Military reporters and editors conference, highlighting challenges of reporting on conflict zones. We were watching live coverage on cspan. What brought you there initially . So i had in my head that we should do a story first off, i should say i had an obsession that is probably selfdefeating for a reporter of always wanting to do the story other people are not focusing on. For instance, now everyone is focused on israel, focused on ukraine, and obviously i want to be focused on the things no one else is interested in, but i become stubbornly obsessed with things no one is paying attention to, and that was the case with niger. We went to benin first and were going to do a story of how the u. S. Military has a presence there, things people do not know about, military affairs, and then we were going to go to niger for the kinder, gentler side of what the u. S. Military is doing in that area, and we were going to show the Terror Networks converging on niger from all different sides with coups in the area. The nigerians, u. S. Special forces, the teams there, and the idea was we would do a couple stories, shoot for several days, do a couple stories and then we were supposed to leave on a wednesday or thursday, the day the coup started, and we found out the president had been taken prisoner by his own Security Forces and they shut down the air force and airspace and soon after shut down the borders. So we spent a little bit of extra time in niger until we could get out. We still kind of joke whether it was really good timing or really bad timing, and i still dont know that answer, but we were fortunate to be there to see the coupl i think if we had not been there africa does not get a lot of attention from western media. Frankly, i have done stories, but i will say it, the administration does not pay a lot of attention to africa either. I recently read one paragraph, only one paragraph on africa. That is why i am doing this stories and still trying to do more. I goal is to give west africa more calendar time by the end of the calendar year. I am glad we were able to bring some attention to a story i do nothing people are paying attention to. You and your fabulous colleague and your cameraman were stuck how many days . Were you with the u. S. Military the entire time, and how did you get out . We actually flew in commercially. There are flights. But we had a couple of military paos with us, one from africa and one from u. S. Africa special operations command. We were staying in a hotel. We were fine and we ended up staying there in niger, i want to say nine days, maybe 10. It was not the end of the world. We were in the hotel for a while. The protests really were not bad. They were more disruptive, for the most part. Of course, there were some shots fired one day, but that was frank to clear the protests. They fired over their heads. There were some vehicles set on fire. It was not until five or six days in that some of the protesters attacked the French Embassy. They tried to storm it and they were repelled with tear gas and some rubber bullets. They broke some windows, and we moved onto a military base and were there until the end. I feel this tremendous sense of guilt that people were so concerned about us back here because we really were fine. When there were these large organized protests, which you know about because of social media, people were encouraged to come to them. With the exception of those protests and just getting stuck in them, frankly, life was not really any different there. I do not know that the average person even knew it was happening, frankly. The sad part, the part that still tugs at me, i am sad for the people who we got to spend some time with before the coup started. And they were so wonderful, welcoming. The kids, you would go into the street and you were just surrounded by little kids. They were pulling at my microphone, pulling at my notepad, pulling at my hair. And they would say bonjour, bo njour. They were so sweet and just wanted to highfive and shake your hand. It is a country of people who have very little. So when you watch a coup and no most likely the security situation will deteriorate as it already has and they will be the ones to suffer, that is hard. That was a very long tangent on that, and i am very sorry. No, that is fantastic. When you were there, you were going for one story a lot of reporters go for one story and end up finding another, and i think that is what you did. But the military was actually kind of ok with you leaving them behind in the dust, it seems like raised on your reporting. Talk about what you found out, and how is the situation for the military . How was it . As much as you can say how it was, versus the situation after the u. S. Military. As soon as the coup started and stopped, one of the things we were there to cover was the training not training, the advising mission, so the u. S. Military special operators and special forces do remote advised training essentially. It means they work with these Nigerian Forces every day, a couple different bases, but the Nigerian Special operators specifically go out and do the missions. The u. S. At times will provide overhead intelligence when they can. Resources are tight there. I can tell you that if the big protest when they moved us on the base, they put us in this big van, and the van was so decrepit that it stalled out seven times. They were protesters all around us and Security Forces coming up, and our van wouldnt start. Im just thinking, this isnt a good thing. Im thinking, here it is, these elite forces, some of the most elite of our special operators were there, and they had this piece of crap van that they were driving around in. So it seems like it is and economy of force mission there, for sure. And it has changed. They cannot really technically advise the Nigerian Forces anymore. With that being said, when you look at some of the other nations in the coup belt, which it really has become there and west africa, mali, burkina faso, the u. S. Has a presence there, and that is where niger is going, but it has been the one solid counterterror partner for the u. S. In that region. Losing it would be a huge blowt to them, so i think the u. S. Would do anything, even the designation of making it a military coup, they will do what they can to maintain some axis and presence there within the law. That is a good point. I have not really seen things changed that much in niger from postcoup designation to pr ecoup designation. The administration will say the military made changes after the president was ousted to prepare for this potential coup designation. But while you and i and many others of us were reporting, there was this worry, oh, what will happen if they do not sort this out and they have to call it a coup . And it happened, and it was almost a fizzle. Have you noticed any changes from before and after the designation . No, but i think there are things happening we do not know about. I think they have consolidated it a little bit to make it easier to protect their forces. Bringing more people onto one basic force protection is a little bit easier. But, no, i have not heard it. I do believe they have been flying drones again. They started flying again really soon after the president was taken hostage. What is interesting about niger is in those couple of days right after, there was a concern that maybe the 14 patient surrounded that have this economic nations surrounding it that have an Economic Partnership, that they would invade, but they do not really have the sources to do it. But there was the sense that the french would get involved militarily, that there was going to be some sort of moment of explosiveness and everything would change in niger. Instead, nothing has changed. Everyone is sort of living. The president and his son and wife are being held all this time. We do not know what conditions they are in. They have not really provided a new way of government there. Their top they are not talking about elections. It has almost become like a containment strategy there for everyone. I want to tell everybody she was also in somalia earlier this year, very impressive reporting there. It has been really hard to get in. A lot of journalists have tried to get to somalia for months and months. Tell me about your initial experience upon arrival. I mean, how did you get into somalia . Talk about the set for getting you there. We flew in commercially there, too. Mogadishu airport is a whole area i do not know how to say it, it is like a lot of smaller airports that are wellfunded, i would say. But as soon as your bags are coming out, you better grab them quickly because someone else will take them if you do not. That was sort of funny to be running after them before people kind of scary away with your bags. Overall, somalia is fascinating. I felt really like you to get there. We still believe we are the first embed to get there since lockdown. We do not know that any media has gotten there since then. Correct me if i am wrong. And we had the military on our behalf. We did a story, this is about how the u. S. Is working with the Somali Forces against another terror network, the alshabaab there. Alshabaab has really ravaged that country and control a large amount of land. The government of mohammed who has been in a year and a half now, i think, he came in vowing to take on corruption and take on these Terror Networks and to bring peace and security. And he has made a lot of progress. But the reality is his country is under an arms embargo still. His military, even the most elite special forces who are u. S. Trained, the alshabaab is better funded, better trained. There is more of them. People do not realize, but alshabaab is so wealthy that they give tens of millions of dollars a year to core al qaeda. They just give it to them, so there helping fund core al qaeda. So we wanted to see what the Training Mission is like, how they are going after alshabaab. It is a tough mission. These somalis, it is the same thing, many of them do not have a lot of education. They cannot even tell us how old they were, frankly. And they are putting on uniforms and are literally going through a couple weeks of training with the u. S. Military, and then they are literally on the front lines. So i feel very fortunate that i was able to cover actually, im really proud of the fact we were able to go to small yet and it is a story that does not get told very often. The other thing that is just absolutely heartbreaking in somalia that i wish got more attention here in the u. S. Is just the terrible humanitarian situation there. Linda thomasgreenfield went in october of last year, about a year ago, and announced 30 million in funding, i believe. After spending time there, i think that really staved off famine. Reality is they are on the brink of famine. They have faced season after season of drought. When you combine that with alshabaab, you cut they come into these areas and kill livestock and cattle, burn fields, drive people out of their homes and their lands. They kidnap. It is just such a dire situation for these people. And it is not getting a lot of attention on the world stage because we are so focused on other horrible humanitarian crises around the world. Niger and somalia, i was proud we were able to bring the story back to the u. S. , a story that i do not think is told very often. What did you see with u. S. Forces in their somali counterparts . Were you able to see them training together . Did you see what the isr provided . What did they allow you to view while you were there . What about that access . The u. S. Gave us a lot of access. We were supposed to interview the somali president , and he bailed on us last minute. I was not super surprised. It would have been nice to have more of a somali voice in it. We talked to some somali officials, but they were all offcamera. The one thing i will say it, and im probably preaching to the choir to a lot of people in the crowd, but when you are doing stories like this, you want to be able to see as much as possible. We always ask to get in. When the u. S. Military is providing isr overhead, we always try to get into like a control room. It is like the air Operations Center when youre in qatar. You always want to get some of that video and see what they see while they are doing the missions and then talk to both sides. We went out to actually an old soviet airstrip that they have turned into a Training Base out in a rural part of somalia to see how they do training. And we got to see a graduation. They now have women. They are the more elite Somali Special forces that now have women with them. I actually stayed in touch with one of them who is in the u. S. Right now training with the u. S. Military. So yeah, we were lucky. It takes a lot of negotiation. While working on these stories with the military, just keep pushing. Push and push and push and ask for more and more. With that, i will open it up to questions. Joe, do you want to start us off . [inaudible] i mean, you guys have some of the best people when it comes to things like afghanistan, which is another thing that we do not hear a lot of bout do not hear a lot about. A lot of people we talk to are u. S. Officials, military officials, intelligence officials, whoever appeared they do not have great insight right now as to what is happening in afghanistan. That is like a case like yours, amazing people and who you have focusing on that region are an enormous help. Sometimes you are the only ones that provide information about what is going on in afghanistan, like what is going on with isis right now. Afghanistan, pakistan would be a big one, so much on everyones minds right now. Anyone who can provide any middleoftheroad insight on what is happening with israel and gaza specifically with gaza and the humanitarian crisis, i mean, it is so fraught with politics right now. That would be an enormous help. Ukraine is another one, frankly, what is happening with the humanitarian it is much easier for journalists to get in there, but there will always be an interest, especially if you go into the winter, frankly, in ukraine and we might see russia taking more strikes but going after infrastructure, and we might see people without water, food, heat. That is always valuable to us, invaluable, frankly. Caitlin. Hi, earlier when we had the pao panel, they talked about embeds, and barks, and it was a question about helping reporters who do not have the finances to get with units. Im interested to hear if you have editors who are interested in this story, because that is obviously half the battle, how much as the military helped with getting you either flights out there or access, and how much is at your own outlet . Your finance and making those stories happened. You were talking earlier that it is not always reported on, and more about finances and help from the military people need to know more about. Ms. Kube with the exception of a location we cannot logistically get to, so an aircraft carrier, for instance, or syria is a good example, frankly. I guess you can fly into damascus. I do not know that we are allowed to. When i have gone into syria, it has always been with the military. We are generally as possible forgetting ourselves to that area. To oman or something and fly in from there. But we have standards issues, so if it is someplace that we can get to ourselves, we do not want to appear as if we are taking a financial, taking their money, frankly, by taking a ride from them. So i guess it depends on the situation. Frankly, niger is an example of that. We flew in commercially but flew out militarily because the airport was shut down. That was the case we cannot get out of. I have a followup. When we report of the military, a lot of times we report from the lens that the Public Affairs officer would like us to see. That is the view that they give a speed when i do my reporting, i see what they see, but then i say to myself, what is the ground truth here and how do i show that . How do you show that in your reporting . You do a good job with that. Ms. Kube thank you. That is one of the big challenges. You have to do your best to set up an embed. The reality is we just do not do a lot of embeds anymore. It is funny to even talk about them anymore because the majority of things would have been called an embed 15 years ago would not even be one now. With afghanistan not existing anymore as far as a u. S. Military mission there, they do not have the infrastructure for it. So one of the best things you can do is really try to set the scene when youre going in, before you go in. I mean, keep a laundry list. The list of things when i went to alhol last year, the list of things i asked for, i kind of chuckled to myself. It was so unrealistic. But you kind of go in asking for the moon and see what you get. And that should be the same. For instance, with alhol, it was, i want to be able to talk to people who were held in foreign annex and the iraqi annex any syria annex and the syria annex. I wanted to talk to all of those. They were never going to let me talk to anyone in the foreign annex. I wanted to talk to as many people as possible so i was not just seeing what the camp administrator wanted me to see or to the Security Forces were responsible for patrolling the camp. That is one thing. The other thing is, once you get there, do not pushing again. Just keep pushing for as much access to as many people as possible. Do not be afraid to ask to talk to the diocese brides there they are not going to let you, but you can try. You can ask. Questions . Courtney, hi, great to see you again. Ms. Kube great to see you. And thank you very much for all the reporting you are doing. It is truly invaluable, especially being out in the field the way you do. I appreciate your comment about trying to cover the underreported issues, and there are so many. Ms. Kube it does not make you popular with management. [laughter] i think i have two questions. One is, how difficult is it for you being a pentagon reporter, steeped in the pentagon and being there all the time, to cover the issues of civilian casualties and u. S. Troops . And i will just leave it at that for now. Ms. Kube so hard. I think it is one of the most difficult parts about covering the military, so Something Like lets take the strikes last night in syria. We still do not have a Battle Damage assessment. We do not know how many people were killed in that. I do not know if we will find out today. Remember in arch when the u. S. Took some strikes in syria, it was days later that we heard from the secretary that they killed eight people and did not know how many were injured. So what is really hard about these situations is none of us in this room is going to the area to check out tho