Michael Ware (born 25 March 1969) is an Australian journalist formerly working in CNN and was for several years based in their Baghdad bureau.
He was one of the few mainstream reporters to live in Iraq near-continuously, since before the American invasion and gained early acclaim due to him establishing contacts with the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi insurgency.
His Time bylines include reports from Kabul, Kandahar, Fallujah, Tikrit, Tal Afar, Mosul, Samarra, Ramadi, and Baghdad.
In September 2004, while investigating reports that Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's nascent "al-Qaeda in Iraq" group was openly claiming control of the Haifa Street area of Baghdad, Ware was briefly held at gunpoint by fighters loyal to Zarqawi who had pulled pins from live grenades and forced his car to stop.
In August 2006, he spent three weeks in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley as part of CNN's team covering the Israeli invasion of Lebanon before returning to Iraq.
[4] In August 2008, he covered the South Ossetia War, between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Georgia, reporting at various times from the towns of Tbilisi, Gori, and Poti.
On 18 October 2006, CNN aired a small portion of a videotape sent to Ware that showed snipers shooting at, and apparently killing, American troops.
[18] The video was a tape sent to CNN with Ware adding narration for the edited broadcast that showed American soldiers being stalked and eventually brought under fire by the shooters.
After the news report was shown, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow accused CNN of "propagandizing" the American public.