PALESTINE HOTEL
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
OCTOBER 24, 2005
Should I throw a rope ladder over the edge of the balcony or stay in a
building that might collapse? I arrived back in Baghdad two hours ago...
just in time to be attacked. It's not hard to believe Fox News was among the
targets but a group of men wanted to kill us and it crossed my mind... what
did I ever do to them?
"Allah Akbar" (God is great) are the first words you hear as the call to prayer booms over speakers from the local mosque. The first bomb detonated moments later next to a series of barricades surrounding Baghdad's famous Firdous Square (where the statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down in 2003). The explosion was massive and shook the whole building. Usually these bombings are a distant "thud" but this time our windows were blown out of their frames. I was eating a sandwich less than one hundred yards away, in the room closest to the explosion. My producer flipped a table over to use for cover as we crawled out of the room. Within moments, a second carbomb detonated on the far side of Firdous Square.
By the time the smoke and dust from the first two blasts cleared, I had already changed clothes... putting on my most durable stuff in case I might not get another chance. This is when I went on "auto-pilot." I ran to the newsroom at the other end of the hallway; my mind focused on a rope ladder in a box on the balcony. If all else failed, the ladder represented our "last chance" escape route. I stopped to contemplate what I was doing. The situation seemed insane, even surreal. I recall standing there for five minutes. I now know it was actually about 10 seconds. Time stands still when the pace picks up. Before I got a chance to throw the ladder over the ledge, the third bomb detonated. This time it was a cement mixing truck packed with explosives. Because of the dynamics of the shock wave, the blast wrapped around the building giving the illusion that the bomb had detonated directly beneath me. The building shook violently, swaying three feet from the blast. The sound of the blast was so loud, my hearing became distorted. A clock fell off the wall and landed at my feet.
I didn't know whether to stay or go. I was thinking... the ladder offers the "lesser of two evils." I could hear gunfire below but descending down the ladder into a gun battle still seemed preferable to remaining inside a collapsing building. Ultimately, the third bomb changed my mind because I thought, "what if there are more carbombers down there?" U.S. soldiers had opened fire on the cement mixing truck just before it detonated. We lucked out. An inner ring of barricades had slowed the driver and he came under more intense machine gun fire from the American soldiers across the street.
Since the Palestine Hotel was still standing, it seemed my safest option. I stayed in the building. The third explosion was ten stories tall and blew out most of the remaining windows... not to mention rearranging the furniture. The hallway was filled with thick dust but it was still better than the firefigfht raging below. The time for the ladder had passed. Within an hour, all of the gunfire stopped and we were back "on air" reporting. This was the longest night I've seen since I started covering this war over two years ago. Had the cement truck gotten closer to our hotel, we might have been victims of a Baghdad style Oklahoma City attack. As it was, 17 people were dead. I think I can safely say, everyone who survived this attack is very happy to be alive.
