TAYLOR: Military maverick

[Oscar]

Military maverick

http://www.ottawacitizen.com:80/news/Mi ... story.html

Scott Taylor has risked his life in war zones dozens of times, going his own way to get 'the whole story'

By Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen March 1, 2009

Scott Taylor plans to go back to Afghanistan in spring, alone and dressed as a local, rather than as a journalist 'embedded' in a military unit.

The scene is Mosul, Iraq, September 2004 and three days into Scott Taylor's captivity in the hands of insurgents.

"Only after I was completely trussed up," he writes, "did my interrogator enter the room. I could sense him as he seated himself a few feet in front of me.

"'We know you are a spy,' he said in nearly flawless English. 'Tell us who you are working for and your execution will be quick and painless.'

"'My name is Scott Raymond Taylor. I am a Canadian journalist and I entered Iraq on Sept. 7. The purpose of my visit is to report on the humanitarian crisis created by the U.S. invasion.'

"'You are lying! You are an American pig,' my interrogator replied."

Taylor resigned himself to a grisly death, but we have to wait until the final pages for him to reveal -- after a long dramatic pause -- how he dodged the bullet. Or, more likely, the blade.

But Unembedded is such a compelling read that the 360-page ride from part one of his kidnapping saga to the dramatic conclusion seems no distance at all.

Maverick is an overused label but in Scott Taylor's case it only partly describes the man. He has been an artist, a musician, a professional soldier and since 1988, editor and publisher of the Ottawa-based military magazine esprit de corps. He's part pragmatist, part romantic, part journalist, part author and, for reasons even he might not totally understand, a man addicted to danger.

More:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com:80/news/Mi ... story.html

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His Book: Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting By Scott Taylor

Douglas & McIntyre, $34.95

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WATCH: The real story about Canadians in Afghanistan

http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp= ... lipID=2317

Featuring: Graeme Smith, Scott Taylor and Murray Brewster

For the first time in over half a century, Canada, the nation that prides itself on being the world's peacekeeper, has waged a dirty, bitter war in the vast desert wastelands and mountain creases of a ruined country. We struggle to come to grips with what we read, see and hear about Afghanistan. Three correspondents who have, over the last three years, spent months in Kandahar covering the fighting and redevelopment projects, will take part in a panel discussion.

When: Saturday January 17, 2009

This event is co-sponsored by the Canadian Association of Journalists, the National Press Club and Carleton University.

Graeme Smith, a Michener Award and National Newspaper Association award winner for his coverage of the conflict will talk about life in Kandahar and the ethereal enemy, the Taliban.

Scott Taylor, a former soldier and editor of the brassy Esprit de Corp Magazine, will provide his unvarnished perspective on life as an unembedded journalist in Afghanistan.

Murray Brewster, the Parliamentary defence reporter for The Canadian Press, will take the audience from the doorstep of the House of Commons to the mean streets of Kandahar with a view on the politics of the war.

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LISTEN: Interview - CBC Radio - The Current - February 26, 2009

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200902/20090226.html

Part 2: Unembedded - Scott Taylor

We started this segment with a news report from September 13th, 2004 about Canadian journalist Scott Taylor's kidnapping in Iraq. It took 20 trips to that troubled country, but the veteran war correspondent finally broke the first rule of war reporting that fall. He became the news he was meant to be covering. Mr. Taylor's ordeal features prominently in his new memoir, Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting. And Scott Taylor was in our Toronto studio.

Scott Taylor is the Publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine and the author of Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting. And if you'd like to hear more from Scott Taylor, tune in to The Hour tonight, when he'll sit down with George Strombolopoulos. The Hour is at 11 o'clock on CBC Television.

Listen to Part Two:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200902/20090226.html