On the Road with the Vice President

March 21, 2008 2:44 PM

Nightline producer Ely Brown is covering Vice President Cheney's Middle East trip with Martha Raddatz. Martha's interview with Cheney made headlines earlier in the week when she asked him about polls that show about two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it and he replied, "So?"

See some behind the scenes pictures from the trip here.

Ely Brown reports:

I’ve been traveling with Vice President Cheney since Sunday now. Five days. Four countries. Today took us to Afghanistan. Going to events at the Presidential Palace always fills me with a mixture of dread and intrigue. Intrigue because the country continues to struggle to rebuild after 30 years of war. And the setting is impressive -- a giant Afghan flag billows in the wind above the bullet-scarred compound walls, and President Karzai can be a dashing figure in his iconic grey hat and green silk cape. I dread it because the security search process to get into the compound, even for the press traveling with the Vice President, makes the most aggressive TSA search at an American airport look as simple as entering a movie theater. I can attest to the fact that the women in the group got quite a thorough search from a female guard. But it is understandable. Two days before the 9-11 attacks in the united states, Ahmed Shah Masood, the leader of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban alliance, was assassinated when a camera crew’s camera exploded.

Once we got into the compound – running a bit late and so sprinting for where the local Afghan press had set up for a press conference – I needed to hook up with our “fixer” on the ground there. “Fixers” are multi-talented people who ABC has around the world to help us get stuff done when we land in remote places. Often they are producers or reporters in their own right, and they can do anything from solid reporting to arranging drivers to smoothing customs issues with a little slight of hand. Akbar would be able to take the tapes that we shot of the Vice President;s visit and get them fed back to the United States in time hopefully for the morning news shows while I continued on with the Vice President.

The rest of the Vice Presidents press corps had sped ahead to catch up with him at the welcoming ceremony taking place a hundred feet away or so. Cameraman Hank Disselkamp reports on what happened there:

“I was thinking only about getting to a good spot as soon as possible. However as I was led past a couple dozen ceremonial Afghan honor guard solders by an Afghan yelling “Camera, this way!” I heard a commotion behind me as everyone else was stopped. I didn’t concern myself with it too much because as the only American tv camera there, I knew I needed to get my spot. … I was placed about 75 feet fro where a red carpet hit the street. A couple of local tv cameras, a couple of local stills, Paul Richard of AFP and I were on one side of the carpet and the numerous ceremonial guards were facing us. There wore modern military dress uniforms with a band playing at the end near the street. An Afghan government person told us that we would see the VP arrive at the end of the carpet, be greeted by Karzai. They two would hear their national anthems played and walk straight to our cameras. Just then I saw Karzai coming from the other end of the carpet and I roll on it. This upset our hosts very much. “No pictures until Cheney shows up!”

After their private meetings, the two held a press conference for the traveling and local press. Once the press conference with President Karzai and VP Cheney was over and Akbar was on his way with the tapes, we had a few moments to relax while the print and wire reporters frantically filed. Lunch was served. Drinks provided. Martha Raddatz had her picture taken with the tallest man in Afghanistan.
And then we were off to Bagram. Hustled out by the advance men to a large traffic intersection just outside the palace gates, where a Chinook helicopter flew in to pick us up. This seems like a good idea. In practice, helicopters when they land produce a tremendous amount of wind and dust gets kicked, bags and people get blown off course. We did all manage to get on to our ride, the taste of dust in our teeth.

Bagram Air Base is the headquarters for NATO's Regional Command East, which is commanded by US General Rodriguez. Vice President Cheney disappeared for a classified briefing while the press were taken to file their stories once again. (Side note – these official trips are days filled with events and punctuated by frequent filing times…) Of course being good military hosts the press was offered a power point briefing. From what I can tell, the military truly excel at power point. Lots of slides with graphs and stats and pretty pictures. Everyone – military included – joke about earning your “power point ranger” badges and “death by power point”. But for those of us who don’t cover the military or Afghanistan every day, they are always helpful.

Perhaps the best part of the day happened at the end, so I am sort of burying the lede as they say. Vice President Cheney participated at an award ceremony honoring 5 service men and women. The highest honor given today was a Silver Star presented to Specialist Monica Brown – only the second woman to receive so high an honor since World War II. SPC Brown was a combat medic during a patrol in April of last year when a vehicle in the convoy struck an IED. An ambush then ensued, but Spc Brown – under fire – got to the destroyed vehicle and administered first aid to two injured soldiers.

Coincidently, Martha Raddatz and I had reported on the first woman to receive the silver star since world war two. Based in Iraq, she was a member of a Kentucky national guard unit that was moving in convoy that also came under attack in an ambush. Martha had interviewed her and other members of her unit shortly after the attack, and I had the opportunity to be present at her award ceremony in Iraq later in her deployment.

Now that we are back in Oman I have just spent a couple of hours sending the video of today’s award ceremony out over computer. World News used it in short voice over and Good Morning America will use even more. Thank god there will be coffee at the morning gathering point as we head off to our next country with the Vice President.