most news wore think thing that's happening there. and when the most important news in the world is happening in a place you are not supposed to drop a foreign correspondent, he is the kind of guy who has been known to get himself there any way to get the story. as a young man who did not speak arabic, richard moved to cairo alone, figured he would pick up the language. he did. when the iraq war started, he came to baghdad on his own stream, started covering it alone. as a stringer. when i started at msnbc, he started tutoring me on the subtleties of the middle east, and central asia, mostly in bars with hand drawn maps he would make for me on cocktail napkins. i'm not ashamed to admit. when it was time for me to do reporting in iraq and afghanistan, it was richard who hooked me up with his local knowledge, access to sources and language. on this show, richard has been