Michael Totten Goes To The Fatima Gate

I came across this interview that I first saw awhile back and it was one of those nice trips back in time with a video I forgot I enjoyed. Michael Totten seems like an interesting man and a unique journalist because of his talents and his personality. He seems to fit the stereotype of a foreign correspondent but says he's not the adrenaline junkie that some of his colleagues are. His time in the middle east gives depth and uniqueness to what he has to say and write. He knows what he's talking about. It's not an academic matter to him-it's real life.

His book The Road to Fatima Gate is an account of the events in Lebanon in the 2005-06 time period that involved the rise of Hezbollah and the proxy war between Iran and Israel. Given the events of the "Arab Spring" I think that anyone who has paid more attention to the region will find the book interesting since Lebanon was a predecessor to the revolutions that took place in other countries. Below is a link to the first part, of 5 parts, of the interview and, if you have 40 minutes available, a link to the entire interview.

Reviews:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/08/on_the_road_to_fatima_gate_110128.html

http://damianpenny.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/book-review-the-road-to-fatima-gate-by-michael-j-totten/