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5 unusual facts about Mark Urban


Mark Urban

His study of George Scovell, in The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes: The Story of George Scovell, established him as a narrative historian who could effectively weave together first-hand accounts of the war without losing grip on the over-all story.

In 2009 Urban received a Peace Through Media Award from the International Council for Press and Broadcasting.

In his years on Newsnight, he has reported on many of the most compelling foreign news stories in the past two decades: the Gulf War; the attempted coup d'état of 1991 in Moscow; 1993 events in Moscow; Bosnian War; Middle East peace process; the War in Kosovo; and the recent US military campaigns in War in Afghanistan and War in Iraq.

After graduation, he served in the Army, for nine months as a regular officer in the Royal Tank Regiment on a Short Service Limited Commission and four years in the Territorial Army.

Nuclear program of Saudi Arabia

Earlier in the year, a senior NATO decision maker told Mark Urban, a senior diplomatic and defense editor, that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.


Azhar al-Dulaimi

According to Mark Urban's book on Special Forces in Iraq, Task Force Black, documents seized on March 20, 2007, when Qais Khazali and Ali Musa Daqduq were captured, described al Dulaimi's role in the Karbala attack and provided sufficient information for the raid where al Dulaimi died.


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