Recently by Margaret Warner

The True Un-Hollywood Story of a Sisterhood's Hunt for Bin Laden

May 1, 2013  |   The HBO documentary "Manhunt" details the grueling work by CIA agents in the search and capture of Osama bin Laden. Photo courtesy of HBO The second anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death brings a revealing new account of what it...

Can a Weakened Netanyahu Take a Swing at Mideast Peace?

March 19, 2013  |   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seated, talks to ministers after posing for a group photo marking the formation of the new Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel's 33rd government was sworn in Monday after almost six weeks of negotiations...

Brennan Beyond Drones

February 7, 2013  |   Photo of John Brennan by Mark Wilson/Getty Images When John Brennan, President Obama's choice to become director of the CIA, goes before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday, the senators' focus is sure to be on his role...

Israelis Go to Vote Amid Deep Unease

January 22, 2013  |   Cars go by Tel Aviv's landmark Azrieli Towers skyscraper complex. Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images. TEL AVIV, Israel -- Tel Aviv, as its residents will proudly tell you, is "the city that never sleeps." Founded by Jewish immigrants in...

Syria Internet Shutdown: A Loser's Strategy

November 30, 2012  |   Syrians use computers at an internet cafe in Damascus on March 18, 2011. Photo by AFP/ Getty Images. It was less than two years ago, on January 28, 2011, three days into the Egyptian uprising, that President Hosni Mubarak's...

A Tale of Two Camps: Syrian Refugees Inside and Outside Turkey's Border

November 15, 2012  |   Click on map for larger version. YAYLADAGI, Turkey -- It's a brilliant fall morning in Yayladagi #1, a refugee camp on the grounds of a former tobacco processing factory in southern Turkey. We're just three miles from the Syrian...

Turks Can't Escape Syria Conflict, Looking to World for Help

November 13, 2012  |   Photo of Inci Altinok and her friend by freelance photographer Sebastian Rich. ANTAKYA, Turkey -- It's late Monday night, and we're walking down a cobblestone street in the oldest part of this centuries-old city. This is Antakya --...

Beached Orca Project Couldn't Save the Romney Campaign

November 9, 2012  |   Voters in Arapahoe County, Colo., line up on Election Day. According to reports, the Romney campaign's massive get-out-the-vote effort known as "Project Orca" failed to reach its potential. Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post. Remember Project Orca? On Monday we...

Romney Campaign Enlists Help of 'Killer Whale' Project to Get Out the Vote

November 5, 2012  |   For months now, the Romney campaign has been putting together a high-tech voter monitoring operation to use on Election Day that will identify which of their committed supporters have voted -- and then corral those who...

Netanyahu Raises With 'Red Line'; Obama Still Keeping Cards Close

September 27, 2012  |   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Magic Marker line -- drawn with dramatic flourish today across the throat of a cartoon gunpowder bomb -- was meant to set a "red line" for Iran, the point beyond which the Iranians cannot...

Ahmadinejad Talking Tough, Walking Like a Lame Duck

September 24, 2012  |   Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's words were defiant Monday, as he scoffed at Israel's threat to attack Iranian nuclear sites. "Fundamentally, we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists," he told us, some two dozen...

David Souter Gets Rock Star Welcome, Offers Constitution Day Warning

September 17, 2012  |   Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter speaks with Margaret Warner at 'Constitutionally Speaking' in Concord, N.H. on Sept. 14, 2012. Photo Courtesy David Wolowitz for the N.H. Supreme Court Society. Not since comedian Bill Cosby visited Concord, N.H.'s Capitol...

Iraqi VP Death Sentence Hints at Wider Sunni-Shia Conflict

September 10, 2012  |   Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi speaks to reporters after a meeting with the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 19. Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images. The fugitive Iraqi vice president sentenced to death Sunday on...

Potshots from Left and Right Target Romney's Foreign Policy Team

August 23, 2012  |   Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney meets Jim Thone of Bakersfield, Cal., during the VFW convention at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nev., on July 24. Photo by Jose Luis Villegas/ Sacramento Bee/ MCT via Getty Images. When Mitt...

Romney's Trip Abroad: Campaign Peril or Credential Maker?

July 27, 2012  |   Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron meets with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at 10 Downing Street in London, on July 26, 2012. Photo By David Bebber/ AFP/ Getty Images. Mitt Romney's folks were feeling pretty sure of themselves Tuesday...

Mexico's President-Elect: Legalization Should Be Part of Drug Strategy Debate

July 3, 2012  |   MEXICO CITY | The president-elect of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, said Tuesday Mexico should have a debate about legalizing and regulating the sale of drugs here, an approach advocated by some other Latin American leaders to take marijuana sale...

Why Mexico's Ruling Party Seems Headed for Defeat

July 1, 2012  |   Margaret Warner interviews voter Judith Cordova at polling site Sunday. Photos by Morgan Till/NewsHour. MEXICO CITY | If you want to know why President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, PAN, is going to lose today, just ask 53-year-old divorcee...

Where Frontrunner Pena Nieto Might Take Mexico's Drug War

June 28, 2012  |   Military police stand guard at the scene of a murder in Juarez, Mexico. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images. Mexico's presidential candidates have offered so few specifics about the No. 1 issue to voters -- how to tame the grisly...

The Mexican People's Dilemma in Drug War Is Next President's, Too

June 20, 2012  |   Mexican soldiers unload bundles of seized marijuana before incinerating the drugs at a military base in Tijuana, Mexico in 2010. Photo by David Maung/Getty Images. MEXICO CITY -- I wandered into an artsy jewelry shop Tuesday afternoon in Pedragal,...

The Most Important Presidential Race You Haven't Heard About

June 18, 2012  |   Enrique Pena Nieto and his wife telenovela actress Angelica Rivera Hurtado at a rally in Atlacomulco, Mexico. Photo by Morgan Till for the PBS NewsHour. ATLACOMULCO, Mexico | Enrique Pena Nieto, the telegenic front-runner in the Mexican presidential race,...

Charles Taylor's Sentence for Africans: Tough, Too Tough, Not Tough Enough?

May 30, 2012  |   Former Liberian President Charles Taylor awaits his sentencing in The Hague. Photo by Toussaint Kluiters/AFP/Getty Images. The world and many in Africa applauded the 50-year sentence imposed Wednesday on former Liberian President Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting a...

Despite Allegations of Fraud, Russia's Voters Demand to Be Counted

March 4, 2012  |   Updated at 5 p.m. ET: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election in Russia. Exit polls showed him receiving 58-59 percent of the vote based on exit polls cited by state television, reported...

Influential Russian Blogger: Opposition 'Will Not Recognize...Election Results'

February 29, 2012  |   MOSCOW | Russian blogger Alexei Navalny, who has emerged as one of the most potent new figures opposing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's bid to regain the presidency, said he and many others in the opposition...

Russia Dispatch: Hand-in-Hand Against Putin's Presidency Bid

February 27, 2012  |   Protesters, including blogger Alexei Navalny , form a human chain in Moscow. Photo by Margaret Warner/PBS NewsHour. MOSCOW | Snow fell steadily all day, large fat flakes and light airy ones, but that didn't deter the thousands of Russians...

Author Beppe Severgnini on What Makes Italians Tick During Crisis

February 15, 2012  |   Italian author Beppe Severgnini and Margaret Warner in Crema, Italy. On our recent foray to Germany and Italy to explore the political and social dimensions of the European debt crisis, one person we felt we had to see to...

A Bronx Cheer in Brussels for EU Austerity

January 30, 2012  |   Banner protesting austerity measures at roundabout in Brussels. NewsHour photo by Morgan Till. BRUSSELS, Belgium | Brussels is known for its pleasing mishmash of medieval, 17th century and Art Nouveau buildings. It's prized for moules-and-frites and Michelin-star gastronomic delights...

Targeted Iraqi Leader Warned of His Fate in 2010 Newshour Interview

December 20, 2011  |   The story from Baghdad led Tuesday's New York Times: Arrest Warrant for Sunni Leader Spurs Iraq Crisis. Just one day after the last U.S. forces departed Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government had ordered the arrest of the country's...

As U.S. Prepares to Exit, Poll Shows Afghan Public Fearful for Its Safety -- and Democracy's Demands

November 15, 2011  |   Women surveying in North East Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of The Asia Foundation. In the American coverage of the Afghan war -- firefights, bombings, political wrangling and U.S. casualties -- the sentiments of ordinary Afghans often get lost. But...

The Party's Over: Post-revolution, Egyptians Struggle to Find Their Future

September 5, 2011  |   Streets of Cairo. Photo by Jana Mills via Flickr Creative Commons. CAIRO, EGYPT -- What a difference seven months make.  The Cairo I left on Feb. 12 -- the morning after Egypt's longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak abandoned the presidency...

Mubarak's Trial -- Completing the Revolution, or Diverting It?

August 3, 2011  |   It's been a breathtaking reversal of fortune in the timeless land of the Pharoahs. Six months ago this week, with hundreds of thousands of protestors demanding his ouster, a commanding Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak went on television to promise his...

Margaret Warner: Petraeus Soldiers On

June 23, 2011  |   Getty Images The anticipation was palpable as Gen. David Petraeus took his seat in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing room Thursday afternoon for his confirmation session as the Leon Panetta's likely successor as director of the CIA. The much-decorated...

U.S. Official Responds to 'Double Standard' Charges on Bahrain

May 20, 2011  |   MANAMA, Bahrain | President Obama's speech Thursday night was intended to send a message to the Bahraini monarchy -- and its beleaguered opposition -- that U.S. interests in the Gulf will not trump its commitment to democratic change forever. The...

Bahrain Government's Confidence May Be Misplaced

May 18, 2011  |   MANAMA -- In an interview conducted Tuesday night with little advance notice, Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, was indirect but clear: However grateful the Bahraini monarchy is for U.S. support in its current crisis, it...

As Crackdown Nears End, Bahrainis Struggle to Turn the Page

May 12, 2011  |   MANAMA | It's Thursday night in Bahrain, and we're in Manama's air-conditioned Seef Mall -- a gleaming glass and steel emporium of consumer pleasures, from its Costa Coffee shop to a haute couture Islamic dress store. There are women...

Egypt: A Voice of Experience for a Youthful Movement

April 22, 2011  |   The last time I saw Mona Makram-Ebeid, she was sitting in the overstuffed opulence of a hotel cafe in Cairo, enjoying a cigarette with Newsweek's Paris bureau chief, Christopher Dickey, and a famed Egyptian writer. It was Day 13 of...

Message Received? Obama Weaves Warning for Syria, Yemen, Bahrain Into Libya Speech

March 29, 2011  |   Commentators and bloggers are buzzing today with critiques of President Obama's speech on Libya. He's taking hits for the questions he didn't answer -- What happens if Gaddafi stays in power? -- and for the broader issues he didn't address...

Margaret Warner: How the No-Fly Zone Floundered

March 15, 2011  |   As forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi drew closer Tuesday to encircling Libyan rebels in their capital of Benghazi, President Obama met with his top national security team to discuss what White House press secretary Jay Carney said were...

Margaret Warner: Echoes of Egypt in Libyans' 'Dignity Revolution'

March 1, 2011  |   It was late in the evening in Zawiyah just west of Tripoli -- after the town had endured a horrifying assault by Libyan government forces earlier Tuesday -- when I finally reached someone who was willing to talk to me...

Would-Be Egypt Crisis Broker Finds It Heavy Going

February 5, 2011  |   Ahmed Zewail and Margaret Warner CAIRO, Egypt | We're sitting in the lobby lounge of an upscale Cairo hotel, littered with road-weary journalists and private security personnel. Holding court in one corner is the 1999 Nobel Prize winner for...

S. Korean Defense Official: China Can Play 'More Responsible' Role

January 18, 2011  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> SEOUL, South Korea | On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington -- with the North Korea issue near the top of the agenda between him and President Obama -- I sat down...

S. Korean National Security Adviser: N. Korean Regime Faces Internal 'Demise' Unless It Yields to Global Pressure

January 15, 2011  |   <!-- _pap_embeddable; //--><!]]> SEOUL, South Korea | After last year's lethal attacks on a South Korean warship and civilian-populated island - and with thousands of North Korea's artillery pieces and much of its million-man army just 30 miles up...

Gen. Sharp: U.S., Allies Could Neutralize N. Korean Missile

January 13, 2011  |   DetectFlashDecision_Blog; If Defense Secretary Robert Gates' prediction this week is correct, and North Korea is developing a missile -- nuclear or otherwise -- that can hit the United States, U.S. and allied forces are prepared...

Voices From South Korea: National Security, North Korea and the U.S.

January 13, 2011  |   South Koreans enter 2011 still smarting from two North Korean attacks last year -- on a warship in March and an island in November -- that together killed 50 of their citizens. We've been asking South Koreans how they now...

Observation Post Shows South Koreans' Love/Hate Fascination with the North

January 10, 2011  |   Map of Odusan Unification Observatory courtesy of ROK Drop TONG-IL JEONMANGDAE, South Korea | "Look, there it is. That's North Korea," says Lee Hoon, standing with me and provincial Gov. Kim Moon-Soo on the observation platform of a huge...

Korea Dispatch: In South Korea, Business Trumps Threat of Conflict

January 5, 2011  |   One of the many camera counters at I-Park mall in Seoul SEOUL, South Korea | In search of a memory card for our camera, we stumbled into the I-Park mall, a dazzling cornucopia of electronic gear. There are eight...

Turkish FM on WikiLeaks: 'We Don't Take These Observations Seriously'

November 30, 2010  |   Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before a bilateral meeting on Nov. 29. "Do I look like a dangerous man?" Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said with a...

NATO Dispatch: Cautionary Thoughts on the Summit

November 20, 2010  |   President Obama at press conference in Portugal LISBON, Portugal | White House aides are touting this NATO summit trip as a huge win for President Obama. And so is he. "We've just concluded an incredibly productive...

A New Look at Portugal's Economic Picture

November 19, 2010  |   Pastry store manager Marco Lume gives his perspective on the economy. LISBON, Portugal | At first blush, Lisbon doesn't look like the capital of a country in financial distress. It sports an impressive profile of 18th century elegance and...

NATO Dispatch: 3 Tests for Success for Obama

November 18, 2010  |   The press filing center at the NATO Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. LISBON, Portugal | President Obama is in Lisbon, hoping to rack up -- in a jam- packed 30 hours of meetings -- a higher batting...

Afghan Poll Shows Persistent Worries Over Security, Corruption

November 10, 2010  |   The headlines from an extensive poll of Afghans released yesterday were all-but-unanimous: "Afghans are more optimistic than last year." They were drawn from the results to the famous "right track-wrong track" question widely used here and abroad to gauge...

Former Captive Ingrid Betancourt on the 'Light We Have Inside'

November 4, 2010  |   Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, was held by Colombia's notorious FARC rebels for more than six years. In July 2008, she was freed in a daring military rescue. We talked to her recently about the lessons she learned about how...

China: Party Veterans Issue Letter in Support of Free Speech

October 15, 2010  |   This hasn't been a great week for China's Communist Party leaders in the PR department, as they gather for a big party confab in Beijing today. Yes, they're flush with the glow from high-octane economy and their new assertiveness on...

White House Report Unveils Concerns Over Pakistani Government

October 6, 2010  |   As tensions have increased between the United States and Pakistan in recent days -- symbolized by the Pakistan government's closing of a key border crossing for NATO supplies into Afghanistan -- a White House report has become public and could...

A Woman's Military Embed Guide: What to Forget - And Not Forget

September 3, 2010  |   First, accept the fact that you're going to feel skuzzy from the moment you alight from the helicopter in a cloud of dust at some remote U.S. military base -- windblown, sweaty, and gritty. For supplies, just think camping trip...

From Security to Stolen Treasures, Warner Answers Your Questions on Iraq

September 2, 2010  |   BAGHDAD | We're winding up our trip in Iraq after nearly three weeks of reporting here, and we've received questions from many of you. Many wanted to learn more about Iraq's security and the role of private contractors. Others asked...

This Old Tank: U.S. Troops Rehabilitate Soviet Clunker in Iraq

August 30, 2010  |   MOSUL, Iraq | When the Americans arrived, they found Iraq chock-a-block with Soviet-era armaments -- tanks, guns, mortar rounds and ammunition -- left over from the days when Saddam Hussein was one of Moscow's best arms customers. U.S. soldiers found...

Notes From an Embed in Iraq: A Lesson Learned

August 25, 2010  |   Iraqi Gen. Hamid Mohsin Al-Taey on a patrol in the Mosul region MOSUL, Iraq | We're out in a nine-humvee convoy with Federal Police Gen. Hamid Mohsin Al-Taey, whose Baghdad-based unit has the job of weeding anti-government insurgents out...

Portraits of Iraqis and Their Dreams

August 24, 2010  |   Iraqis' feelings about their country's future are best reflected in what they say about their own personal dreams. The younger ones appear less scarred -- their parents' and grandparents' generations seem far more so. Here's a sampling of people we've...

Power Station Visit Sums Up Iraq's Troubled State of Electricity Affairs

August 18, 2010  |   Producer John Zito, Margaret Warner and Doura power station director Ghazi Abdulaziz. Photos by Larisa Epatko BAGHDAD | "Let me tell you a joke," the man in the blue jumpsuit and white hard hat said to me Wednesday. "A...

Security in Baghdad a Deadly Serious Business

August 17, 2010  |   BAGHDAD, Iraq | The Royal Jordanian flight from Amman no longer has to make a missile-avoiding corkscrew landing on the runway of Baghdad International Airport. And though our security detail had us don 10-pound body armor jackets for the ride...

Iraq's Best and Brightest Gone Missing

August 16, 2010  |   AMMAN, Jordan | On Sunday night, we made a quick stop-over in Jordan on our way to Iraq. Our mission for the next three weeks: to see what Iraq looks like after seven years of war and U.S. occupation. Does...

In Brazil, Oil Rigs in Sight, but World Cup on Minds

June 24, 2010  |   As we flew into Rio de Janeiro Wednesday, the city's jagged emerald mountains, sapphire blue waters and ribbon of white beaches seemed as pristine and beautiful as advertised, a natural paradise for residents and vacationers alike. Yet Thursday morning,...

Former State Department Adviser on Why Mideast Peace Is Stuck

June 4, 2010  |   Over 20 years, through Republican and Democratic administrations, Aaron David Miller witnessed the fits and starts of the Mideast peace process while serving as an adviser to six secretaries of states. Miller, who is now a Woodrow Wilson Center public...

Obama's National Security Strategy, Brought to You by Secretary Clinton

May 28, 2010  |   When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came before a crowd of foreign policy players and former players, journalists and wonks to lay out the Obama administration's new National Security Strategy Thursday, she was self-assured and in command, talking about...

Preview: Cardinal William Levada on Church Abuse Scandal

April 27, 2010  |   Margaret Warner is reporting from the Vatican this week on the fallout from the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. On Tuesday's NewsHour, you can watch her full interview with Cardinal William Levada, one of the top Vatican officials charged with...

Amid Calls for Transparency, Pope Describes Dangers of Digital Age

April 25, 2010  |   Pope Benedict XVI, right, at a digital media conference. Photo by Morgan Till. VATICAN CITY | We've come to Rome for a week to explore how the new wave in the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal is being seen...

Yemen Dispatch: Into an Al-Qaida Hotspot

March 22, 2010  |   ABYAN PROVINCE, YEMEN - This past weekend, in southern Yemen, we went where most foreigners haven't been allowed to travel since late 2008 -- Abyan province, east of the port city of Aden on the Arabian Sea. It's been...

Yemen Dispatch: Battling Insurgents

March 16, 2010  |   Yemeni security forces are working on honing their counterterrorism tactics in the battle against a resurgent al-Qaeda affiliate in the region -- AQAP, or Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It was AQAP that recruited and trained the would-be Christmas Day...

Margaret Warner: To Yemen, Seeking Answers

March 12, 2010  |   SANA'A, Yemen | The stars are brilliant against the inky sky as we get off the plane late at night in Yemen. "Welcome to Sana'a," says our local fixer, a former journalist turned literature teacher, with a wide smile. The...

AP Reporter: Aftershocks Send Chileans Running for the Hills

March 3, 2010  |   On Wednesday afternoon, Associated Press reporter Michael Warren joined us by satellite from Concepcion, Chile, where he has been reporting on the aftermath of the massive earthquake there and the numerous strong aftershocks. "People are jittery," Warren told us, detailing...

Former Intelligence Officer on Foiled Bomb Attack

January 25, 2010  |   The Christmas Day bomb plot against a U.S. bound airliner triggered soul-searching within the administration and on Capitol Hill over why the multiple bits of troubling intelligence about alleged Nigerian perpetrator Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab weren't pieced together in time to...

Haiti: A Haunting History Lesson

January 14, 2010  |   In all the public statements we've heard about the Haitian tragedy -- from President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or USAID chief Rajiv Shah -- no one had mentioned a key concern underlying the aggressive U.S. response. But...

U.S. to Dispatch Search Teams, Emergency Supplies to Haiti

January 13, 2010  |   Early Wednesday morning, the U.S. government planned to take an aerial assessment of the damage in Haiti's earthquake zone near the capital Port-au-Prince and send search and rescue teams, along with food, water and temporary shelters. Assistant Secretary of State...

Year of Reporting Trips Revolves Around Afghanistan

December 31, 2009  |   In a year that took me from the NewsHour studio to trouble spots abroad, the most searing impressions come from two trips to Afghanistan. The first trip was for three-plus weeks in February and March, to take stock of the...

Margaret Warner: Dispatch from London

December 8, 2009  |   After weeks of unrelenting prediction, debate and commentary in Washington over what President Obama was doing about troops for Afghanistan, it is refreshing -- if somewhat unsettling -- to be in Europe. Despite the deep unpopularity of the Afghan conflict...

Margaret Warner: Dispatch from Britain

December 5, 2009  |   The small village west of London my crew and I visited today was bustling with Saturday shoppers doing errands for Christmas, and for their daily lives. The Salvation Army Santas were ringing their bells, and greens and lights festooned the...

Margaret Warner: Dispatch From Brussels

December 3, 2009  |   It was nearly 1 p.m. Thursday before Secretary Clinton got to her 757 airplane at Andrews AFB, looking remarkably unbattered after a day-and-a-half of being grilled by Senate and House members doubtful about the wisdom of the surge-and-withdraw course President...

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