By: Joe Strupp Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose private e-mail to friends lamenting the dangers to reporters in Iraq and criticizing the Bush administration's war policy sparked a controversy in October, is returning to her war beat next week following a month's vacation and brief assignments elsewhere.
"I'm still on the Iraq beat, " Fassihi told E&P in an e-mail Thursday. She said she had been to Ramallah to lend a hand in covering the Arafat funeral, and is currently in Amman "trying to sort out alternate housing for us...before I go back."
In a second email she explained that she would be back in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Fassihi drew attention in October when a private e-mail she sent to about 20 friends criticizing the war effort and complaining that safety concerns made coverage difficult ended up on several Web sites, including E&P?s. Critics said the note showed she had a biased view of the war, while supporters pointed out it was a private message to friends and that it accurately reflected what every other reporter knew to be true.
When Fassihi left on a month-long vacation soon after the controversy, some speculated that it was a retaliatory leave by Journal editors, a notion the paper and Fassihi flatly denied at the time.
In an e-mail to E&P Friday, Fassihi said she had put the issue behind her and believed her return to Iraq showed that it did not affect her standing within the paper. "I understand your interest,? she wrote, ?but once I go back and start filing next week, then hopefully the speculations will end. ... I don't know why this story doesn't die."
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