Ex-CBS News reporter Lara Logan reveals horrific gang-rape with 'flagpoles and sticks' while covering Arab spring
Former CBS News reporter Lara Logan has recently recounted her gape-rape that happened in 2011 in Egypt while she was covering the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. The 49-year-old was at the peak of her career when she was brutally assaulted by a mob of men.
Logan also claimed that her attack was downplayed by New York Magazine because of political reasons. But now, since Logan is set to release a 90-minute special on Fox Nation that explores ‘liberal biases in media’, she said, “You can't have a #MeToo movement standing up for women and righting the wrongs of the past but say nothing about a female journalist who was gang-raped and almost died.”
Opening up about the incident, the South African television journalist told Newsweek, “People were celebrating. It seemed a pro-American crowd. Suddenly, our translator turned to me with a look of sheer terror and said, 'Run, run!' I felt people grabbing between my legs. I was quite stunned. Our security, Ray Jackson, and the rest of us ran, and others in the crowd were running with us. I thought we were getting away, but some of the men running with us became my rapists.”
She continued, “Ray told me to stay on my feet and hold onto him. If I was knocked down, I'd die. I fought the assault as best I could for 15 minutes, but they tore all my clothes off and raped me with their hands, with flagpoles, and with sticks. They sodomized me over and over. They were fighting for my body. I couldn't hold on to Ray any longer. There was a moment I gave up, but I kept thinking about my two babies."
“It was so hard to breathe; there was so much pressure on my rib cage. They tried to rip my limbs off. I went down and I couldn't get up. It was a mad frenzy for a piece of me. They tried to scalp me with their hands, ripping out clumps of my hair. In that mayhem, I was dragged into an area where women and children had been camped out and protesting. I landed into the lap of a woman. I was naked and hysterical, and some boys stood between the men and this Egyptian woman. People threw clothing at me,” ex-host of ‘60 Minutes’ said while holding back her tears.
“It was amazing I could be so humiliated while so close to death. The moment I thought I was lost was when I lost Ray, but I realized later he went to force the Egyptian Army to look for me,” Logan added.
She also recalled how she was wrapped in a chador, a cloak worn by women in the region, amid the chaos and then taken to a Jeep where she was reunited with her crew. Later, she was flown back to the US, where she spent four days in the hospital.
“Hillary Clinton acknowledged what happened to me, and President Obama called me personally on the phone to acknowledge it. What happened to me is not in dispute,” Logan said.
This happened a year after Logan sued New York magazine for $25 million over an article titled "Benghazi and the Bombshell," which described the incident in Cairo as "groping”.
Describing the article a biased hit piece, Logan had alleged the story was designed to destroy her credibility and also tarnished her career.
However, Lauren Starke, a spokeswoman for New York magazine, had said in 2019 the “article was thoroughly vetted and fact-checked, and we stand by our reporting.”