Lara Logan's '60 Minutes' interview on her attack and rape: 'I thought I was going to die'

Lara Logan gave her first and, 60 Minutes said, only interview about her assault and rape by a group of men in Egypt in February. While covering the story of the country that had erupted in celebration over the fall of Hosni Mubarek’s dictatorship, Logan was in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The attack on Logan has been widely reported, but of course it was much more harrowing to hear the reporter describe the details herself.

You can see the entire interview here.

Logan was surrounded by a crowd of men who took advantage of the darkness when the CBS camera battery failed. She was separated from the security men trying to protect her and submitted to a prolonged attack — at least 25 minutes according to Scott Pelley, who conducted the 60 Minutes interview.

No matter how difficult it was to sit in one’s home and listen to Logan’s description of her rape — and at times it was excruciating — certainly anything that helps her in her recovery, which of necessity is both psychological as well as physical, is sufficient justification for airing the segment. And by presenting her story with the announcement that she was only going to tell it once, Logan closed off the possibility of being exploited by subsequent interviewers wanting to bring up the subject.

Logan’s directness was admirable; no attempt was made to apply any euphemisms to what she endured. It’s often said that such a crime is “unspeakable.” On this night, Logan spoke with a harsh eloquence entirely suitable for expressing the brutality of what she’d gone through, of the feeling she had that she might experience “a torturous death that’s going to go on forever and ever and ever.”

Twitter: @kentucker