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Quote by Richard Engel

“Then someone cried out, “Suicide bomber!” The crowd panicked. In the ensuing stampede, terrified pilgrims ran in both directions, many colliding in the middle of the bridge. A side railing collapsed under their weight, and scores leaped into the water whether they could swim or not. Hundreds were trampled to death. More than a thousand died. Hundreds of pairs of sandals were scattered around the bridge, left behind when pilgrims made their desperate dives into the river. I was given all of seventy-five seconds to tell the story on the Nightly News.”

Quote by Richard Engel

Work

And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East

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Author

Richard Engel
Richard Engel

Richard Engel is an American journalist born on September 16, 1973. He is known for his reporting in war zones and in-depth investigations, having won multiple journalism awards. more

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“I may have been in stage four, but I wasn’t completely crazy. At least eighty-six journalists had been killed in Iraq, more than in any other conflict since World War II, and another thirty-eight had been taken hostage. More would die in the years to come. I knew I had to limit my movements and take special care when I did go out.”

“He asked us what we were doing, and our smuggler said, “Oh, nothing. We’re just hanging out”—as if lots of Americans in ninja suits loitered around Syria in the middle of the afternoon. We asked him if he had a cell phone. He didn’t, which meant we had twenty or thirty minutes to get back across the Turkish border.”

“In 2015, when I went back to the States or to an international conference, I found that people didn’t much care anymore. They saw the Middle East awash in blood, beyond redemption, and didn’t want to read about it or see it on the evening news. They just wanted to keep away from it.”

“Perché io sono come i gatti: che si affezionano più alle cose che agli uomini, più ai muri che alla faccia del padrone. È così orribile, sai, pensare che io tornerò nel mio paese, e continuerò a vivere e poi morirò e tutte le cose che sono state mie per tanti giorni, la chiesa, il chiostro, il giardino della casa e tutto, tutto, continueranno a vivere staccate da me, avulse da me, morte per i miei occhi.”