CBS correspondent Lara Logan, who was beaten and sexually assaulted by a Cairo mob in the frenzied aftermath of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, was released from a New York hospital Tuesday and is resting at her home in Washington, the network said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says President Barack Obama has spoken with CBS reporter Lara Logan in the wake of the network’s announcement that she was brutally attacked in Egypt. The official, who declined to give details on Wednesday’s call, spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the private conversation. CBS says Logan was attacked and sexually assaulted in Egypt on Friday while covering reaction to the announcement of President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. She’s recovering in a U.S. hospital. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that anyone responsible for acts of violence in Egypt should be brought to justice.
On the front lines, in the middle of the action, at the tip of the spear — that’s where reporters like Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot always want to be. But what happens when you find yourself a little too close to the story, caught up in a melee of thousands of protestors, fighting not for the best interview or angle, but for your very life?
CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was in the city’s Tahrir Square after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down last Friday when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a mob of more than 200 people. Separated from her crew in the crush of the mob, she suffered what CBS called “a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating.”
A week ago, CNN’s Anderson Cooper cowered in a Cairo hotel room with shades drawn for a live broadcast, following two days in which the Mubarak regime unleashed men to beat, intimidate and take into custody journalists who had entered Egypt to cover pro-democracy demonstrations. The climax of the 18-day revolution came suddenly on Friday, in a short speech by Vice President Omar Suleiman that Mubarak had resigned and turned power over to the military.