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Egyptian-born Atef Abdel Gawad عاطف عبد الجواد ) ( is a long-time, Washington-based, Middle East broadcast journalist and newspaper columnist. His career peaked in August 1990, when he broke the news of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, 3 hours before President George H.W. Bush was informed and 5 hours before CNN reported the story. He is the author of the Arabic language novel, “Angels Don’t Smile”, and currently writing a book on Muslims in America. Atef Abdel Gawad studied at the graduate and post-graduate levels at the George Washington University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His articles and essays were published in several American journals, magazines, and newspapers. These include Foreign Policy magazine, American-Arab Affairs, Middle East Insight, Washington Times, among others. He also wrote a daily column titled, “Three Dimensions” for Al-Watan, an Arabic language newspaper. Atef Abdel Gawad, who started his broadcast career with the BBC (Arabic) in London, had his first article published when he was 14 years old in Rosel-Youssef, an Egyptian magazine. Honored for his “outstanding” BBC work, he moved to Washington to continue work for the organization as a correspondent. From Washington he covered several presidential elections, several U.S-led wars, the September 11, 2001 attacks, and other major events. In 1989, he co-founded, and acted as Program Director of, the Arab Network of America, ANA, the first Arabic language radio and TV network in North America. He was on the air anchoring his daily news show on August 1, 1990, when he broke the news of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait at about 5:15 PM local time. He called both the foreign minister of Kuwait and the editor of the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Watan, to confirm the story. It was well past mid-night in Kuwait when he woke both men up to the news of the war. The scoop was reported by several U.S. newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal as well as National Public Radio, NPR. One newspaper, the Washington Times, noted that the U.S. president could have learned about the invasion 3 hours earlier than he did had he been listening to Atef Abdel Gawad’s news show. Atef also earned a footnote in the history of U.S.-Morocco diplomatic relations. In 2002, Israel launched an invasion of West bank cities amid questions about the Bush administration’s response to the military operations. In his BBC reports the veteran journalist wondered why it was taking Secretary of State Colin Powell five more days touring Europe and the Middle East before finally landing in Israel to stop the fighting. When Moroccan King Mohammed VI (who is known to listen regularly to the BBC) met Mr. Powell, April 9 in Rabat, he had the same question in public for the U.S. top diplomat. In the White House briefing room, Atef is known among his peers as the Walter Cronkite of the Middle East, thanks to AP photojournalist Dan Huff, who first coined the label. Indeed, Atef was a pioneer TV correspondent for many Arabic TV stations and satellite networks, including Aljazeera, when it was first established in 1997/1998. Being one of the most respected and credible broadcast journalists in the Middle East, Mr. Gawad عاطف عبد الجواد can be heard/seen over the radio and/or TV screens almost simultaneously from Dubai on the east to Tunisia on the west, and from Syria up north to Sudan in the south. In fact his audience worldwide extends to Arabic speakers in Australia. Over the years Atef Abdel Gawad has provided training sessions for Arab broadcast journalists and producers, including in Jordan, Oman, and Dubai among others. Other training sessions were organized for visiting Arab journalists in Washington, DC. Throughout his extensive career Atef has had the opportunity to interview U.S. and world leaders. He has hosted numerous live shows on Middle Eastern TV networks.

After the January 25 revolution that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 

Atef Abdel Gawad عاطف عبد الجواد now also covers Washington for Egypt’s Channel One as well as its satellite network.