International Reporting Project

Photo Essay II: Evolution of terror

by Julie Goodman, Fall 2004 IRP Fellow
Reprinted with permission of The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS

Thousands of demonstrators gather in Beirut to protest the Syrian presence in their country. Syria, which has troops in Lebanon, controls the country's major political decisions. Photos in this four-part series illustrate the day-to-day lives of Lebanon's citizens.

A woman joining the anti-Syria demonstration waves a Lebanese flag.

Protesters at the anti-Syria demonstration hold a sign in support of UN resolutions that call for the withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces from Lebanon.

A demonstrator holds a sign protesting the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Police in riot gear are prepared to quell any violence that erupts at the anti-Syria demonstration. The event, however, passed peacefully.

The Lebanese Army is also prepared to keep the peace at the demonstration. The military stood idle for most of the event.

Walid Jumblatt, a Druze opposition leader, speaks from his Beirut home about the recent attempted assassination of a friend, a former government minister. Jumblatt hired private security to guard his own home after the incident.

An east Beirut newspaper vendor stands outside his shop beside newspapers reporting on the U.S. presidential election, which was watched closely in Lebanon. The headline of the International Herald Tribune reads, �Kerry concedes tight election to Bush.�

A memorial at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon honors the lives of Americans and Lebanese who died in terrorist attacks on the U.S. marine barracks, former embassy and other incidents over the last three decades.

A farmer in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon speaks out against the U.S. government's decision to pressure the country into banning the cultivation of hemp, used to manufacture hashish. Residents of his small community led lives of prosperity before they were forced to stop planting the crop.