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22nd January 2012
Lara Logan is back on air and is preparing to launch a new show, but she is still haunted by the horrific sexual assault she suffered at the hands of an angry mob in Egypt.
While reporting on the Egyptian uprisings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last February, Mrs Logan, 39, was surrounded by at least 200 men and dragged away from her CBS crew.
She was viciously stripped naked and subjected to a brutal sexual assault which lasted 40 minutes.
"When I’m lying there, waiting for my daughter to go to sleep, I have time to think about things," Mrs Logan told the New York Daily News.
"Those can be dark moments. You ranger through, you have to. You’re aware of how much you have and it’s so much more than what you’ve lost."
Since the unprovoked attack, the mother-of-two has been concentrating on putting her life back together.
“People don’t really know that much about (post traumatic stress disorder),” she told the Daily News.
“There’s something called latent PTSD. It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I’m not.
“It doesn’t go away,” she said. “It’s not something I keep track of. It’s not predictable like that. But it happens more than I’d like.”
Badly beaten, traumatised and in pain, she said she drew strength at one point in the attack by thinking of her two young children Lola, who will be 2 in March, and Joseph, 3.
“I didn’t even know that they were beating me with flagpoles and sticks and things, because the sexual assault was all I could feel, their hands raping me over and over and over again,” she told “60 Minutes” last year.
Having stripped her of her clothing, the baying mob even tried to rip off chunks of her scalp.
“I was in no doubt in my mind that I was in the process of dying,” she said.
Mrs Logan was only rescued when a group of local women closed ranks around her and brought 20 Egyptian soldiers to her aid.
“Your family is critical. You can’t do it alone. My husband is a great support. He understands, he doesn’t hide from it, from what happened.
'He knows everything, more than anyone, what they did to me.' Mrs Logan, who is married to Joseph Burkett, told the Daily News.
Four days after the attack, Mrs Logan drafted a statement released by CBS.
It said she had 'suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers'.
Mrs Logan said she made the decision to speak out soon after the assault, on behalf of 'millions of voiceless women who are subjected to attacks like this and worse'
“Living with it for the long haul is a different thing than trying to pick yourself up in the initial aftermath,” Mrs Logan told the Daily News.
“I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it really is. It was very clear from the first moment, I was not ashamed to talk about it. I knew I could deal with it. I knew I would be okay, ultimately.”
Her career, she said, is also key to overcoming the trauma.
As well as '60 Minutes' and reporting for the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley,” Mrs Logan is co-hosting CBS’ “Person to Person” with Charlie Rose which returns next month.
Mrs Logan said she is also driven by the people she has met along the way and the strength they've needed to overcome worse ordeals than her own.
She recalled one woman in Africa who was raped and disemboweled, who said she had to live because she wasn’t going to give her attackers everything, reports the Daily News.
Mrs Logan says she knows how that woman felt, and that she herself refuses to be defined by the attack.
"Goddamnit,” Logan told the Daily News, “I’m not going to give them everything.”
Lara Logan is back on air and is preparing to launch a new show, but she is still haunted by the horrific sexual assault she suffered at the hands of an angry mob in Egypt.
While reporting on the Egyptian uprisings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last February, Mrs Logan, 39, was surrounded by at least 200 men and dragged away from her CBS crew.
She was viciously stripped naked and subjected to a brutal sexual assault which lasted 40 minutes.
Targeted: CBS Correspondent Lara Logan is pictured here on February 11 in Tahrir Square moments before she was dragged away and brutally attacked
"Those can be dark moments. You ranger through, you have to. You’re aware of how much you have and it’s so much more than what you’ve lost."
Since the unprovoked attack, the mother-of-two has been concentrating on putting her life back together.
“People don’t really know that much about (post traumatic stress disorder),” she told the Daily News.
“There’s something called latent PTSD. It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I’m not.
“It doesn’t go away,” she said. “It’s not something I keep track of. It’s not predictable like that. But it happens more than I’d like.”
Healing: Lara Logan, pictured here with her husband Joseph Burkett, said that she is concentrating on putting her life back together with the help of her family
“I didn’t even know that they were beating me with flagpoles and sticks and things, because the sexual assault was all I could feel, their hands raping me over and over and over again,” she told “60 Minutes” last year.
Having stripped her of her clothing, the baying mob even tried to rip off chunks of her scalp.
“I was in no doubt in my mind that I was in the process of dying,” she said.
Mrs Logan was only rescued when a group of local women closed ranks around her and brought 20 Egyptian soldiers to her aid.
On the job: Lara Logan, pictured here with U.S. General Rodriguez in Afghanistan, said her work has been key to her recovery
'He knows everything, more than anyone, what they did to me.' Mrs Logan, who is married to Joseph Burkett, told the Daily News.
Four days after the attack, Mrs Logan drafted a statement released by CBS.
It said she had 'suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers'.
Mrs Logan said she made the decision to speak out soon after the assault, on behalf of 'millions of voiceless women who are subjected to attacks like this and worse'
“Living with it for the long haul is a different thing than trying to pick yourself up in the initial aftermath,” Mrs Logan told the Daily News.
At work: Mrs Logan, picture here in Baghdad, Iraq said that she refuses to be defined by the attack
Her career, she said, is also key to overcoming the trauma.
As well as '60 Minutes' and reporting for the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley,” Mrs Logan is co-hosting CBS’ “Person to Person” with Charlie Rose which returns next month.
Mrs Logan said she is also driven by the people she has met along the way and the strength they've needed to overcome worse ordeals than her own.
She recalled one woman in Africa who was raped and disemboweled, who said she had to live because she wasn’t going to give her attackers everything, reports the Daily News.
Mrs Logan says she knows how that woman felt, and that she herself refuses to be defined by the attack.
"Goddamnit,” Logan told the Daily News, “I’m not going to give them everything.”
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