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Souad Mekhennet (born 1978 in
Global Panel Foundation
She is a
Souad Mekhennet (born 1978 in Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
) is a German journalist and author who has written or worked for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
'', ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
and German television channel ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
.
Early life and education
Mekhennet was born in 1978, the daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father; she grew up principally in Germany, but spent some years of her childhood in Morocco. She attended the Henri Nannen School for Journalism in Hamburg and the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.Career
Journalism
Since 9/11, Mekhennet has covered conflicts and terrorist attacks in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. She was one of two ''Times'' reporters who published the first story onKhaled el-Masri
Khaled El-Masri (also Khalid El-Masri and Khaled Masri, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: , ar, خالد المصري) (born 29 June 1963) is a German and Lebanese citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and handed o ...
, a German citizen, who was detained, flown to Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, interrogated and allegedly tortured by the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
for several months. She also worked on the series ''Inside the Jihad,'' published between 2007 and 2008, in which she and her colleague Michael Moss interviewed various jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
leaders, including the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to o ...
. In February 2015, she was the lead reporter of a ''Washington Post'' story that first revealed the true identity of the ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
militant known as "Jihadi John
Mohammed Emwazi (born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri; ar, محمد جاسم عبد الكريم عليان الظفيري; 17 August 1988 – 12 November 2015) was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin believed to be the pers ...
".
Fellowships
Mekhennet currently holds fellowships with theWeatherhead Center for International Affairs
A weatherhead, also called a weathercap, service head, service entrance cap, or gooseneck (slang) is a weatherproof service drop entry point where overhead power or telephone wires enter a building, or where wires transition between overhead an ...
at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, the School of Advanced International Studies
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of the ...
at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
, the Geneva Center for Security Policy
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) is an international foundation that was established in 1995 under Swiss law to "promote the building and maintenance of peace, security and stability". The GCSP was founded by the Federal Department ...
, and New America. She is the 13th Recipient of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award
The Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award is given annually to honor individuals who have dedicated their lives to public service. It was established in 2000 by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and thGlobal Panel Foundation It is ...
jointly with conservationist Tony Fitzjohn
Anthony Raymond Fitzjohn, Order of the British Empire, OBE (7 July 1945 – 23 May 2022) was a British conservation movement, conservationist who worked extensively with George Adamson at Kora National Park, Kora in Africa.
In recognition of h ...
presented annually by the Prague Society for International Cooperation
The Prague Society for International Cooperation is a Prague-based non-governmental organization that originated in communist Central Europe, when political dissidents joined forces to oppose their respective regimes. Though several of its membe ...
anGlobal Panel Foundation
She is a
European Young Leader
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...
(EYL40) alumni.
Books
She is the co-author of two books in German: ''Islam'' (2006) and ''Die Kinder des Dschihad: Die neue Generation des islamistischen Terrors'' (2008); and one in English, withNicholas Kulish
Nicholas Matthew Kulish (born 1975) is an author and journalist who reports for ''The New York Times''. Since March 2014, he has worked as an investigative journalist based in New York. He is the author of two books, the satirical novel ''Last O ...
: ''The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim
Aribert Ferdinand Heim (28 June 191410 August 1992), also known as Dr. Death and Butcher of Mauthausen, was an Austrian ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) doctor. During World War II, he served at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, killin ...
'' (2014). Her memoir, ''I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad,'' was published in 2017.
Books
* Mekhennet, Souad and Michael Hanfeld. ''Islam.'' Würzburg: Arena (2006) * Mekhennet, Souad, , and Claudia Satter. ''Die Kinder des Dschihad: Die neue Generation des islamistischen Terrors.'' Munich: Piper Taschenbuch (2008), * Mekhennet, Souad and Nicholas Kulish. ''The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim.'' New York:Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...
(2014),
* Mekhennet, Souad. ''I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad.'' New York: Henry Holt and Co. (2017)
References
External links
* * 1978 births German journalists German non-fiction writers German people of Moroccan descent German people of Turkish descent Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Living people The New York Times writers The Washington Post journalists {{Germany-writer-stub German Muslims German women journalists