Steve Inskeep

As Sanctions Squeeze, Iranians Keep Improvising

Steve Inskeep — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:28:00 +0000

Iranians have lived with American sanctions for many years, and we could see the evidence of this when we stepped into a Tehran shop called GM Auto Parts.

It had the famous blue and white General Motors logo, though the sign, like almost everything in the spare parts shop for American cars, looked decades old.

The silver-haired owner, Sadegh Janati, showed us catalogs of cars and parts that he used to import from the U.S. in the 1970s. They came straight from GM, he said, until the years after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, when U.S.

Iran's Election May Not Really Be About Picking A President

Steve Inskeep — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:02:00 +0000

When Iranians vote Friday for president, it will be an election unlike any other.

Clerics who hold supreme power in the Islamic Republic have allowed elections for decades.

But while the people vote, clerics and their allies make the rules. Those already in power choose who can run for office and limit what they do if elected.

Restrictions are tighter than ever after massive protests that followed a disputed election in 2009.

Despite Limited Election Choices, Iranians Eager To Be Heard

Steve Inskeep — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:28:00 +0000

The day we arrived in Iran's capital, Tehran, billboards along the drive from the airport to the city center were already telling us something about what's happening in the country as it prepared for Friday's presidential elections.

We see typical highway signs for Sony Ericsson, but also billboards featuring the face of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Za'atar: A Spice Mix With Biblical Roots And Brain Food Reputation

Steve Inskeep — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:40:00 +0000

NPR Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep recently traveled to Damascus for a series of reports on the ongoing war in Syria. He sent this postcard from the road.

Dear Salt:

On my first day in Damascus, I went walking in the ancient bazaar — narrow stone-paved streets surrounding a great stone mosque. The mosque is so old, it used to be a church during the Roman Empire, and before it was a church, it was a pagan temple.

Inmates In A Venezuelan Prison Build A World Of Their Own

Steve Inskeep — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:23:00 +0000

In Latin America — home to the vast majority of the world's most violent cities — it's said the only part of a prison a guard controls is the gate, leaving convicts to fend for themselves inside, even running criminal networks from behind bars.

I wanted to understand how a prison like that worked, and I was in luck: A colleague knew a man serving time a Venezuelan prison. The prisoner got in touch with the leader of the inmates, who sent word that he'd be willing to see us.

So on the appointed day we drove to the prison in the far western city of Barinas.

Barrios Family Blames Venezuelan Police For Men's Murders

Steve Inskeep — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:15:00 +0000

The story of Venezuela's Eloisa Barrios is especially revealing because so many of her relatives have been killed. Revealing because of who she believes pulled the trigger.

Some weeks ago, Barrios climbed into our van for a drive to a cemetery. The burial ground is outside a village in the Venezuelan countryside. We went there to visit the Barrios family dead.

She told us nine relatives had been killed in shootings over the past 15 years. All nine were young men.

Eloisa doesn't visit their graves much. She's moved away from this village, called Guanajan.

For Venezuelans, Kidnappings Are Simply Business As Usual

Steve Inskeep — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 06:50:00 +0000

German Garcia-Velutini got into his car and left work one day. It took him 11 months to get home.

Kidnappers had nabbed the Venezuelan banker.

Fight For Homs Fades From Headlines As War In Syria Rages

Steve Inskeep — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 10:12:00 +0000

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

We're going to get a glimpse from the frontlines of the civil war in Syria now. That war is expected to become the focus of peace negotiations in the coming weeks. The U.S. is pressing for those talks after brutal fighting, fighting that's begun to spread to neighboring countries.

MORNING EDITION's Steve Inskeep has been traveling in Syria, including a city that became famous early in that conflict.

Tartous A Rare Quiet City In War-Ravaged Syria

Steve Inskeep — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 09:24:00 +0000

Many people in Syria are accustomed to the sound of daily gunfire. It is normal in battle-scarred cities like Damascus or Qusair.

But along the beaches and in the cafes of Tartous, an area that is a center of support for the embattled President Bashar Assad, the sounds are a bit more peaceful.

Near the water's edge of the Mediterranean, tables, chairs and umbrellas sit upon huge stones. At one of these tables sits a brother and sister on vacation.

The brother, a 21-year-old Syrian soldier who didn't want to give his name, is given a few days off every few weeks.

Syria's Civil War: The View From A Damascus Shrine

Steve Inskeep — Wed, 29 May 2013 06:58:00 +0000

Traveling to Damascus gives you a view of Syria's war turned inside out.

The international community talks of arming Syria's rebels against President Bashar Assad, but in the capital many people still hope the rebels will lose.

That's the thinking we found around a Muslim shrine in Damascus, a tribute to the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.

In Damascus, A View Of Syria's War Turned Inside Out

Steve Inskeep — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:52:00 +0000

Many years ago, the president of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, approved the construction of a new presidential residence on a mountainside above Damascus.

Assad never occupied the building, saying his successor should take it. When his son Bashar Assad became that successor, he didn't move into the house, either. He preferred a residence down the slope.

But there is still a presidential complex at a crest of the mountain, with a balcony overlooking the city sprawling below.

Politics In The News

Steve Inskeep — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:21:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Again and again, President Obama's administration tries to pivot attention toward East Asia. Administration officials believe China and its neighbors are where the economic future lies.

GREENE: And yet it's the Middle East that keeps demanding the president's attention. It brings to mind that line from F.

U.S. Point Man On Syria Meets With Rebels Inside Syria

Steve Inskeep — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:45:00 +0000

Ambassador Robert Ford crossed into northern Syria on Wednesday. The secret visit was confirmed by Syrian activists at the media office at the Bab al-Salama crossing on the Turkish frontier.

Racin Case: Charges Dropped Against Miss. Man

Steve Inskeep — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:03:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Here's another reminder that a fast-moving news story can completely change. Prosecutors have dropped the charges against Paul Kevin Curtis. He's the Elvis impersonator first arrested in the case of ricin being sent to U.S. officials, as we reported last week.

Now we're reporting, just as prominently, the change in focus to another Mississippi man's house. NPR's Debbie Elliott has been following this case. She's on the line.

Boston Marathon Investigation Continues

Steve Inskeep — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:44:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Venezuelan Humorist Engages Kidnappers In Election Dialogue

Steve Inskeep — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:53:00 +0000

Earlier this week in Caracas, we were about to go to an interview when it had to be rescheduled. The man we were going to speak with was unavoidably detained — kidnapped, to be precise.

It took awhile after that for Laureano Marquez to free up his schedule and meet us in a coffee shop.

"I'm so sorry," he said when he finally arrived, as if it was his fault for being thrown into a car and driven off to the far reaches of town.

We'd been planning to talk with Marquez about Venezuela's presidential election this weekend, an election that opens a door on a changing Latin America.

How Hugo Chavez's Policies Affected Ordinary Venezuelans

Steve Inskeep — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:45:00 +0000

In the days before elevators, there was no such thing as a penthouse on the top floor. The highest floors of a building had cheaper rents because the stairs were hard to climb.

Caracas, Venezuela, is organized roughly the same way, with many poor neighborhoods climbing up the sides of a mountain valley. Some of the poorest homes are among the most remote, accessible not by any road but by alleyways and long flights of stairs.

Up one of those flights of stairs, we found a woman whose life says a lot about Venezuela and by extension about Latin America.

Hugo Chavez's Legacy Looms Over Venezuelan Election

Steve Inskeep — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:56:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep in Caracas, Venezuela. This country is about to hold a presidential election. Voters are replacing the late Hugo Chavez, who shouldered this oil-rich republic onto the world stage. He often denounced the United States as an oppressive empire - even as he sold Americans oil - and imported gasoline from U.S. refineries.

Pentagon May Take Over CIA's Drone Program

Steve Inskeep — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:30:00 +0000

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

We're learning this morning of a possible change in the American use of unmanned drones. The change, if it happens, would affect who gives the orders and possibly how much the public learns.

MONTAGNE: A senior U.S. official tells NPR the administration may now move the drone program away from control of the Central International Agency.

Installation Mass Launches Pope Francis' Papacy

Steve Inskeep — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:52:00 +0000

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS RINGING)

INSKEEP: That's the sound of bells in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, as Pope Francis celebrated his inaugural Mass today.