Ivan Watson is currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. Following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, he has served as one of NPR's foreign "firemen," shuttling to and from hotspots around the Middle East and Central Asia.
During the Afghan War, Watson "stormed" Kabul along with Northern Alliance rebels the morning after the withdrawal of the Taliban. After reporting for nearly a year on post-Taliban Afghanistan, Watson then joined NPR's award-winning team coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He embedded with the Kurds of Northern Iraq at the height of the conflict and then from Baghdad, documented the first years of the troubled US occupation.
Since then, Watson covered the 2006 Summer War between Israel and Hezbollah from South Lebanon, the surprise victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Iran's 2005 presidential elections, and the Russo-Georgian War in the Caucasus in August 2008.
During quieter moments, Watson has filed colorful dispatches from the region. In Afghanistan, he tracked down a former Soviet POW who converted to Islam and went "local" after being captured by Afghan mujaheddin during the 1980's. Watson also profiled Arab- and Iranian-American stand-up comics who tour the Middle East calling themselves the "Axis of Evil Comedy Tour," and trolled the streets of Istanbul with transvestite prostitutes while reporting on one of the citys most notorious ghettos.
NPR first hired Watson as West Africa correspondent based in Lagos, Nigeria, in December of 2001. In addition to reporting on Africa's most populous nation, Watson spent a year traveling to countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Mauritania to prepare features on cultures and conflicts in a region that is often overlooked by the American media.
Watson's first overseas posting was in Russia in 1998. He spent three years in Moscow, first working with CBS News, and then as a producer for CNN's Moscow bureau. News stories took him from the Russian war in Chechnya to the Arctic, for the sinking of the Kursk submarine. One day before Russian President Boris Yeltsin upstaged the millennium by unexpectedly resigning from office, Watson produced an exclusive CNN interview with then-prime minister Vladimir Putin. Hours after the interview was broadcast, Putin was declared president of Russia.
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Iraq's parliament could vote as early as this week on a security pact with the United States that would allow...
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Authorities in Yemen have been arresting suspects after an attack Wednesday on the U.S. embassy in the capital San'a. Two...
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A prisoner exchange between Georgia and Russia is a sign of both nations' efforts to reduce tension. But Georgia and...
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The U.S. is demanding an immediate and complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia, after the Georgian president signed a... -
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with the goal of getting Russian combat forces...
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The truce between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia remains precarious. Russian troops are still inside...
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For historian-turned-mystery-writer Jason Goodwin, the bustling Istanbul bazaar is a perfect setting for murder, and the evening call to prayer... -
Although the Russians claim a cease-fire is in place, Russian military vehicles and troops are still very active in Georgia....
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Russia and Georgia have agreed to a provisional cease-fire that ends five days of conflict in a truce negotiated by...
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Georgia's security council says it filed papers with the International Court of Justice to sue Russia for ethnic cleansing. Earlier,...
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Ivan Watson describes watching seven Georgian attack helicopters roaring over the hill in South Ossetia. There are only between 2,000...
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NATO troops and Afghan government forces are battling Taliban militants on the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar. Taliban...