UC-Berkeley graduate student James Karl Buck was covering anti-government protests in Mahalla, Egypt when he was arrested with his translator, Mohammed Maree, on April 10th.

Buck quickly used his cellphone to send "Arrested" through Twitter, a social networking and microblogging site he learned to use only a week earlier. One word sent his blog contacts into a frenzy, he was able to get his lawyer and others to arrange for his release. Buck has safely returned to the US, but his translator is still detained. On Buck's personal website, JamesKarlBuck.com, there is a petition for the release and safe return of Mohammed Maree.

I would like to think that he was this journalist, alone, abandoned, just him and the cell phone (and his band of blogger friends waiting to here updates at home)...then A-R-R-E-S-T-E-D!!! The CNN report claims, he only learned the Twitter a week earlier, but was that really a feat or a tour de force?? What about poor Mohammed Maree?? At the end of the article, there is a slight indication that he may not even be alive. Now, that is the real meat of the personality profile on James Karl Buck (god, I hate people with three names).

Though Twitter is mainly used for frivolous interactions, it has proved its worth in a high risk situation.