Today, more than year after landing in the United States to receive medical
treatment for severe injuries sustained while reporting in Baghdad,
Jehad Ali boarded a plane at the Detroit
Wayne County
Airport en route to Beirut.
In December 2005, Ali, at right, was attacked on a Baghdad street by several
gunmen who left him for dead. The attack pulverized the Al-Iraqiya TV
cameraman’s femur. He received medical help in Iraq but with little improvement
and a serious limp, he devoted himself to exercise in an effort to regain the
full use of his leg. His swimming brought him face to face in 2007 with
CBS Senior International Correspondent Lara Logan, a CPJ board member, who,
moved by Ali’s courage and determination, spearheaded a campaign to bring the
cameraman to the United
States to receive the necessary treatment.
Ali’s road
to recovery was neither easy nor short. A U.S. visa was a first hurdle, followed
by the shuttling back and forth from specialist to specialist and hospital to
hospital on the West and East coasts. But Ali’s final surgery took place on
June 7, 2009, at the California Pacific Center
in San Francisco.
The cameraman said it was “a success.”
With his health “almost back to 100 percent,” Ali said in a
telephone interview with Lilia Bellahsene, CPJ’s interim Middle East and Africa
research associate, that he was looking forward to returning to the region and
taking up journalism again.
Ali described his experience in the United States as
great despite the difficult circumstances. He expressed deep gratitude to the
doctors who enabled him to walk again. Ali told CPJ’s Bellahsene that American
people were friendly and helpful, although, given his lack of English, he was
not often able to communicate with them as much as he would have liked. The
cameraman said he managed mainly with help from local Iraqi communities, which often
provided translation.
Ali will land tomorrow at 11:30 p.m. at Beirut’s International
Airport. He told CPJ that
he is planning on spending sometime in Lebanon
because is not sure whether security conditions will allow him to return to Iraq, where he
still holds a job at Al-Iraqiya TV. (He has been on medical leave.) Should Iraq continue
to be too dangerous, Ali told CPJ that he plans to look for work as a
journalist in a neighboring country.
He said CPJ played a major role in saving his life, “not
only by providing the necessary financial support but also a much-needed moral pillar.”
He conveyed special thanks to Lara Logan, who he says he keeps in touch via
e-mail. Ali said he hopes CPJ will continue its work around the world, which he
described as vital for freedom of expression: “I feel safer practicing journalism
just knowing that there are organizations like CPJ out there.”
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