James Palmer is a freelance journalist working with editors at The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., to contribute to Newhouse News Service. In the past four years, Palmer has reported from Afghanistan, Kashmir, Burundi, Sudan, Uganda and Congo. He headed to Iraq late in the summer of 2005.

Palmer grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and took a non-traditional route to the business of reporting, doing everything from dock work to teaching English overseas before going back to school and earning his master's degree from Columbia University in 2001. He has contributed to the Christian Science Monitor, World Picture News, Newsday, San Franciso Chronicle, Toronto Star, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Washington Times.