Bette Dam

Dam is notable for writing more complex, and diverse stories on terrorism.{{Citation |title=VOA Urdu Interviews Investigative Journalist Bette Dam |date=2019-03-11 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-urdu-interviews-investigative-journalist-bette-dam-/4824551.html |access-date=2024-01-28 |language=en}} In 2009, she published the unknown story of the then Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and how he came to power immediately after 09/11.{{Cite web |last=Dam |first=Bette |date=2022-04-19 |title=Talking to the enemy: what can it bring? |url=https://bettedam.substack.com/p/talking-to-the-enemy-what-can-it |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Bette's Newsletter}} As one of the first journalists, Dam shows that there were strong signs that the so-called war on terrorism in Afghanistan could have been over in December 2001, with a surrender-offer of the Taliban.{{Cite web |title=The American War in Afghanistan |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-american-war-in-afghanistan-9780197645499?cc=nl&lang=en& |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=global.oup.com}}{{Cite web |title=Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of victory |url=https://sites.tufts.edu/css/files/2023/12/AAP-WP-002-Snatching-Defeat-from-the-Jaws-of-Victory.pdf}} Dam also describes how the United States government, under the leadership of George Bush at that time, was ‘too emotional’ to accept this, and started the military intervention instead.{{Cite book |last=Dam |first=Bette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmDIoQEACAAJ |title=A Man and a Motorcycle: How Hamid Karzai Became Afghanistan's President |date=2014 |publisher=Ipso Facto Publishers |isbn=978-90-77386-13-2 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Dam |first=Bette |date=2022-05-04 |title=(Part 1) How to report on ISIS-attacks? |url=https://bettedam.substack.com/p/part-1-how-to-report-on-isis-attacks |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Bette's Newsletter}}{{Cite web |title=No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/no-good-men-among-the-living-america-the-taliban-and-the-war-through-afghan-eyes/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=National Book Foundation |language=en-US}}

In Looking for the Enemy,{{Cite news |date=2019-03-11 |title=Dutch writer claims Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of U.S. base in Afghanistan |url=https://www.khaama.com/dutch-writer-claims-mullah-omar-lived-within-walking-distance-of-u-s-base-in-afghanistan-03459/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |work=Khaama Press |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-24 |title=Searching for enemy: Dutch author awaits evidence on Mullah Omar's death |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/369227/searching-for-enemy-dutch-author-awaits-evidence-on-mullah-omars-death/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Daily Times |language=en-US}} Dam discloses for the first time the long unknown hiding place of mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-30 |title=Author highlights intricacies of Mullah Omar's life, western media's distortion on Afghanistan |url=https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/727948-Author-highlights-intricacies-of-Mullah-Omar%E2%80%99s-life,-western-media%E2%80%99s-dis |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Dunya News |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-13 |title=Mullah Mohammad Omar's final days: how new book contests US claims |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/mullah-mohammad-omars-final-days-how-new-book-contests-us-claims-5623517/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}} Like Osama bin Laden who lived next to a Pakistan Military Academy, mullah Omar lived not far from an American Forward Operating Base in Southern Afghanistan (Zabul), she claims.{{Cite web |title=Bette Dam |url=https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org/bett-dam |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=WSPS |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Graham-Harrison |first=Emma |date=2019-03-10 |title=Fugitive Taliban leader lived short walk from US base, book reveals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/fugitive-taliban-leader-mullah-omar-lived-short-walk-from-us-base-book-claims |access-date=2024-01-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=the-last-days-of-taliban-head-mullah-omar |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-last-days-of-taliban-head-mullah-omar-11552226401}} The news attracted attention. There were compliments, and at the same time disbelief. The Afghan government who had claimed mullah Omar to be in Pakistan, wrote that Dam was ‘delusional’.{{Cite web |last=Dam |first=Bette |date=2022-04-19 |title=Talking to the enemy: what can it bring? |url=https://bettedam.substack.com/p/talking-to-the-enemy-what-can-it |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Bette's Newsletter}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-11 |title=Kabul Rejects 'Delusional Claim' Mullah Omar Died in Afghanistan |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/kabul-rejects-delusional-claim-mullah-omar-died-in-afghanistan/4823659.html |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Voice of America |language=en}} General David Petreaus responded in The Wall Street Journal, saying that he still believed mullah Omar had been hiding in Pakistan. Yet, Dam her work has not been proven wrong. The Guardian stated that Dam her work ‘is something the CIA was not able to do’. Foreign Affairs reviewed her work and stated that ‘the West still doesn't understand the Taliban’.{{Cite book |url=https://www.audible.com/author/Bette-Dam/B00NQOV0L0 |title=Bette Dam – Audio Books, Best Sellers, Author Bio {{!}} Audible.com |language=en-US}}

Since 2017, Dam has been a professor at Sciences Po, in Paris. Her teaching is about detecting Western biases in global coverage, and how to prevent this. She also lectured at several universities and for governments. In 2020 she lectured at Oxford University at All Souls College.{{Cite web |title=T. E. Lawrence Program on Conflict and Violence {{!}} All Souls College |url=https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/event-series/t-e-lawrence-program-conflict-and-violence |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=www.asc.ox.ac.uk}}

Dam has appeared in media such as the BBC,{{Cite news |date=2019-03-10 |title=Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar 'lived close to US bases' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47519157 |access-date=2024-01-28 |language=en-GB}}CNN and The Guardian.{{Cite news |last=Graham-Harrison |first=Emma |date=2019-03-10 |title=Fugitive Taliban leader lived short walk from US base, book reveals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/fugitive-taliban-leader-mullah-omar-lived-short-walk-from-us-base-book-claims |access-date=2024-01-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} She was nominated the best investigative journalist of the year in 2020.{{Cite web |date=2020-09-28 |title=Bette Dam wint de loep met haar boek 'Op zoek naar de vijand' – De Bezige Bij |url=https://www.debezigebij.nl/nieuws/bette-dam-wint-de-loep-met-haar-boek-op-zoek-naar-de-vijand/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website= |language=nl-NL}}

Her first book were nominated for the Bob den Uyl Award{{Cite web |date=2010-04-02 |title=Genomineerden VPRO Bob den Uyl Prijs 2010 aan het woord |url=https://www.vpro.nl/boeken/artikelen/specials/prijzen/vpro-bob-den-uyl-prijs/2010/Genomineerden-VPRO-Bob-den-Uyl-Prijs-2010-aan-het-woord.html |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=VPRO |language=nl}} and for the Dick Scherpenzeel award.{{Cite web |last=Villamedia |title=Genomineerden Scherpenzeel-prijs bekend / Villamedia |url=https://www.villamedia.nl/artikel/genomineerden-scherpenzeel-prijs-bekend |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Villamedia – Website over journalistiek |date=27 April 2010 |language=nl}}

As an Author

• A Man and a Motorcycle: How Hamid Karzai Came to Power (2014)
• The Secret Life of Mullah Omar (2019){{Cite book |last=Dam |first=Bette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MH6QwwEACAAJ |title=The Secret Life of Mullah Omar |date=2019 |publisher=Zomia Center |language=en}}
• Looking for the Enemy: Mullah Omar and the Unknown Taliban (2021){{Cite book |last=Dam |first=Bette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsHZzgEACAAJ |title=Looking for the Enemy: Mullah Omar and the Unknown Taliban |date=2021 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers India |isbn=978-93-5489-279-0 |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2019-03-11 |title=Kabul Rejects 'Delusional Claim' Mullah Omar Died in Afghanistan |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/kabul-rejects-delusional-claim-mullah-omar-died-in-afghanistan/4823659.html |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}

From 2002 to 2005, Dam studied political science with a specialization in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam.

In 2019, Dam started her PhD at the University of Brussels. Dam writes an auto-ethnographic study about her journalistic experiences in Afghanistan and compares it to the journalistic productions of legacy media like, the New York Times and Associated Press on Afghanistan.{{Cite web |title=Bette Dam |url=https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/bette-dam |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Vrije Universiteit Brussel |language=en}}

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Category:1979 births

Category:Living people

Category:Dutch investigative journalists