A foreign correspondent for fifteen years, Al Pessin has covered US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, dined with anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Pakistan, filed on-scene reports of bus bombings in Jerusalem, interviewed Hamas militants in Gaza, and been a member of the White House and Pentagon press corps. He has also covered democracy movements from Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Kiev's Independence Square, and Manila's EDSA Boulevard. In all, Al spent nearly four decades as a TV/radio broadcaster, correspondent, editor, and manager at the Voice of America. After the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, the Chinese government expelled Al for illegal news gathering and fomenting counter-revolutionary rebellion. For his work in China, he received the Communicator of the Year Award from the National Association of Government Communicators and won a Gold Medal at the International Radio Festivals of New York. Al lives in Florida with his wife and their Yellow Lab, Rory.
