NPR reporter stays with Baghdad beat

By Randy Doringa (North County Times, 2007-09-05)

Not too long ago, National Public Radio correspondent Jamie Tarabay visited the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and saw a man look at her and whisper into Talabani's ear. The president laughed.

Tarabay, who was attending a political meeting, asked why and got an answer: They were discussing how much she might be worth if she were kidnapped. The best guess: $100,000.

In a phone conversation last week during a brief break from her duties as NPR's Iraq correspondent, Tarabay managed to actually find some humor in her price tag.

"Part of me was horrified that he was even articulating that," Tarabay recalled. "And part of me was horrified that I was only going for so little. It's a Catch-22. You don't want to give anyone any ideas, but you want to think, 'Just $100,000? Come on!' "

On a more serious note, "it made me sick to my stomach," she said. "If I was going to a political gathering and politicians were talking like that, what were the average Iraqis thinking? It's getting harder to do any real reporting. People just see you as dollar signs."

The rest of the story: NCTimes.com