Can you share an interesting experience you had researching INVISIBLE NATION?

As I describe in Chapter 6, I think I’m the only journalist who used his entire gas mask and chemical suit during the war, investigating what luckily turned out to be a bum-steer from the Kurds about a chemical shell they said had made a bunch of them sick.

Has US involvement in Iraq has aided the Kurdish cause?

The Kurds have been struggling for centuries, and in recent history they owe their worst defeats and their greatest victories to American foreign policy.  At the moment they’re riding high as Washington’s most trusted ally among Iraq’s factions, but they’re watchful for a hint that America might cut them loose again.

Will their situation change dramatically if the US military withdraws from Iraq?

If America leaves the region the Kurds will be able to hold their territory in the north against any of the internal factions.  It’s outside powers like Iran and Turkey - both with restive Kurdish populations of their own - that the Kurds of Iraq see as a major threat.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I got addicted to travelling when I was 19 years old, taking a back-pack to Central America and Middle East and I always kept a journal.  It wasn’t until 1996 that some journalist friends clued me in to the fact that I could make a living from it.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring foreign correspondents, what would it be?

I’d skip school and head out into the field.  Once you get a taste of the “ground truth”, you’ll never go back to watching from a distance.

Is there a particular ritual involved in your writing process? Or is it all about the deadline?

For writing news, the deadline is the only incentive you need, I’ve filed stories from the top of an armoured car stuck in human traffic (that was in 2005, the last time the Gaza border with Egypt burst open).  For writing the book I enjoyed a long cross country ski in the morning before a long day of writing, then another one in the evening if I’d earned it.

How do you relax?

I’ve been building a house out of stone in Maine for about a dozen years, it’s an eternal work in progress and once of my favourite things to do when I come back from the field.

What books are you reading at the moment?

I’m reading What is the What, by Dave Eggers and The Accidental Empire by Gershom Gorenberg - about the Israeli settlers movement. I also just picked up The New Cold War, by Globe and Mail correspondent Mark MacKinnon.