A Trek Through Minefields, Pursued By Soldiers From my files: News articles I am digitally archiving here on this blog site. This story was written in 1990 after a many weeks walk deep through the jungle with Cambodian guerrillas. It was the first independent confirmation of guerrilla claims of advances made during the then 11-year […]
The Private Letters of a Foreign Correspondent: Communicating With the Khmer Rouge; CIA Spy Accusations; Nomination for a Pulitzer Prize
Select Private Correspondence from the Files of a Foreign Correspondent: By Nate Thayer I have been doing some tinkering and final revisions and editing of my upcoming book Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist’s memoir from Inside Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and have been distracted as I sort out old papers, correspondence, raw notes, and files, many which have […]
One Can Never be too Vigilant in the Defence of a Free Press
The Tools of the Trade–Journalism Cambodia Style–1990’s Covering the Cambodia debacle in the 1980’s and 1990’s was an assignment fraught with danger and intrigue. The Khmer Rouge had executed more than 4 dozen foreigners–the vast majority journalists. Their primary opposition, the Vietnamese backed and installed government of Hun Sen, has summarily targeted and murdered dozens […]
Cambodian Army’s dossier of shame
Army’s dossier of shame The state sponsored violence in Cambodia in recent days has a long and predictable history that made the current events inevitable. “Villagers feel totally helpless as they see no recourse against official arbitrary violence and abuses. Deprived of any means to seek justice, even when their children are taken away and […]
ABC News and Ted Koppel owe an apology for soiling the integrity of freelancers and the institution of journalism
Mr. Koppel, you owe an apology to the institution of journalism for soiling its integrity. By Nate Thayer December 12, 2013 Well, Mr. Ted Koppel, I, for one, would like to hear your response to my contention you pimped your reputation for integrity to ABC News/Disney Corporation in order to steal the life work of […]
Corporate Power, ABC TV and Ted Koppel tried to censor the free speech of a free man in a free country. Fuck that.
Corporate power tried to steal my life work. ABC TV and Ted Koppel tried to censor the free speech of a free man in a free country. Fuck that. Discuss freedom. I would like to define this discussion, where it belongs: The power of corporate thugs using their money to put their jackboot on the […]
How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work
How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work By Nate Thayer December 8, 2013 I am banned by legal agreement to write the following: ABC Television/ Disney Corporation, after seven years in court, where they attempted to bankrupt me and ruin my reputation for objecting to them stealing fifteen years of […]
“Who is that singer? Johnny Jackson? Like he says, ‘We are the World!’ We are with the West! Let’s join together!” said a Khmer Rouge cadre
“Who is that singer? Johnny Jackson? Like he says, ‘We are the World!’ We are with you, the West! Let’s join together!” said the Khmer Rouge leader After threatening to assassinate American civilians, the Khmer Rouge leader told me “Why don’t we join hands in national reconciliation. Join together! We are with you, the […]
‘See Angkor and die’
‘See Angkor and die’ Fri, 3 December 1993 Nate Thayer (This story, one of my favorites, was published 20 years ago today in the Phnom Penh Post) Renée Grass died happy here in Cambodia a few days ago after travelling across the world to have her last dream come true. The 83-year-old Belgian woman, frail […]
Golf, Cambodia, and the ‘very cornerstone of morality’
Golf, Cambodia, and the ‘very cornerstone of morality’ From my mailbox: Dear Nate, I have read your missives on Cambodia on Face Book and elsewhere with great interest. You are truly prolific and I walk in your shadow. I hardly ever reply to Face Book. I hardly get the time. Due to our mutual deep […]
The Night I Lived: Excerpts from Sympathy for the Devil
Landmines, War, and Journalism: One war reporter’s close encounter with religion, death, and victory (Copyright Nate Thayer. No reproduction or dissemination in whole or in part without express written permission of the author) Your Support is Needed The new realities of journalism are that investigative journalism must seek independent financing after institutional support from media companies has largely […]
Vietnam Era Renegade Army Discovered: Lighting the darkness: FULRO’s jungle Christians
Lighting the darkness: FULRO’s jungle Christians Vietnam Era Renegade Army Discovered By Nate Thayer (This story appeared in the Phnom Penh Post and as the cover story in the Far Eastern Economic Review. I discovered, in the remote Northeastern Cambodian jungles along the Ho Chi Minh trail along the Vietnamese border, an army literally lost […]
