Lara Logan, the Durban-born chief foreign affairs correspondent for United States television network CBS, could face charges of theft for allegedly looting mementoes from Iraq.
In a video profile of the 60 Minutes star, called "Lara Logan's Spoils of War", mementoes from Iraq and Afghanistan are shown in her Washington office.
She says she found the pieces, which include pre-invasion paintings of Saddam Hussein in army fatigues, in the ruins of the Olympic committee building after it was bombed.
Taking such items out of the country is considered theft under a US federal provision designed to protect Iraqi heritage.
Logan is well-known for her coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world.
Continues Below ↓
She has won numerous accolades, including an Emmy and an Overseas Press Club Award.
According to media reports in the US, a former Fox News engineer has already been prosecuted and placed on probation for smuggling paintings from Iraqi palaces.
Now it appears the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking into the issue.
Driven
Before heading abroad, Logan cut her teeth as a reporter for the Daily News and the Sunday Tribune in Durban.
She was described by former colleagues as being driven by a burning ambition to succeed at all costs.
Durban journalist Liz Clarke has described Logan as having "rocket fuel in her wings".
Clarke, who was news editor of the Tribune at the time, said her beauty had transfixed many in the newsroom.
"Lara was amazingly good-looking and she looked sensational in her short skirts and tight tops. When she was assigned to go to the beach and do a holiday-in-the sun story, she was accompanied by three male reporters," Clarke said.
Logan attended Durban Girls' College and it is believed she was a straight-A pupil, accomplished in sports and drama, and also earned a prefect's badge.
Logan, 37, is no stranger to controversy.
Last year it was reported that she had been the cause of a punch-up between a CNN reporter and a US defence contractor in Iraq.
Logan is carrying the married contractor's baby and is due to give birth in January.
It is purported that Logan is in the midst of divorcing her estranged husband, Jason Siemon, a Chicago-based energy lobbyist and former professional basketball player, whom she married in 1998.
-
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on October 14, 2008
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
