Richard Engel

Richard Engel (born September 16, 1973) is NBC News's Chief Foreign Correspondent [ [http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/the_revolving_door/engel_upped_at_nbc_82750.asp mediabistro.com: TVNewser ] ] . He was promoted to that position on April 18th, 2008 from being the networks' Middle East correspondent and Beirut Bureau chief. Prior to joining NBC News in May 2003, he covered the start of the 2003 war in Iraq from Baghdad for ABC News as a freelance journalist. He speaks and reads Arabic fluently and is also fluent in Italian and Spanish. Engel wrote the book "A Fist in the Hornet's Nest", published in 2004, about his experience covering the Iraq War from Baghdad. Richard's newest book "War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq" picks up where his last book left off. (published June 2008)

A winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, Engel grew up in the Upper East Side of New York City, and attended Stanford University in California, graduating in 1996 with a B.A. in International Relations. He left for Cairo, Egypt, with little money and no contacts or prospects because he felt that the region was where the next story would be. He first lived in a ramshackle seven-story walk-up, learned the Egyptian dialect of Arabic and worked as a freelance reporter out of Cairo for four years. Next he moved to Jerusalem, continuing his freelance reporting for three more years until the U.S.– led invasion of Iraq (where he has been predominantly since), and Engel was offered a position as a foreign correspondent with NBC.Engel described his background—paraphrased in referenced paragraph—on the American NBC network's "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, August 31, 2006] Engel filed a number of reports from Lebanon during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, and as of May 2008, continues to cover Iraq for NBC. In mid-May 2008 Engel interviewed U.S. President George W. Bush, largely about his recent speech to the Israeli Knesset.

In an October 26 2006 Washington Post article on Engel by Howard Kurtz, it was reported that he is divorced due to his duties covering the Iraq war. [cite web

url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501982_pf.html
title=In Iraq, Journalist Richard Engel Sticks to the Story
last=Kurtz
first=Howard
authorlink=Howard Kurtz
date=October 26 2006
accessdate=2008-04-09
publisher=The Washington Post]

References

* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5424809/ NBC News Bio]
* [http://www.townhall-la.org/programs/register/1212 Upcoming presentation at TOWN HALL Los Angeles about new book]
* [http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/events/ Upcoming presentation in Atlanta about new book]