REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

FOGGY WINDOW ON THE PAST: Ben Lynfield says his reporting for today's story amplified a paradox about Israel: It's extremely open about its past, but still has some dark corners. In researching the story, he was able to walk into the building where the state archives are kept and pull the cabinet meeting notes off the shelf. The crucial passages, however, were deleted. "They seemed to have deleted just a bit of information," Ben says. "If they were just a little more open, you could learn so much about the decisionmaking in 1948."

DODGING CHECKPOINTS: Reporter Juliette Terzieff says that getting to the ethnic Albanian rebels in today's story required a bit of hide-and-seek. KFOR troops and Serbian police patrol the mountainous roads. First, she spotted a Serbian checkpoint and pulled over. "We didn't have Serbian visas and didn't think they'd let us pass," Juliette says. Then, a carload of ethnic Albanians pulled up and advised her to turn around. "A guy, who said his name was 007, offered to guide us." He jumped into the car and led her through the mountains, skirting the roads that KFOR patrols. "We had valid KFOR press credentials, so that wouldn't have been a problem for us. But our guide shouldn't have been there. He kept begging us not to let him be arrested by KFOR if we were caught," she says. When they pulled into the rebel camp, "They seemed quite surprised and happy to see us. Not many people get into this area, and they were pleased to get their story out."

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