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Back in Beirut

BEIRUT -- Whew! After a dash back to Beirut, I come back to a city shuttered and quiet on a Friday night. Today's events have been massive. And friends here filling me in on the Israelis' patterns tell me the bombing will probably start in a couple of hours. It's 2 a.m. now. They're trying to keep the city awake.

More later.

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Comments

How did you get back?

Mad dash from Jordan through Syria in a Jordanian taxi. Fun.

Please keep us informed, you have some long time readers who appreciate your insite and also who worry about your safety. In Iraq today the prayer services seemed to be anti Israel, could this be in some odd way a unifying factor???

Sounds like an exciting day.

What type of targets are being hit in Beirut? Is the bombardment continuous?

What do you hear about the explosives-laden drone hitting the Israeli warship?

For a totally different perspective, Anthony Bourdain is trapped in Beirut by the blockade. Here’s his latest despatch “Updates, from the Discovery Travel Channel website:

“Thanks for the good thoughts and well wishes. We are all of us (Diane, Jerry, Toddles, Tracey and me) in good health, good spirits and working ferociously on our tans and sipping blender drinks while watching the fireworks from a secure location. Our masters at Travel Channel have made sure we are being well looked after. Though I’m not sure the “gold-plated, monkey-navigated rocket-sled” I requested as an exfiltration vehicle will be laid on imminently…we have nothing to complain about. Particularly compared to the locals who are having an atrocious time of it. This is a great city–filled with many lovely, proud and generous people and it’s heartbreaking missing so much of it. Worse seeing all that pride and hope and tolerance turn overnight to grim resignation. Hope to return to shoot here someday and finish what we started.”

I think I prefer Chris’ coverage.

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About

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Hi there! Thanks for stopping in. I'm Christopher Allbritton, former AP and New York Daily News reporter. In 2002, I went stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq outside Saddam's direct control, looking for stories. (Some might call it "looking for trouble.") In March 2003, I made it back in time for the war, becoming the Web's first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger. With the support of thousands of readers, we raised almost $15,000. You can read my dispatches here. It was one of the moments in journalism when everything worked. It was a grand -- and successful -- experiment in independent journalism. In 2004, I moved to Iraq, where I would spend the next two years. It was a raucous, scary and exciting place with a lot of news going on. But I've since moved on to Beirut and the wider region. I now report for a variety of outlets.

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