesterday, saying: 'On the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a "60 Minutes" story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration.
'It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew.
'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.
'She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.'
Last night, on the 5pm CBS news bulletin, anchor Katie Couric - who herself had been 'manhandled' while reporting from Egypt - said: 'We’re pleased to report she’s recovering well in the hospital.
'Our thoughts and prayers are with her and, of course, we wish her the very best.'
The New York Post reported that a CBS source claims her attackers shouted 'Jew! Jew!' during the assault.
The attack comes just a week after Miss Logan and her crew were detained overnight in Cairo before being interrogated and deported back to New York.
She said she was marched at gunpoint back to her hotel in the Egyptian capital in ‘a very frightening experience and one that was repeated throughout the day for us.
'Everywhere we went we were approached by people,’ she said at the time. ‘We were accused of being more than journalists, very frightening suggestions were being made. Suggestions that really could be very dangerous for us,’ she added.
She and her crew were then deported to New York but were soon planning their return. She then gave an interview with Esquire.com where she spoke of her desire head back to the Middle Eastern country.
The newscaster said it was 'in her blood' to be covering the tumultuous events. The interview was published the day before she was attacked in Tahrir Square where this time Egyptian soldiers rescued her.
'We were not attacked by crazy people in Tahrir Square,' she told the website. 'We were detained by the Egyptian army.
'Arrested, detained, and interrogated. Blindfolded, handcuffed, taken at gunpoint, our driver beaten. It's the regime that arrested us.
'We were accused of being Israeli spies. We were accused of being agents. We were accused of everything.'
Yet despite the traumatic experience Ms Logan said she still felt compelled to return to the country.
She reiterated the sentiments on the Charlie Rose show last Monday saying: 'It's very hard for me to be away from this story,' she said. 'I feel, in one sense, like a failure professionally.
'I feel like I failed because I didn't deliver, and I take that responsibility very seriously.'
The South-African born veteran war correspondent was tipped at one time to be a presenter on GMTV before leaving to work for CBS in 2002.
She found herself at the centre of a row over sexism on the front line after ITV correspondent Julian Manyon wrote in a Spectator article about ‘the considerable physical charms of my travelling companion, the delectable Lara Logan, who exploits her God-given advantages with a skill that Mata Hari might envy'.
Ms Logan angrily hit back at the claim, saying good contacts and a devotion to her job were the reason she enjoyed such good access to Northern Alliance leaders in Afghanistan.
She was also featured in a front-page tabloid report claiming her skimpy tops were upsetting soldiers in the combat zone.
During her two years with GMTV, she covered floods in Mozambique and land invasions in Zimbabwe as well as the war in Afghanistan.
She has regularly filed reports from Afghanistan and Iraq for CBS over the last decade.
Ms Logan was previously married to professional basketball player Jason Siemon, whom she wed in 1998. The pair separated while she was in Iraq.
In 2007, about two years after her separation, she began a short-lived relationship with CNN correspondent Michael Ware, after she began dating Joseph Burkett.
She met Mr Burkett in Iraq, where he worked as a U.S. defence contractor.
Mr Burkett also has a daughter with his ex-wife Kimberly, to whom he was still legally married when he met Logan , although they had been separated for years.
Ms Logan became tabloid fodder in early 2008 when Kimberly overdosed on tranquilisers after her husband filed for divorce.
She recovered and her lawyer reportedly told a US publication that 'Kimberly believes Lara stole her husband.'
Ms Logan and Mr Burkett married in autumn 2008 and in December 2008 Logan gave birth to son Joseph Washington Burkett V.
Prior to Mubarak stepping down, the Egyptian military had been rounding up members of the press for their own safety after several were stabbed, punched, kicked, marched back to their hotel by gunpoint or hijacked in their cars.
Pro-Mubarak supporters had blamed the press for encouraging the uprising and publishing pro-democracy views.
CNN's star reporter Anderson Cooper was pulled out of Egypt ten days ago after he was physically assaulted.
Cooper described how he was 'roughed up by thugs' and hit in the back of the head in the pro-Mubarak crowd, calling it 'pandemonium' and 'out of control'.
ABC's Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour were also physically attacked.
Miss Couric was said to have been manhandled in the city while Miss Amanpour's car was surrounded by rioters shouting they hated America, though she escaped unhurt.
A Greek photographer was stabbed in the leg, while the BBC's Jerome Boehm was also targeted by thugs.
Reuters said one of its television crews were beaten up close to Tahrir Square while filming a piece about shops and banks being forced to shut during the clashes.
Mob: CNN's Anderson Cooper was filmed by his crew as they were attacked by pro-Mubarak supporters in Egypt. He left the country shortly afterwards. Last night he sent Miss Logan his best wishes via Twitter
Crowd: The scene in Tahrir Square minutes after the resignation of President Mubarak - and shortly before Miss Logan was attacked. She was saved by a group of women and 20 Egyptian soldiers
Ms Logan at Bagram air base when she was covering the conflict in Afghanistan for GMTV
Brave: Miss Logan reporting from South Africa in 2002 for British morning news programme GMTV. She has reported extensively from Iraq and Afghanistan and is now chief foreign correspondent for CBS News
Ms Logan, pictured when she was pregnant, with her husband Joseph Burkett, whom she met while they were both working in Iraq. Right, the former model, on her wedding day in 1998 to American-born basketball player, Jason Siemon. The pair separated while she was in Iraq covering the war there
0 comments:
Post a Comment