tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63450661728961483722024-03-05T10:40:50.978+00:00Hanan HabibzaiUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger89125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-59456466247597000702020-11-14T18:53:00.000+00:002020-11-14T18:53:06.929+00:00 True Afghan Review: Attacks on Afghan academic units' part of an info war<p> <span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Attacks on Afghan academic units' part of an info war</span></p><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Hanan Habibzai
03/11/2020
The Doha Agreement, signed between the Taliban and the United States, has paved the way for peace talks between the government and the Taliban. But ongoing situation on the ground shows that significant efforts on the way to discredit these talks.
Afghan government says for the Taliban Escalating violence means showing up presence and claim more territory in order to appear more powerful at the negotiations table in Qatar. The situation has rather more devastated Afghans when the Kabul University been attacked by armed men on Monday killing 22 students and injuring many more. This perhaps removed the last shred of faith they may have had in the government ability in providing a safe environment.
But the Taliban has denied responsibility for the recent attacks on academic institutions, a spokesman said, adding that the attacks were not their work, but government forces insisted the ambush were carried out by the Taliban. </span><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588235294118); font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="296" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rVZ5o1LshfA" width="580" youtube-src-id="rVZ5o1LshfA"></iframe></div>Watch this story and subscribe to our YouTube channel <br />
Earlier, US peace envoy Zalmai Khalilzad had repeatedly said in various interviews that some domestic and regional countries were trying to obstruct the ongoing peace process.
In June, this year, the American newspaper The Daily Beast published a lengthy report on the allegations of how the challenges to peace is created within the country's security sector. A report in the Daily Beast showed a video of two men being held captive by the Taliban with their eyes closed. The two men have accused Afghan security sources of collaborating with ISIS, a claim denied by Afghan security officials.
But in recent days, ISIS has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on several educational institutions, including that on Kabul University. The attacks on private educational institutions were carried out against Shiites minority who holds direct Iranian support. The Taliban have rather good relations with Iran, and the Taliban’s Doha delegation has visited Tehran once.
Earlier this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan slammed what he called the next Afghan government not to allow India to use Afghanistan against his country. The United States says the Doha peace process has been begun with Pakistan's direct support. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, who has spent most of his life in the guerrilla warfare and is an experienced military expert, has previously warned that India is trying to infiltrate private militias in Afghanistan through a number of networks to keep the war going in the country.
Many analysts say that India is investing in thwarting the peace talks initiated by Pakistan and the United States in Doha. India has close ties with former members of the Northern Alliance who are now key members of Ashraf Ghani's government. Some say that if the ongoing peace talks delay due to the continuing violence, the Ashraf government will have a chance to complete its five-year term. Some others say, if not, the country's major cities could become battlegrounds. Signs of this are that US forces are currently reducing the number of their soldiers in accordance with the US Taliban’s Doha agreement, they are withdrawing while dismantling the military barracks they have built in Afghanistan.
In this very critical time experts accuse the Afghan government, on creating hostile environment in Kabul calling it as of Taliban attacks, as an attempt to produce particular information in order to change the perspectives of the media and to prevail over the minds of the US policymakers on the peace talks in Qatar.
It is most noticeable that people in power in the country are playing either way using violence but the main hit remains civilians. The situation makes Afghanistan less attractive around the world. International sympathy for Afghanistan is decreasing due to the continuing violence. The last 20 years have not focused on building the country's infrastructure as an outcome for the country's future. The focus, of the international and domestic forces and the media, is on the war. Consequently, destructive military and guerrilla attacks continue.
Furthermore, the taunt of the most common form of verbal irony exist about the drain of the billions of dollars aid packages to Afghanistan in the last 20 years. Experts say widespread corruption in the government has led to a shift in private pockets or a focus on the military, in response the Taliban again become stronger. There are concerns, however, that if the peace process is not properly exploited, the devastating consequences of bullets and bombs could make it more difficult for Afghanistan to recover.</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-52421657854320689842013-02-04T06:33:00.001+00:002013-03-03T00:11:41.161+00:00Afghanistan Pre-2014, History Speaks <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1oVjwXHkYB4zezO4slCRA25ACgmgko3YJhGuYgm0dVAqc79QtlCbKardQOH4JE4al1Qg6_VRH6k-VujBJGTPxMLKAivU2sCZDtb0OWYAm6Kss41pCiN6xi02uDUca5rs_6AM-hyFHqk/s1600/foreigners-occupy-afghanistan-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1oVjwXHkYB4zezO4slCRA25ACgmgko3YJhGuYgm0dVAqc79QtlCbKardQOH4JE4al1Qg6_VRH6k-VujBJGTPxMLKAivU2sCZDtb0OWYAm6Kss41pCiN6xi02uDUca5rs_6AM-hyFHqk/s1600/foreigners-occupy-afghanistan-1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">click on image for larger version</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">An Image for Thousand words because pre- 2014 History Speaks in the form of an Image</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-85628475951883983602012-12-05T12:08:00.000+00:002012-12-05T12:08:25.096+00:00Modern Day Child Prostitution in Kabul, Afghanistan: Children are used as Sex Workers in Afghanistan to Serve Foreigners<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h1 class="title">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://salem-news.com/articles/november282012/kabul-child-sex-jvt.php" target="_blank">An eyewitness piece: Modern Day Child Prostitution in Kabul, Afghanistan: Children are used as Sex Workers in Afghanistan to Serve Foreigners.</a></i></span></h1>
<div>
<b><i>“The police told my mother that she will not receive my father’s retirement check for working at the Ministry of Agriculture unless I work as a prostitute serving foreigners. My mother at first refused but she relented once the police told her that I would be able to keep 60% of the pay and be able to keep supporting my mom and 6 brothers and sisters and the other 40% would go to the police,” says Ara.</i></b></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<b class="byline">By James Van Thach </b><br />
<span class="byline"><a href="http://salem-news.com/">Salem-News.com</a></span>
<br />
<div class="subtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="subtitle">
<b>12-year-old girl named Ara Atta says, “My father was killed by the Americans because he did not stop his car at a checkpoint.</b></div>
<div class="subtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="subtitle">
(KABUL) - When we hear about the news in Afghanistan, the mainstream
media tells us stories of explosions and deaths of military personnel
and civilians. A story that is not being told is of child prostitution
slavery in Afghanistan.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
“There
is a police operation going on by a neighborhood police chief in Kabul
that has girls working for him,” says German contractor Hans, who does
not want to release his last name for security reasons.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
“You
know prostitution is legal in Germany and I don’t mind paying a fair
price for a sex worker, but here in Afghanistan the prostitutes are
children, teenagers and that is where I draw the line. I have a
14-year-old daughter back home in Germany and I do not condone child
prostitution,” says Hans.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
A
15-year-old named Badria Durrani says, “I was forced into prostitution
because the police in the area said they will arrest my father. My
father is just a baker and he does not want any trouble with the police,
so I work as a prostitute having sex with foreigners because that is
what the police want me to do.”</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
Badria’s
father Mohammed Durrani says “I did not agree, but the police threaten
to throw me in jail, so I agreed because I have to support my 3 wives
and 8 children as a baker. With the extra income my daughter makes
after she pays the police their 40% share, the rest of the money is for
our family.”</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
“Also, the police
told me not to worry. My daughter will only serve foreigners so Afghan
men will not know that she is a prostitute and later she will be able to
find an Afghan husband for marriage,” says Mohammed.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
“I
don’t want to do this anymore but what choice do I have? If I run away
my father will be thrown in jail and then our family does not have money
to pay for rent and will be kicked out of our home. I have to sacrifice
my life for our family. I hate this government and these foreigners
that come here to have sex with girls my age, but the government here is
not protecting us. They send these police from the north of Afghanistan
to take advantage of us,” says Badria.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
A
12-year-old girl named Ara Atta says, “My father was killed by the
Americans because he did not stop his car at a checkpoint, trying to
take my mother to the hospital because she was going into labor. The
Americans shot at the car and killed my father but my mother was not
harmed and taken to the hospital and my brother Ibrahim was born.”</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
“The
police told my mother that she will not receive my father’s retirement
check for working at the Ministry of Agriculture unless I work as a
prostitute serving foreigners. My mother at first refused but she
relented once the police told her that I would be able to keep 60% of
the pay and be able to keep supporting my mom and 6 brothers and sisters
and the other 40% would go to the police,” says Ara.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
Ara
further stated, “I don’t want to do this but we have no choice. If I
run away, the police will ensure that we will not receive my father’s
retirement check. I curse them and the foreigners that are using my body
for sex but I have to do this or my mother and siblings will go hungry
and we will be out in the street because we don’t have money for rent.”</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
The
invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) offered the Afghan people democracy and social
changes for women through education and new careers that were closed to
them under the Taliban.</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
What
has actually happened here in Afghanistan is that the government
institutions that were established by the U.S. and ISAF, such as the
Afghan Police, are using female children and women for profit to serve
foreigners as their sex slaves. </div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
______________________________________________________</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
<i>A
highly decorated Iraq War Veteran, Captain James Van Thach served
twenty-four straight months in Iraq, despite being wounded twice during
his first year, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart. Also, the
government of Iraq awarded him the rank of Honorary Staff Brigadier
General in the Iraqi Army.</i></div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
<i>Standing
in Captain Thach’s presence you notice instantly an aurora about this
young man and admire the goals he set forth in his life through
education in the United States and travel overseas in his fight in war
torn Iraq.</i></div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
<i>Why would an
educated Law School graduate of Touro Law Center turn down numerous
private sector job offers with a very generous salary or a safer career
path as an Attorney with the United States Army Judge Advocate General
(JAG) and only to choose a dangerous job as an Infantry Officer in
active combat as a Military Advisor in Iraq?</i></div>
<div class="story">
</div>
<div class="story">
<i>Captain
James Van Thach answered in a commanding voice, “My sacrifice had to be
made because of the opportunities given to me from the men and women
who sacrificed their lives and died for our country. I had to do the
same in their honor, to protect our nation and protect the unborn of
this country so that they might live in a peaceful world.” </i></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-80667402558983052772012-11-30T23:48:00.002+00:002012-12-01T12:12:31.586+00:00Iran is a criminal state toward Afghan refugees<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="Standard">
<b><span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iran is a criminal state toward Afghan
refugees<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By <a href="http://www.pakhtunkhwa911.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Emran Feroz</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all Iran is an important supporter of
the </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria. In fact Iran is one of the main actors
in this dirty proxy-war. Those Shia Muslims who sympathize with Assad's regime
think that Iran does not sell itself to the West.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Secondly, Iran also played a remarkable role to
support Palestine during the last Israeli attack on Gaza. In this case the Shia regime provided
supportive language toward the Sunni Hamas. So many anti-Zionists all over the
world think that Iran is the true supporter of the Palestinian people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWKirH38ywHGpkyqroxFR0CSipk367kX4Psg61I-744tlVzXepqrZOXg3Vjul6MoVoeHncjhHGFV9mNdvvuOvtYqkEZE96CKGkfEXXrLkosjFJj2s7jBmMzS6RTK3NoDVOq3W4ueOKFQ/s1600/6957_461910050511037_689695453_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWKirH38ywHGpkyqroxFR0CSipk367kX4Psg61I-744tlVzXepqrZOXg3Vjul6MoVoeHncjhHGFV9mNdvvuOvtYqkEZE96CKGkfEXXrLkosjFJj2s7jBmMzS6RTK3NoDVOq3W4ueOKFQ/s320/6957_461910050511037_689695453_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass execution of Sunni Muslims in Iran</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same Shia regime that tortures Sunnis
living in Iran. For instance, about one
million Afghan people are living Iran as refugees. Some estimated that the
number of Afghan refugees in Iran is much higher. The Afghan minority in Iran
is living under extreme discrimination imposed not only by the regime but also
by normal citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are not allowed to gain education and many
Afghan teenagers have been forced to work in a reconstruction sites, but these
workers do not have a social insurance. If they refuse Iran deport them back to
Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every year hundreds of Afghan refugees have
been executed in Iran. Numbers of under age boys have experienced death
sentences, just during the last two months thirteen Afghan teenagers were
hanged in Iran. The main victims of the
series of death penalty are Sunni Kurds, Baluchs and Afghans.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="DE"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">US- backed Karzai government did not pay
attention to the barbaric state crime against Afghan citizens in Iran, instead
the so called Afghan president praised Iran while he was in Tehran last
time. Every time when Karzai meets his
friend Ahmadinejad in Tehran they embraced each other and spoke on friendship
instead.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-11615630689657651462012-09-21T20:10:00.000+01:002012-09-22T12:17:43.892+01:00Afghanistan: “It’s Just Damage Limitation Now”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">By </span><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://nation.time.com/author/mt53/" title="View all posts by Mark Thompson">Mark Thompson</a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
Source: <a href="http://nation.time.com/2012/09/19/afghanistan-the-best-thing-we-can-do-is-leave/#ixzz278EqWpnv" target="_blank">time.com </a>
</div>
<br />
Briton Ben Anderson is a documentary filmmaker (the BBC, HBO, the Discovery
Channel), but he turns to the written word in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Worse-Enemy-Struggle-Afghanistan/dp/1851688528/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0" target="_blank">No Worse Enemy</a>: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for
Afghanistan</em>. The book offers a gritty – and grim — assessment of the
war.<br />
<br />
Anderson embedded with U.S. and British troops for months in the southern
part of the country from 2007 to 2011. He details corruption, incompetence, fear
— by both allied troops and Afghan civilians — and a <em>Groundhog Day</em> kind
of existence., where a battle fought for days has to be fought again, later.
Most distressingly, he argues that the American and British publics are getting
a misleading picture of progress on the ground. <em>Battleland</em> conducted
this email chat with Anderson last weekend.<br />
<br />
<em>Why did you write</em><i> No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic
Struggle for Afghanistan?</i><br />
<br />
I’d been travelling to Helmand for five years, first in 2007 with the Brits,
then later mostly with the U.S. Marines, covering every major operation since
the war in the south was taken seriously.<br />
Despite new troops, extra resources and new polices, it kept getting
worse.<br />
<br />
It was more dangerous for me and the troops I was with, Afghan security
forces didn’t seem to be improving, and perhaps most importantly, locals were
not being won over but instead were complaining of civilian casualties, damage
to their homes, being inconvenienced and disrespected, or preyed upon by the
Afghan police.<br />
<br />
Yet in the second half of 2010, statements from Kabul, Washington and London
kept talking of progress, goals being met and the Taliban being on their last
legs. This was the exact opposite of what I had been seeing, so I felt that I had
to write this book. I felt compelled to create a simple, honest and accurate portrait of what the
war really looks like, on the ground, on the frontlines, where the policy met
the Afghan people. I wanted to show how vicious the fighting was — veterans of
Fallujah told me it was worse in Helmand…<br />
<br />
I also wanted to show that the troops weren’t the violent automatons they are
often thought to be and that they are often the exact opposite. There were
plenty of guys who just wanted to kill anyone that looked like Taliban, for
sure, but I also met many men who were thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent
and even hilarious no matter how bad the situation was. Most of the men I met
were also willing to question what, if anything, they were actually achieving,
which really impressed me.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_85349" style="width: 184px;">
<div class="entry-thumb-meta">
<div class="entry-thumb-credit">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<em>What is the book’s bottom line? </em><br />
<em><br /></em>
Despite the incredible hard work, bravery and suffering of our troops,
despite the massive Afghan civilian casualties, despite the hundreds of billions
spent, we have not achieved our goals in Afghanistan.<br />
Essentially, we’re supposed to be clearing an area of insurgents and then
persuading locals to chose us and our Afghan allies over the Taliban. Most areas
where we are based have not been cleared of the Taliban and even if they had
been, we’re fighting to introduce a largely unwelcome government.<br />
<br />
The Afghan army cannot provide security on its own, the Afghan government is
spectacularly corrupt and the police are feared and hated, for good reason. So even if the military part of the strategy goes perfectly to plan (and it
never does) the locals don’t want what we are offering. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I’ve been told countless times that locals
prefer the Taliban to foreign forces and the Afghan government, particularly the
police. I should point out that I’ve spent most of time in Afghanistan in
Helmand and Kandahar, where the war has always been fiercest.<br />
<br />
<em>How different is what you saw on the front lines compared to what we’re
being told back home?</em><br />
<br />
It’s completely different. Operation Mushtaraq in Marjah was a prime example. General [Stanley] McChrystal’s claim that the operation was “Afghan-led” is
one of the most ludicrous claims I’ve ever heard. It depressed me that the claim
was accepted. The same thing happened when Defense Secretary [Robert] Gates said that the
Taliban had bee routed from their homeland in Kandahar and Helmand. This claim
was repeated by journalists I had once respected and followed. Again, it was the
exact opposite of the truth.<br />
<br />
<em>You’re British: how does the mood about the war in the U.K. differ from
that in the U.S., if it does (and if you’ve been in both places long enough to
make a fair comparison)?</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
It’s the same in both countries. The vast majority of the public seems to
have no idea how rough it is in southern Afghanistan, for our troops and the
Afghan people. People seem to want the troops home, and have no interest in anything beyond
that. The last U.S. Marines I was with — 3/5 in Sangin, suffered horrendous
losses: 35 killed and 140 seriously injured, and I’m talking about double,
triple and even quadruple amputees. Yet no one in the U.S. even seemed to know
about it. It’s the same in the U.K. now. I’d be surprised if one in 20 people here or
in the U.S. could begin to explain why we are still there.<br />
<br />
<em>U.S. and allied generals tells us things are getting better inside
Afghanistan, and they believe that by the time allied combat troops leave by the
end of 2014, Afghanistan’s own security forces will be able to defend the
nation. Do you believe them? Why or why not? </em><br />
<em><br /></em>
I’ve seen no evidence to suggest the ANSF are ready to take over. You have to understand that it’s not a national security force. It’s the
Northern Alliance, the historical enemies of the southern Pashtuns and the
Taliban. In the rush to get to Iraq, we handed control of the army, police and
intelligence agency to the Northern Alliance, and the same old warlords whose
behavior had led to the Taliban’s rise to power in 1996.<br />
<br />
I think we were doomed to fail from that moment on. Southern Pashtuns often
see the security forces we’re supporting as being almost as foreign as us and
there for vengeance.<br />
I was in the Arghandab valley in 2010 and the 101<sup>st</sup> Airborne were
very nervous about clearing a village called NMK because they knew it would be
laced with IEDs.<br />
<br />
A few days before the operation, some Afghan soldiers ran into the village
alone, and came back a few hours later, delighted. “How did you do it?” asked
the American captain, astounded. “Did you offer the locals $50 for each IED they
revealed, like we trained you?” “No,” said the ANA captain, excitedly, “we told
them `show us the IEDs or start digging your own grave’.” That sums up the
situation pretty well. Sadly I think that the phrase “transition” is a euphemism
covering up our failures.<br />
<br />
<em>When were you last with US troops in Afghanistan? What was their general
mood and morale?</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
January 2011, with 3/5 in Sangin. There were so many IEDs you had to watch
every step and literally walk in the footprints of the guy in front of you. The Marines were leaving trails of bottle tops or sweets to mark cleared
paths. I didn’t see a bullet fired in anger, it was just IEDs. Marines love to fight, but no one wants to go out on eight-hour patrols every
day, through ice cold mud, when nothing ever happens apart from occasionally
seeing one of their buddies get blown up.<br />
<br />
Surprisingly though, morale wasn’t that low. I don’t think most troops in
Afghanistan are fighting to achieve anything anymore. They’re just fighting for
each other, trying to get themselves and their friends back in one piece, and
maybe get some revenge against someone who may have killed or maimed one of
their colleagues.<br />
<br />
<em>What was the best thing you witnessed in Afghanistan?</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
Tellingly, I can’t think of a single great moment where I saw something that
really gave me hope that we might be achieving anything. So I’ll have to be
selfish and say the best thing was always seeing the showers or the chow tent
back at the forward operating bases, after weeks of either baking or freezing in
rural areas of Helmand and eating nothing but MREs.<br />
<br />
<em>What was the worst thing you witnessed in Afghanistan?</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
I can still remember the exact expression on the faces of too many different
families, either terrified of the fighting going on in and around their homes,
or traumatized by the loss of their loved ones.<br />
I’ve seen many Afghans who have lost almost their entire families to errant
air strikes or rocket attacks. Some were given huge wads of cash as condolence
payments, some actually showed me the corpses of their brothers, sisters or
children. You can only say “I’m sorry we killed your family, but we’re here to help
you” so many times…<br />
<br />
<em>If you were in charge, what three changes would you make in Operation
Enduring Freedom?</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
I think it’s just damage limitation now. There is no silver bullet, there hasn’t been for at least five or six
years.<br />
People are worried about civil war after we leave. I think it’s already
started. I’d like to see some honesty used on the rare occasions when Afghanistan is
discussed. And while the military effort draws down, I’d like to see a serious
long-term commitment to the kind of development projects we should have started
back in 2001.<br />
<br />
<em>What is going to happen to Afghanistan beginning in 2015? </em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em> </em>I think the Taliban will be in control of many districts in the
south almost immediately. I think that various warlords will once again have
their fiefdoms and that this will be exacerbated by the reduction in foreign
aid.<br />
I think Afghanistan will disappear from our newspapers and will remain one of
the poorest, most violent and corrupt countries on earth.<br />
<br />
Paradoxically, the withdrawal gives me a tiny bit of hope that the insurgents
in the south will stop fighting and laying IEDs once we’re no longer providing
them with targets. But it’s a damning indictment of our efforts if the best
thing we can do is leave.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-80637805948338560362012-05-19T12:14:00.000+01:002012-05-19T15:36:38.059+01:00There are non-Taliban poets in the 'Poetry of the Taliban’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>By</em> <a data-mce-href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/habibzai/" href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/habibzai/"><em>Hanan Habibzai</em></a><br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.poetryofthetaliban.com_.jpg" href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.poetryofthetaliban.com_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" class="alignright wp-image-207536" data-mce-src="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.poetryofthetaliban.com_-202x320.jpg" height="325" src="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.poetryofthetaliban.com_-202x320.jpg" width="196" /></a><strong>It is truly a matter of controversy as it appears that non-Taliban Afghan poets are presented as Taliban. It is a matter of shock to read in the<em> <a data-mce-href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/controversial-taliban-poetry-anthology-to-be-published-7754231.html" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/controversial-taliban-poetry-anthology-to-be-published-7754231.html" target="_blank" title="Independent">Independent</a></em> that Ezatullah Zawab, a permanent journalist and poet, is Taliban poet. It is still unclear how many more (non-Taliban names) are there in the ‘<em><a data-mce-href="http://www.poetryofthetaliban.com/Poetry_of_the_Taliban/Home.html" href="http://www.poetryofthetaliban.com/Poetry_of_the_Taliban/Home.html" target="_blank"> Poetry of the Taliban</a></em>’.</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong><br />
Zawab is not a Taliban but a critic of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the continuous political and social corruption within Karzai’s government. He studied at the Nangrahar University, working as a <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezatullah_Zawab" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezatullah_Zawab" target="_blank">freelance journalist</a> since 2001 in eastern Afghanistan. His reports mainly published by <em><a data-mce-href="http://iwpr.net/report-news/nangarhar-elders-demand-retribution-us-air-strike" href="http://iwpr.net/report-news/nangarhar-elders-demand-retribution-us-air-strike" target="_blank">IWPR</a></em> and the <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2008/08/22/blank-receipts-another-tentacle-corruption" href="http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2008/08/22/blank-receipts-another-tentacle-corruption" target="_blank">Pajhwok Afghan News</a></em>.<br />
<br />
He was among the first journalists who covered the killing of tens of civilians in June 2008 where American-led air-strike bombed a wedding convoy in Shinwari district in eastern Nangrahar province killing more than 55 civilians including the bride. Most of the victims were children and women. In the aftermath of this atrocity he mourned the killings by reciting his poetry at a <a data-mce-href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX8Jzqy_T3Y&feature=endscreen" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX8Jzqy_T3Y&feature=endscreen" target="_blank">rally</a> where including local officials thousands gather:<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I have long history and long story</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I have a holy opinion</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I believe in the books from heavens</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I pray five times to God</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>So, respect my culture</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
For this, is it fair to consider him a Taliban just because he criticises the US atrocities in Afghanistan? If that is the case there are many politicians, scholars, academics and civil society organisations that criticise the US policies, in particular its military interventions. Should all these critics be termed as the Taliban instead of being critics of the US policies?<br />
<br />
Devji’s article is a clear indication of his ignorance of the Afghan society their very sentiments. Military poetry exists in the literature of the Pashtuns (on both sides of the border: Pakistan and Afghanistan) for centuries because they have always been the victims of powerful invaders of the time, Alexander, the Mongols, the Persians, the Moghuls, the British, the Russians and now the Americans.<br />
<br />
Among them the poems of the 16<sup>th</sup> century Afghan poet <a data-mce-href="http://pashto.upesh.edu.pk/khushal.htm" href="http://pashto.upesh.edu.pk/khushal.htm" target="_blank">Khushal Khan Khattak</a> are the most prominent. He has also written extensively on the subject of leadership and politics however we will present some of his poems on war and bravery:<br />
<br />
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<strong>I tied the sword in the dignity of the Afghans</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I am Khushal Khattak the brave of the age</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong><br />
In another instance he prefers the death of honour over the life of disgrace or of being occupied when he says:<br />
<br /></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Life's no life when honour’s left</strong><br />
<strong> Man's a man when honour’s kept</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Nation's honour and nation's fame</strong><br />
<strong> on life they have a prior claim</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>With thoughts of these I do remain</strong><br />
<strong> Unvexed with cares of loss or gain</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
In 19<sup>th</sup> century British occupation of Afghan was shocked by similar poetry when an intellectual of the time Mahmoud Tarzi began to publish anti-colonization verses in his newspaper, the Siraj-ul-Akhbar. According to modern-day Afghan historian Habibullah Rafi a poet of the time Maulavi Salih Mohammad’s work, which was published in Siraj-ul-Akhbar on 16<sup>th</sup> April 1915, has provoked many against British colonialism:<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>The world has become furious</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Shaken and angry</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Big states in the world</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>In Europe andAsia</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>All of them are involved in war</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>They are all stained with red blood</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>British are in grief</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>They are very upset</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Look at the bravery of Turkish</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>Romans and Othman,</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
In 1980s when soviet invaded Afghanistan poetry became a major tool of information war against the Russian occupiers. Poets such as Ishaq Nangyal turned out to be a voice of anti- Soviet resistance:<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>If my both eyes are excluded from me</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>If my chest is holed with bullets</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>If my tongue is cut off from throat</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>If my red blood sheds from my veins</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>For the honor of the country I accept all these</strong></div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px;">
<strong>I am an Afghan, I fulfill my intentions</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
However, <a data-mce-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/militant-ideals-captured-in-poetry.html?_r=2" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/militant-ideals-captured-in-poetry.html?_r=2" target="_blank">Mr. Devji look</a>s at the complexity of the Pashto poetry in very simple way. According to him any poet criticising an invader in Afghanistan is a Taliban. Albert Einstein used to say that make things as simple as possible but not simpler probably because it can put once life in jeopardy.<br />
<br />
Mr. Devji’s over implication of the Pashto poetry seems to cause such harm by enlisting Ezatullah Zawab as a Taliban regardless of understanding the current geopolitical situation of Afghanistan where American and Afghan security apparatuses are on the hunt for the Taliban. His article can potentially risk the life of Mr. Zawab and probably other non-Taliban poets criticising the US policies and military operations in Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
As a critique of foreign invasion Zawab often reproaches high ranking officials for their involvement in high profile corruption, a reality which his fellow poets condemn too. I <a data-mce-href="http://blogs.reuters.com/global/ 2009/05/22/poets-mirror-feelings-of-afghans-caught-in-conflict/" href="http://blogs.reuters.com/global/%202009/05/22/poets-mirror-feelings-of-afghans-caught-in-conflict/" target="_blank">wrote this in 2009</a> when many poets turned to the war of the words against foreign invasion.<br />
<br />
But a hybridity of pro-Taliban and independent Pashtun poetic list means international and local allies have failed to tackle informational battle against insurgency. Taliban have either succeeded to gain far-reaching support not only among Pashtun speaking villagers but also within Pashtun intellectuals.<br />
<br />
This is a similar <a data-mce-href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100305/holbrooke-afghanistan-pakistan" href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100305/holbrooke-afghanistan-pakistan" target="_blank">opinion</a> which evoked criticism against former US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke: ‘‘The Taliban is woven into the fabric of Pashtun society on both sides of the border with Pakistan, and almost every Pashtun family has someone involved with the movement,’’ Holbrooke said.<br />
<hr />
<em><strong>Jamal Shinwari </strong>an Afghan researcher contributed to this article. Follow him on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000826850037" href="https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000826850037" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</em></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-92015772135461523172012-04-21T10:54:00.001+01:002012-04-21T10:55:06.706+01:00US in denial: Watershed in Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Diplomatic statements have ignored the strategic and psychological battles won by the Taliban.</h3>
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<span class="articleTitle" id="ctl00_cphBody_AuthorDataCtrl1_authorName"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/marwan-bishara.html">Marwan Bishara</a></span><br />
<span id="ctl00_cphBody_AuthorDataCtrl1_authorShortBio"><i>The senior political analyst at Al Jazeera.</i></span></div>
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<tr><td class="DetailedSummary" id="tdTextContent"><strong>Doha, Qatar -</strong> In one of the first official US reactions to the attacks against Kabul and cities across eastern Afghanistan last weekend, Ryan C Crocker, US ambassador to Afghanistan, said: "The Taliban are really good at issuing statements, Less good at actually fighting." <br />
<br />
And after accusing (or crediting) the Haqqani network based in the tribal area within the Afghan-Pakistan borders' region, the ambassador added: "Frankly I don't think the Taliban is good enough." <br />
<br />
These declarations have come after the insurgents <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/04/2012415125419254906.html" target="_blank">targeted sensitive installations</a> in the country's most important population centres - including at least three prominent targets in Kabul - in one of the most coordinated and pronounced assaults since the occupation began 11 years ago.<br />
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The US government has clearly chosen to shift the blame across the border to Pakistan, and to put a brave face on its humiliation - by downplaying what the Taliban are calling the beginning of their "spring offensive".<br />
<br />
The US State Department called the attacks "cowardly", and praised the "swift and effective response" of Afghan forces.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, in the same breath, the top US commander in Afghanistan, General John R Allen, <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/taliban-hits-afghan-capital-other-cities-in-rare-coordinated-attack/2012/04/15/gIQAtSmAJT_story.html?hpid=z3" target="_blank">praised the Afghan forces </a>who "were on scene immediately, well-led and well-coordinated ... and [who] largely kept the insurgents contained". <br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>"Perhaps it is Washington, not the Taliban, that is pretty good at 'issuing statements'."</strong></span><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><br /></strong></span></td></tr>
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A quick survey of the Obama administration's media strategy, and its swift and well-coordinated official declarations, shows that perhaps it is Washington, not the Taliban, that is pretty good at "issuing statements".<br />
<br />
<strong>Asymmetric warfare</strong><br />
<br />
If taken seriously, I mean not as media newspeak, Ambassador Crocker's <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.clausewitz.com/readings/Principles/" target="_blank">Clausewitzian </a>evaluation of the Taliban and the state of play in Afghanistan belongs to the conventional wars of a past era. <br />
<br />
However, in their unconventional war against the US-led occupation of their country, the Taliban insurgency isn't expected either to fight face-to-face or "fairly" against the superior firepower of the United States and its allies.<br />
<br />
To characterise the Taliban attacks as "cowardly" is frankly mind-boggling. And I am not referring merely to the fact that the insurgents knew too well that they wouldn't come out alive from the attack, or that part of the operations involved suicide attacks on NATO facilities.<br />
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Like them or hate them, the Taliban fight against the US and Afghan forces has been effective and, yes, impressive. It will be taught in the US and other war academies for decades to come.<br />
<br />
As Al Jazeera's <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/04/2012415125419254906.html" target="_blank">Bernard Smith reported </a>from Kabul, the civilian casualties from the most recent attacks were relatively low - considering the three suicide bombings. Instead the Taliban were attempting to send a spectacular message: if they want to, they can strike fear and panic right in the heart of the capital. <br />
<br />
Furthermore, in asymmetrical warfare, statements can have a more powerful psychological effect than raw firepower.<br />
<br />
The Taliban's claim that their well-planned and sophisticated operation was only the beginning of a spring offensive has probably resulted in many soiled undergarments across the country - they have generally proven credible in their pronouncements of war, certainly more credible than the predictions of the occupying forces.<br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>"[The Taliban] have generally proven credible in their pronouncements of war, certainly more credible than the predictions of the occupying forces</strong></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: 13px;">.</span></strong></span><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>"</strong></span><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><br /></strong></span></td></tr>
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The US-led war and occupation of Afghanistan has already gone on longer than the Vietnam War, and longer than the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Washington's war pundits assured Americans that the US occupation would be nothing like that of the Soviets, or that the British during their first, second and third Afghanistan wars in the 19th and 20th centuries. They have also proven dead wrong. <br />
<br />
So have their assurances that this would be a cakewalk for the US "liberators", easily fending off "the oppressive Taliban" proved to be nonsensical. <br />
<br />
According to news reports, the number of attacks across the country has increased considerably in recent weeks, as fighters return from Pakistan.<br />
<br />
Clearly, the recent cowardly <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/201231273433382365.html" target="_blank">US soldier killing spree </a>against Afghan civilians in their homes has helped shore up support against the US occupation.<br />
<br />
And now that the Obama administration speaks openly about withdrawing combat troops by 2014, there is little doubt that many Afghans, including more than a few in the newly trained national army, will find their place among those staying - the Taliban.<br />
<br />
<strong>What's their secret?</strong><br />
<br />
Is there something special about Afghanistan's geography or culture that no foreign superpower has been able to win a war there or secure an occupation? Perhaps.<br />
<br />
Is it the large support given to the Taliban from the Pashtuns, the largest ethnic segment of Afghan society? Is the failure of the corrupt Karzai government to govern - or to provide basic services to the people - to blame? Is it the high civilian casualties in the war at the hands of NATO forces? These factors most probably add to the mix.<br />
<br />
It is nonetheless amazing how a people who have suffered so much since Afghanistan became a republic four decades ago could still go on fighting. <br />
<br />
The 1970s featured internal strife among communists, Islamists and others, while the 1980s witnessed horrific Soviet occupation and cynical Cold War manipulations.<br />
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<tr><td><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>"The Taliban and their allies have been unrelenting in their slow and calculated resistance against the 'foreign and Western occupiers' who continue to visit havoc upon their homeland</strong></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: 13px;">.</span></strong></span><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>"</strong></span><span style="color: white; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><br /></strong></span></td></tr>
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Soon the vacuum left by the Cold War in the 1990s was filled by regional powers - who helped widen and deepen the national divides. And in the past decade, Afghanistan has become the main battlefield of the US "global war on terror". <br />
<br />
And yet the Afghans, notably the Taliban and their allies, have been unrelenting in their slow and calculated resistance against the "foreign and Western occupiers" who continue to visit havoc upon their homeland. <br />
<br />
The Taliban's endurance could be also explained by any number of factors, extending from Pakistani support to religious beliefs - and permitting and/or taxing the drug trade. <br />
<br />
Such cases of relying on regional support and unsavoury practices to sustain and subsidise resistance have been documented from Latin American to Africa and Asia.<br />
<br />
But what is special about the Taliban is, in some ways, similar to the reasons behind Hezbollah's success against Israel's occupation in Lebanon. <br />
<br />
They reject all compromises with the occupiers, and cast away their values, laws and ideas. They don't heed pleas from Western dominated international institutions, nor fraternise with their enemies' "peace camps".<br />
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They believe, and are tightly united, in their cause of freedom from foreign occupation - denying NATO much actionable intelligence against the fighting group. The Taliban has also been consistently sticking to this one sacred goal, while dismissing any diplomatic formulae that are not conditional on withdrawal - first and foremost.<br />
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The Afghans obviously know by experience, wit or instinct what the encyclopaedic West continues to ignore: No foreign power, mighty as it may be, has succeeded in the past century to overcome the indigenous will of the people for freedom from foreign rule.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><em><strong>Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst and the author of</strong></em><em><strong> </strong></em><strong><a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Arab-Promise-Peril-Revolutions/dp/1568587082" style="color: #fb9d04; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolutions</a></strong><em><strong>, now available in bookstores.</strong></em></span><br />
<em><strong>Follow him on Twitter: <a class="InternalLink" href="https://twitter.com/#!/marwanbishara" target="_blank">@marwanbishara</a></strong></em><br />
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<strong><em>The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.</em></strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201241616140412136.html#.T40DKIwKffU.facebook" target="_blank"> Al Jazeera </a> </div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-20720771367113850422012-04-11T01:06:00.001+01:002012-04-11T01:06:24.317+01:00Afghanistan: The Quagmire of U.S. Occupation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By Nicole Colson </h2>
<i style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5782%3Aafghanistan-the-quagmire-of-us-occupation&catid=97%3Abreaking-news&Itemid=119" target="_blank">'' Source: <span class="name">International.to News''</span></a></b></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaMEAPhd7R7neQuP1E0D8k4gv-ze66lwa7ljeCsR0dCigjbnG13FCgpICTbnGDvtd_XEUccJIGD1HSHkLoT7Rbp-CQA8vlG2g1b5zbyHQrlnA97wrZPF6RnJWUXZRH9MpHF7h8h_RRlw/s1600/afghan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaMEAPhd7R7neQuP1E0D8k4gv-ze66lwa7ljeCsR0dCigjbnG13FCgpICTbnGDvtd_XEUccJIGD1HSHkLoT7Rbp-CQA8vlG2g1b5zbyHQrlnA97wrZPF6RnJWUXZRH9MpHF7h8h_RRlw/s200/afghan.jpg" width="200" /></a>CHICAGO (IDN) - The U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan was supposed to bring stability and democracy. Instead, Afghanistan remains a country on the brink of disaster – one that has clearly been exacerbated by the U.S. presence.<br />
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More than 10 years after the U.S. war began, in spite of the presence of about 2,000 international aid groups, at least $3.5 billion in humanitarian funds and $58 billion in development assistance, humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan remain abysmal.<br />
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This past winter, one of the harshest in recent years, compounded the suffering of those living in refugee camps – an estimated 35,000 people just in the capital of Kabul, and many more around the country. The camps, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/world/asia/cold-weather-kills-children-in-afghan-refugee-camps.html" mce_href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/world/asia/cold-weather-kills-children-in-afghan-refugee-camps.html">according to the <i>New York Times</i></a>, are euphemistically referred to as "informal settlements," because labeling them as what they really are, camps full of war refugees, is "politically sensitive." According to the <i>Times</i>, "The Afghan government insists that the residents should and could return to their original homes; the residents say it is too dangerous for them to do so."<br />
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The death rate for children under age five in these camps is 144 out of 1,000, according to Julie Bara of Solidarités International. The <i>Times</i> calls this "stunningly high even for Afghanistan, which already has the world's third highest infant mortality rate."<br />
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As Mohammad Yousef, director general of Aschiana, an Afghan aid group that provides education and other services in 13 of the camps, told the <i>Times</i>, "There is no clear strategy to help these people. They don't have access to anything--health, education, food, sanitation, water. They don't even have an opportunity for survival."<br />
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Such a bleak picture of humanitarian conditions should give pause to anyone who might still believes that the U.S. could be a force for good in Afghanistan. But it isn't only the dire conditions in the refugee camps. By any measure, even those of the occupiers, the U.S. war and occupation has been a dismal failure – failing to liberate women, failing to improve conditions for ordinary Afghans, failing to bring about democracy, failing to stop the killing of civilians, failing to permanently oust the Taliban, failing to train a national armed forces.<br />
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Of course, that's because the U.S. occupation was never about liberation and democracy in the first place. It was about securing an imperial foothold in the region – no matter the consequence to the Afghan people. Now, as the U.S. occupation unravels, it is ordinary Afghans who are suffering the consequences as the U.S. looks in vain for a "Plan B" that doesn't exist.<br />
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<b>Women's Rights</b><br />
Take women's rights. Although the 2001 war was accompanied by relentless propaganda from both Democrats and Republicans telling us that the U.S. had to go to war in order to "save" Afghan women from repressive fundamentalism, reports today suggest that little has changed.<br />
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According to the <i>Guardian</i>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/afghan-women-jailed-moral-crimes" mce_href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/afghan-women-jailed-moral-crimes">half of all Afghan women in prison--some 400--are there for "moral" crimes</a> – including running away from abusive homes. Others have been imprisoned for the "crime" of sex outside of marriage – after being raped or forced into prostitution.<br />
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A report last fall from Oxfam found that 87 percent of Afghan women reported experiencing physical, psychological or sexual abuse or forced marriages. The U.S.-backed stooge President Hamid Karzai, whose government is notorious for its corruption and its lack of legitimacy outside Kabul, recently <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/05/afghanistan-women" mce_href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/05/afghanistan-women">backed a decree by the Ulema Council, a government-sponsored group of religious leaders</a>, insisting that women are worth less than men, should be subordinate to men, should not mix with men in school or the workplace, and should always travel with a male guardian.<br />
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Karzai backed the decree as part of a plan to appeal to conservative forces and the Taliban – which his government is currently negotiating with as the date approaches for a planned September withdrawal of some 30,000 U.S. troops. This would bring the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan down from approximately 90,000 to 60,000 – a necessary move for the Obama administration prior to the November election.<br />
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Whatever else is taking place, it's clear that even empty rhetoric about women's rights is being ditched. "There is a link with what is happening all over the country with peace talks and the restrictions they want to put on women's rights," Fawzia Koofi, a member of Afghanistan's parliament, told the <i>Guardian</i>, adding that the decree is a "green light for Talibanization."<br />
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<b>Doubts and Protests</b><br />
Karzai – along with the U.S. – is desperate to cut whatever deals he can with the Taliban and other forces now, because his isolated and weak government would have a hard time remaining in power once the U.S. presence is wound down.<br />
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Nor has the U.S. been able to train a stable Afghan army – at least not with any confidence that its soldiers will remain loyal to U.S. interests or to Karzai and the central government. The Obama administration is counting on the perception that its troop "surge" brought internal security and stability to large areas of the country, even though that's clearly not the case.<br />
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In fact, the U.S. and its NATO partners in the Afghanistan occupation don't trust the soldiers that they do recruit and train. In many places outside Kabul, the Taliban and other warlords are in total control of local militias.<br />
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In Ghor province in the West, for example, more than 150 illegally armed groups are estimated to contend for power in the area – against some 200 NATO soldiers. According to one report last month:<br />
Governor Abdullah Hiwad recently told media that President Hamid Karzai had agreed to raising and deploying an additional 1,000-member militia to the province. He said the president had promised completing the process this solar year. However, provincial council members and officials believe militias cause unrest and fuel insecurity instead of bringing relief to the people.<br />
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On top of this local instability is the widespread outrage caused by repeated insults and massacres at the hands of U.S. troops. Recent months have seen mass protests in Afghanistan over photos showing U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of "insurgents," the <a href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/02/29/koran-burning-provokes-fury" mce_href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/02/29/koran-burning-provokes-fury">burning of Korans at a U.S. military base in February</a> and, last month, the <a href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/03/14/war-that-guarantees-atrocities" mce_href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/03/14/war-that-guarantees-atrocities">massacre of 17 unarmed civilians by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales</a>.<br />
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The atrocities committed by Bales didn't provoke the immediate and furious protests seen during the Koran burning, but they have built on an even deeper sense of distrust of American and NATO forces by ordinary Afghans.<br />
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U.S. commanders are well aware that their own troops are a barely contained powder keg. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-madness-is-not-the-reason-for-this-massacre-7575737.html" mce_href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-madness-is-not-the-reason-for-this-massacre-7575737.html">According to journalist Robert Fisk</a>, just three weeks before Bales carried out his massacre – after the death of six NATO troops, two of them Americans, in the wake of the protests against the Koran burning--the U.S. Army's top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, lectured his men, "Now is not the time for revenge for the deaths."<br />
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According to Fisk, Allen told soldiers that they should "resist whatever urge they might have to strike back" after an Afghan soldier killed the two Americans. "There will be moments like this, when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back," Allen continued. "Now is not the time for revenge, now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are."<br />
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As Fisk wrote:<br />
[T]his was an extraordinary plea to come from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder.<br />
I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this?<br />
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I rather fear it has. Because – however much I dislike generals – I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings--and might decide to go on a revenge spree.<br />
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<b>The Bales Massacre</b><br />
One of the things that made the Bales massacre particularly appalling was that the U.S. had specifically told civilians in the area who had previously fled the fighting to come back to their villages – that it was "safe," and there was no longer a threat from the Taliban.<br />
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Following the massacre, the U.S. military was so worried about the anger it could spark that, within days, it paid the families of the victims $50,000 for each murdered civilian – as opposed to the several hundred or few thousand dollars that has been routine during the war. But payoffs won't bring dead civilians back to life--nor will they make the resentment that fuels opposition to the U.S. and NATO war go away.<br />
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<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/slain-afghan-villagers-families-paid-50000-compensation-afghan/story?id=15998288#.T4OMWo6tuMV" mce_href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/slain-afghan-villagers-families-paid-50000-compensation-afghan/story?id=15998288#.T4OMWo6tuMV">As one anonymous Afghan official told ABC News</a>, "The villagers aren't like animals that you can buy. Yes, it's a lot of money. But their children are not coming back." Adding to that resentment is the fact that the U.S. immediately whisked Bales out of the country following his murder spree--preventing Afghan officials or courts from having any role in investigating the crime or seeking justice for the victims' families.<br />
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This comes on top of the February Koran burnings, which sparked days of mass protests around the country. During the protests, Afghan soldiers – not "insurgents" – killed six occupying troops. Two were found dead with shots to the back of the head inside the Interior Ministry headquarters in Kabul. These two killings, at least, were certainly carried out by a person or persons that the U.S. had trained as part of the Afghan security forces, and who therefore had access to U.S. soldiers and a U.S. base.<br />
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In late March, following the Bales massacre, Afghan forces reportedly shot and killed three NATO soldiers. Reports suggest the person who carried out the attack had been in the Afghan army for four years – another sign that U.S.-trained soldiers are taking aim at the occupiers.<br />
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Also in late March, the Afghan defense ministry was forced to go on lockdown after discovering 10 "suicide bomb vests." More than a dozen Afghan soldiers were arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack the ministry and blow up commuter buses for government employees. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/world/asia/afghan-soldiers-arrested-in-suspected-attack-against-government.html" mce_href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/world/asia/afghan-soldiers-arrested-in-suspected-attack-against-government.html">As the <i>New York Times</i> noted</a>, "The security breach took place in one of the most heavily fortified parts of Kabul, less than a mile from the presidential palace and the headquarters of the American-led coalition."<br />
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These are just a few of the recent attacks in which Afghan forces are suspected to have attempted to turn their weapons on U.S. and NATO occupiers. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/27/afghan-security-forces-nato" mce_href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/27/afghan-security-forces-nato">According to the Associated Press</a>, since 2007, an estimated 80 NATO service members have been killed by Afghan security forces. More than 75 percent of those attacks have actually occurred in the past two years, and they're happening right in front of, and even on, military bases.<br />
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Almost one in five of the NATO soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, have been shot and killed by Afghan soldiers and policemen, or militants disguised in their uniforms. For U.S. leaders, such attacks are particularly worrisome – because they expose the idea that a loyal Afghan army will soon be ready to take over security of the country.<br />
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The U.S. currently spends some $9 billion a year to fund and train the Afghan army. As Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, said recently, if the U.S. stops funding the Afghan army after its planned withdrawal of combat troops in 2014, "We will have given 100,000 people training and a gun, and then made them unemployed."<br />
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All of this complicates the Obama administration's timeline for withdrawal. While Karzai remains largely a figurehead, the U.S. continues to rely on his administration to broker a deal with the Taliban in order to set the stage for the September drawdown of troops and, ultimately, the planned withdrawal of all combat troops by 2014.<br />
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Following the Bales massacre, the Taliban withdrew from talks- leaving the Karzai government and the U.S. scrambling now to figure out how to get them back to the table. Within the U.S., this latest atrocities and tragedies have had a clear impact on people's attitude toward the war. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/asia/support-for-afghan-war-falls-in-us-poll-finds.html" mce_href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/asia/support-for-afghan-war-falls-in-us-poll-finds.html">According to a <i>New York Times</i>/CBS News poll</a> taken after the Bales massacre, in the last four months, American opposition to continuing the war in Afghanistan has climbed from 53 percent to 69 percent of the population. Some 60 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats now agree that the war is going badly.<br />
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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta immediately dismissed the poll, stating, "We cannot fight wars by polls. If we do that, we're in deep trouble." But the Obama administration is already in "deep trouble" when it comes to the quagmire in Afghanistan. It has no strategy except its hope to cut whatever deal it can with the Taliban, maintain the six U.S. military bases across the country, keep Karzai as a nominal figure in Kabul, and continue the drone war.<br />
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The Republicans, of course, don't have an alternate strategy. Mitt Romney has been critical of Obama's "withdrawal timetable," but all his campaign website says is that as president, he would "order a full interagency assessment of our military and assistance presence in Afghanistan."<br />
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As Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission recently <a href="http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/03/15/afghan-activists-want-us-out-no-deal-with-taliban.phtml" mce_href="http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/03/15/afghan-activists-want-us-out-no-deal-with-taliban.phtml">explained in an interview with the Real News Network</a>: [W]hat Afghans, ordinary Afghans have been subjected to over the past 10 years has been they get targeted from three different sides. You have the U.S. and NATO occupation on the one hand, which is conducting these night raids and killing civilians, the likes of which we just saw. And then you have the Taliban, who are only stronger because of the U.S. presence, because they have a great excuse to remain in Afghanistan.<br />
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And then you have the U.S.-backed central government in Afghanistan, which is riddled with very corrupt and criminal warlords. After 10 years, it's long past time for ordinary Afghans to be able to decide their own fate--without the interference of the U.S. and NATO. As long as the U.S. military remains, Afghanistan cannot be free.<br />
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<i>*Nicole Colson writes for SocialistWorker.org, in which this article was first published.</i><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-56726896411370160502012-03-30T22:49:00.002+01:002012-03-30T22:58:44.337+01:00Scoundrel Media Afghan Massacre Cover-Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<small><xxa href="http://" target="_new">By<i> Stephen Lendman</i></xxa></small></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>In all US war theaters, troops commit unspeakable atrocities. Trained to dehumanize enemies, their mission involves killing, destruction, and much more.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Local treasures are looted. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Children are indiscriminately harmed like adults. Prisoners are tortured. Mutilations are common. Crimes of war and against humanity are institutionalized. It's all in a day's work like taking out the garbage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Viciousness defines US wars. No crime's too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Scoundrel media are directly complicit, including claiming one soldier murdered 16 Afgans on March 11. Credible evidence suggests up to 20 involved. Claiming a lone gunman defiles the atrocity's affect on living family members, friends, and other Afghans victimized by numerous similar incidents. More below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #111111;">During America's Iraq invasion and occupation, reports suggested soldiers got amphetamines and pornographic materials to incite ravaging women. More than US troops were involved. According to </span><a href="http://www.aztlan.net/rape_of_iraq.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;">Ernesto Cienfuegos</span></a><span style="color: #111111;">, La Voz de Aztlan editor-in-chief:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The American people and the rest of the world are generally not aware that the U.S. government has hired literally thousands of (mercenaries), many with notorious war crime records."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"A significant number of these are rapists, sodomites and murderers from South African and Serbia. These vile individuals work for (the so called) Security Service under contract to the Pentagon. Most....are cronies of both Bush and Cheney and are owned by nefarious (individuals with) ties to the Burbank, California pornography industry."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Among the Afrikaner war criminals hired by the Pentagon are Frans Strydom and Deon Gouws, both with despicable atrocity records against South Africa Blacks that sought independence. There are an estimated 1,500 South Africans employed by ―Security Service (personnel) in Iraq, according to the South African foreign ministry."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Many used their atrocities backgrounds during Apartheid to bolster their credentials to the Pentagon. Many other hired mercenaries are Serbians, known rapists of Muslim-Croatian women....The Military Police, including Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">said cells where sexual torture took place were dominated by these mercenaries in collusion with the CIA and Military Intelligence."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Film crews run mostly by mercenaries actually instigated rapes and sodomy of the POWs inside the Abu Ghraib prison. The mercenaries had the full cooperation of the CIA and Military Intelligence and perverted elements inside Pentagon and the U.S. government. In addition, these mercenaries trolled the Iraqi countryside for Iraqi women they could abduct, rape and film."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Afghanistan reflects similar abuses. Cover-up prevents information coming out and prosecutions. Rarely are US forces held accountable. Commanders routinely get off scot-free, including ones ordering troops to kill all Iraqi and Afghan men on sight, combatants and civilians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">According to US Major General James Mattis, "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be up-front with you. I like brawling." Murdered civilians are repulsively called "collateral damage." Mattis isn't alone. Commanders and enlisted troops are involved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Afghan combatant bodies are burned in violation of international law and US military code. Culpable troops aren't punished. Civilians are killed for sport. At times, their fingers and other body parts are kept as trophies. Photos are taken as souveniers. Similar abuses are common in all US wars. Lies and cover-up suppress them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Kill teams" are deployed. Indiscriminate murder, sadism, and other atrocities are committed, most often with impunity. It's done for sport and lust. Celebratory high-fives follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rarely ever are soldiers like Jeremy Morlock punished. Others guilty like him get off scot-free, especially commanders. His 5th Stryker Brigade committed countless murders and atrocities. Cover-up involved staging incidents to look like defensive actions against attacks. Pentagon apologies ring hollow. Soldiers are trained to kill reflexively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">America's Tortured Past</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">US history reflects atrocities. Native Americans were slaughtered, starved, neglected, exposed to deadly pathogens, and virtually exterminated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the antebellum South, slaves were tortured by whipping, painful restraints, prolonged isolation in sealed sheds with choking tobacco smoke, and other punishments. Theodore Roosevelt defended water torture (today's waterboarding) called the "water cure" to extract confessions from Filipinos because "nobody was seriously damaged."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 1995, Bill Clinton issued Presidential Decision Directive 39 (PDD-39). It authorized extraordinary rendition for interrogations and torture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #111111;">In his book, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/War-Without-Mercy-Power-Pacific/dp/0394751728" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;">"War Without Mercy,"</span></a><span style="color: #111111;"> John Dower documented Pacific War atrocities by both sides. American forces "mutilat(ed) Japanese war dead for souvenirs, attack(ed) and (sank) hospital ships, sho(t) sailers who had abandoned ship and pilots who had bailed out, kill(ed) wounded soldiers on the battlefield, and tortur(ed) and execut(ed) prisoners."</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Atrocities included torturing and buying combatants alive. In the Korean War, mass indiscriminate killings of civilians were commonplace. Entire towns and villages were incinerated and their populations exterminated, including women and children.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Combatants and civilians were buried alive, burned, drowned, shot, stabbed, or beaten to death. Women had their breasts, legs, and arms cut off. Others were beheaded. Thousands of civilians were brutally tortured. One family of six was hanged upside down from a tree and burned alive. Another civilian was skinned alive, then burned to death.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Others were murdered with bats, spears, stones, sticks, clubs, flails, and pickaxes. Women were assaulted and raped. US forces massacred tens of thousands of civilians systematically, ruthlessly, and brutally. Some were disemboweled alive.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vietnam was similar. Atrocities were widespread and commonplace. They included massacres, rapes, torture, mutilations, wanton mass destruction, use of chemical and biological weapons, and much more.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">US forces got carte blanche to carpet bomb, incinerate entire villages, burn people alive, fire freely on civilians, murder wounded prisoners, beat them to death, throw them out of helicopters, torture sadistically, gang rape young girls, and commit every other imaginable atrocity to people General William Westmoreland called "worthless termites."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Operation Phoenix death squads murdered thousands of Vietnamese. Some were alleged high-value targets, others noncombatant civilians. Foreign Service officer Wayne Cooper called the operation a "disreputable, CIA-inspired effort, often deplored as a bloody-handed assassination program (and) a failure." Before it ended, 80,000 or more died.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Throughout the Iraq and Afghan wars, Special Forces death squads murdered thousands of targeted subjects and others indiscriminately. Daily killing field slaughter continues.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bush authorized them. So did Obama. Both approved global covert operations. Obama OK'd killing US civilians. Sociologist Emile Durkheim once said, "The immorality of war depends entirely on the leaders who willed it."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nuremberg prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson denounced "men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberative and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">International and US laws are clear and unequivocal. So are US military standards, including Army Field Manual 27-10. It incorporates Nuremberg and Law of Land Warfare (1956) principles.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It prohibits any military or civilian personnel to the highest levels from committing crimes under international and US laws. It also requires disobeying illegal orders.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nonetheless, mass murder, torture, and other atrocities are committed like sport virtually daily. They define all US wars.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Richard Nixon once told Henry Kissinger, "We're gonna level that goddam country. We're gonna hit 'em, bomb the livin' bejusus out of 'em." Kissinger approved, saying, "Mr. President, I will enthusiastically support that, and I think it's the right thing to do." After all they're just "worthless termites."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Major Media Scoundrels: Guilt by Complicity</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Compared to America's bloodstained history, killing 16 Afghan civilians on March 11 was a drop in the ocean. Yet it was too much for major media scoundrels to provide truth and full disclosure.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #111111;">Various reports, including </span><a href="http://rt.com/news/massacre-kandahar-soldier-american-705/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;">Russia Today</span></a><span style="color: #111111;">, said up to 20 US troops were involved in the incident, not a lone sergeant. He's been hung out to dry to absolve others, including commanders who deploy them on missions, as well as top US military and civilian officials who approve America waging lawless wars of aggression.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An Afghan parliamentary investigation team contradicts Pentagon lies. Two days were spent collecting eyewitness accounts, including from survivors. Investigator Hamizai Lali told Afghan News:</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"We are convinced that one soldier cannot kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time, and the 16 civilians, most have been killed by the two groups."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He believes up to 20 soldiers were involved. Half their victims were children aged two through 12. He appealed for international help to disclose the truth and assure those responsible are punished in Afghan, not US, courts.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Investigatory team head Sayed Ishaq Gillani said witnesses reported seeing helicopters dropping chaff during the attack to hide targets from ground attacks.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Villagers said victims offered no resistance. Nonetheless, they were gunned down in cold-blood. Night raids like this are commonplace. Despite public outrage, US commanders said they'll continue. Innocent civilians are murdered repeatedly.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One surviving family member said:</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I don’t want any compensation. I don’t want money. I don’t want a trip to Mecca. I don’t want a house. I want nothing. But what I absolutely want is the punishment of the Americans. This is my demand, my demand, my demand and my demand."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">His brother died in the slaughter. The Pentagon named one gunman, now identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. He was whisked out of Afghanistan, flown to Kwait, then to army prison at Fort Leavenworth, KS Friday.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Afghan army head General Sher Mohammad Karimi said US military officials "ignored and blocked" his attempt to investigate the incident. They also prevented Afghan officials from interrogating Bales.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #111111;">In lockstep, US media scoundrels regurgitated Pentagon lies. Outrageously, the </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/soldier-accused-in-afghan-shooting-spree-could-return-to-us-friday/2012/03/16/gIQAauMSGS_story.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;">Washington Post</span></a><span style="color: #111111;"> quoted Captain Chris Alexander, Bales' platoon commander, saying he's "hands down, one of the best soldiers I ever worked with."</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In fact, he like other death squad members are cold-blooded killers. The Post also quoted Bales commenting on his participation in a 2007 Iraq battle, saying:</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"We discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The quote's so deplorable it sounds like someone made it up, but Post scoundrels made it look legitimate to portray Bales more as hero than cold-blooded killer.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Pentagon statement said Bales received over a dozen medals and badges for combat service and good conduct. His wife Karilyn was quoted, saying "all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Post suppressed evidence that up to 20 US soldiers were involved, or that numerous other atrocities like this occur regularly.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/world/asia/afghan-shooting-suspect-identified-as-army-staff-sgt-robert-bales.html" style="text-decoration: none;">The New York Times</a></span><span style="color: #111111;"> was just as shameless. Cover-up and denial suppressed vital truths. Bales alone was mentioned. The article said he was injured twice in previous deployments and cited his lawyer calling his military record exemplary.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How much more blood has he on his hands? For sure plenty, but this was the first time he got caught. Moreover, The Times, like the Post, characterizes him as heroic, not villainous.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In medium security confinement, he's yet to be charged a week after the incident. The Times said Pentagon officials found no clues explaining what "motivated the killings."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They lied, saying:</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues. He just snapped."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne, dismissed allegations of family problems and drinking. He said his family hoped he'd avoid this deployment after three previous ones. He also called him "mild-mannered."</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In lockstep with other US media scoundrels, The Times article suppressed what readers most deserve to know - the full truth about death squad killings as policy, and the many thousands of noncombatant Afghans, Iraqis, and earlier victims affected.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Blaming this incident on a lone gunman suppresses the gravity of what goes on routinely and the responsibility up the chain of command to Joint Chief heads, Defense Secretary Panetta, and Obama.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It also defiles the pain and suffering of surviving family members, relatives, friends, and others victimized by similar incidents.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nothing compensates for their loss. Afghans want US occupiers out of their country immediately. After over a decade of daily atrocities, they want what no one should endure finally ended.</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's their country, their lives, and their right. It's true everywhere America shows up. Death, destruction, and vicious occupation follows. Iraqis and Libyans feel the same way. Can you blame them?</span></div>
<div style="color: #111111;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_464466358"><br /></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b><a href="http://uruknet.info/?p=m86617&hd=&size=1&l=e" target="_blank">Stephen Lendman</a> lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. </b></i></span></div>
<div style="color: #111111; min-height: 23px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="min-height: 23px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="color: #111111;">Source: </i><a href="http://www.uruknet.info/?p=-6&l=e" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_top"><big><big><big><span style="color: black;">uruknet.info</span></big></big></big></a></span></div>
</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-60802680616678227392012-03-15T21:34:00.006+00:002012-03-15T21:52:49.544+00:00Stop the bombs and talk to the Taliban<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Stop the bombs and talk to the
Taliban<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br />
By Hanan Habibzai</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Keeping tabs on the events of the
war in Afghanistan is not difficult. Press coverage includes daily reports of
soldiers dying and killing, elections counts and recounts and even stories from
the far flung tribal areas.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">But there is little about what
the ordinary Afghan thinks. What is his story? How does the war affect him?
Does he want President Karzai to stay in power? Does he want more troops, be
they from the US or France? Do they make him feel safe? When answered these
questions weave the missing thread through the real story of the war. These
answers tell a frustrating tale.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Look back to May, for example,
when US air strikes killed more than 100 civilians. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">This is when the Afghan people
first began to lose faith in President Barack Obama. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">As protocol required Obama and US
secretary of state Hillary Clinton expressed their deep sympathy with the
victims, and said sorry for the civilian deaths. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">But a change occurred. Right at
that moment that the ordinary people of Afghanistan lost faith in Obama’s commitments
for peace and stability. After the death of yet more non-militants, they began
to suspect that Obama could not keep his early promises to protect civilian
live in Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Karzai, meanwhile, in the US at
the time, and travelled back to the devastated area. He sanctioned the award of
100,000 Afghanis (US$2,000) to each of the victim's families.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong>This is the price of an Afghan
life.</strong> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Along with the government 'gift',
families were forced to sign a document to say they were happy with the
settlement. Happy that the $2,000 should clean up the human mess that bombs
leave behind. For those families with little money, their options were limited.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the west, some countries have
a law to protect animals. If anyone dares to harm an animal, he or she will face
justice. In my country a human life can be taken very easily because there is
little justice. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Since the war began, mass killing
has become part and parcel of everyday life. If any dare to challenge this
notion or to call for justice, perhaps, they accused of being insurgents. This
is the story of the ordinary Afghan. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The ordinary Afghan, who
testimonies I have spent years collecting, does not understand why the
international forces have not found Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He does
not understand his fellow countrymen and women are paying the price.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Three decades of war takes its
toll. <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some of those ordinary Afghans
killed in the bombs on two fuel tankers earlier last month, had survived
Russian invasion. They would not be surprised by theirs deaths because of what
they had seen once before. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">When a small group of Taliban
hijacked two tankers which carried fuel for NATO forces in northern Kundoz,
local people saw it as a chance to get free fuel for their lamps. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">They remembered a time back in
1980s, when Mujahideen gave out captured equipment seized from the Russian
invaders. These included fuel, food, clothes and car spare parts. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">On pondering further on the
Russian invasion, the ordinary Afghan remembers that, despite war, the USSR
considered attacks on locals’ haphazard and foolhardy way to conduct their
military campaign. Such attacks would only bring retaliation and in turn cause
a long drawn out battle. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Russians strategy was to give
to the Afghan government at the time. They didn't keep private jails and they
tolerated petty looting. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">But the Americans and Germans
decided to frightened local people when the Taliban stole their tanks, heavily
bombing them. After World War II it was the first mass killing committed by
German troops in the history.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Isn't it strange, Afghans are
saying to themselves, that while we did not expect peace from the Russian army
because, well they were invaders and committed to no international treaty. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Yet these Americans and Germans
invaded Afghanistan under the cloak of an international treaty committed to
peace. But so far, it poses a continuous threat to normal life. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Lives in countless Afghan
villages have been threatened since 2003, for the lives of perhaps one or two
Taliban militants were hidden there. Sometimes they are killed in these deadly
air strikes, other times they escape. But what is consistent is that hundreds
of ordinary villagers have been killed by wild card strikes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Women rights, democracy, human
rights and political stability are the constant battle cry of the invaders. But
ordinary Afghans appreciation of such gifts is tempered by heavy bombs, which
are damaging all hopes of democracy and justice. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Meanwhile, the criminals and
sadly comical farce of Karzai's government remains. After allegedly winning the
elections last month, and a recount still not complete, hopes of competency
governance is vanishing fast. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It seems unlikely that my country
will be free of its current government, full of drug lords and war criminals, which
care little for social justice and democracy and more about lining their
already bulging pockets. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">This is just a snapshot of what
my fellow Afghan witnesses day by day. He also sees a resurgent Taliban,
offering an alternative. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">And it is because of this that
NATO must talk to the Taliban. There is no option but to negotiate. The Taliban
alternative, while distasteful to some, is more palatable than the trekking
across Europe sleep on the streets of Calais or to stay at home and hope the
bombs do not fall. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.demotix.com/news/stop-bombs-and-talk-taliban?destination=search/context" target="_blank"><strong>This article first published in Demotix.com </strong></a><strong> <o:p></o:p></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-63069747242422644552012-03-08T08:21:00.003+00:002012-03-08T08:24:07.388+00:00Truth Subcontracted--When Misguided People Guided US’s Foreign Policy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://hananhabibzai-pashto.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-post.html" target="_blank">Truth Subcontracted--When Misguided People Guided US’s Foreign Policy</a></span><br /> <br /> Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD<br /> mdmiraki@ameritech.net <br /> Dr. Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar MA, PhD<br /> zirakyar1234@yahoo.com<br /> <br />
The recent incident at Bagram Airbase involving the burning of the Holy
Koran has exhibited the return on the US’s investment in Afghanistan.
This is the legacy in part of subcontracting the truth to the so-called
cultural advisors. This is not the first time this type of disgraceful
conduct witnessed by others or the news of such misconduct made its way
to the media and stirred peoples’ emotions. Similar misconducts happened
many times during US operations in Pashtun villages. This is due to the
US government subcontracting the truth by hiring incompetent advisors.
By subcontracting the truth to ignorant translators and advisors both
linguistically and culturally with premeditated desire to undermine
Pashtuns also contributed to the loss of Pashtun lives and destruction
of their villages. It is this flawed approach and misguided policy that
has contributed to the continuous disaster and current crisis involving
the desecration of the Holy Koran in Afghanistan.<br /> <br /> It has been
reported that a commission of Afghan lawmakers visited Bagram to get a
glimpse of what has happened and who was the responsible party.
According to these visiting members of the parliament, the American
military personnel had placed the blame for this incident on the Afghan
translators. The translators allegedly could not distinguish between the
Holy Koran and other writings. This is the core subject of this write
up that the US government has delegated responsibility of their affairs
to these information and advising mercenaries. Whether they have been
translators, advisors and the so-called ‘think-tanks’, their core value
is to maximize utility, namely dollars accumulations for themselves. </span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">The
cost of the invasion has been of course tremendous to the people of
Afghanistan. However, the cost of subcontracting the truth could have
been avoided. The people that suffered the most from this business
relationship have been the Pashtun people. For example, on the eve of
the US invasion of Afghanistan, the leaders of the Afghan minorities and
their fellow travelers along with some alienated de-Pashtunized members
of former royal cast had lined up to enlist and serve their pockets.
The alienated de-Pashtunized former royal cast was hoping to get a piece
of the pie; however, due to the overwhelming power of the Northern
Alliance these de-Pashtunized former royal cast was deprived even though
they served the American-led invasion with absolute sincerity.</span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><br />
Meanwhile since misguided people were guiding the US policy and some of
these insiders were of the Afghan descent such as Khalilzad and his
acolytes, while the want-to-be translators, cultural experts and
advisors had found a golden opportunity to fill their pockets with large
sums of money. The overwhelming majority of these translators and
advisors of the Afghan minorities background did not know their own
mother tongue of Dari [Afghan version of Persian] and cultural values
well enough to qualify as either translators or cultural advisors. As to
Pashto, none of these minorities and members of the alienated
de-Pashtunized royal cast could speak Pashto with exception of few words
and few flawed sentences. </span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"> Also, since the anti-Pashtun Northern
Alliance was partner to the US-led NATO forces, the Pashtun endured the
eventual cost as the Northern Alliance equated all Pashtuns with
Taliban. Consequently, the initial cost was wholesale transfer of
Pashtun prisoners whether fighters or peasants to Guantanamo Bay,
Kandahar, or Bagram prisons. Since none of the translators and advisors
could understand Pashto and they had a preconceived prejudice and
premeditated hatred toward Pashtuns, they simply labeled everyone that
spoke Pashto as Taliban fighters. </span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Pashtun prisoners were labeled Taliban
simply because they spoke Pashto. Moreover, the overwhelming majority
of the translators and advisors were supporters of the Northern
Alliance, the organization composed of Afghan minorities that sold
Afghanistan for mere change of less than $200 million. The CIA’s field
commander in Afghanistan Berntsen shared his experience with the
Northern Alliance as follows:<br /> <i><br /> “I know from my experience that Persians and their Afghan cousins are all carpet salesmen at heart.”</i> <br /> <br />
By implication, Berntsen believed that the commanders of the Northern
Alliance would sell Afghanistan like a carpet. This is the character of
the Northern Alliance elements and their supporting cadre of US employed
translators eager to target Pashtuns. <br /> <br /> A segment of the
translators and advisors was composed of former Afghan Parchami
communists with a grudge against the US for supporting the former
Mujahideen fighters against the former Soviet Union and their installed
communist regime in Afghanistan. Hence, these former Soviet-connected
Afghan Communists were aiming to undermine US in Afghanistan even if it
meant undermining Afghan lives and their sacred values. The Parcham
(Flag) faction of the Khalk (People) Party had collaborated with Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979 as the Northern Alliance did
with the US-lead invasion of Afghanistan in October of 2001. Majority
of Parchamis was non-Pashtun and their leadership was vehemently
anti-Pashtun, especially after the Soviet invasion. <br /> <br /> Meanwhile,
the US has found itself in such a hostile neighborhood wherein the
neighbors of Afghanistan whether they are the Pakistani intelligence
agency, the ISI or the Iranian Sepa organization are more than eager to
undermine the US. Their aim is to further humiliate the US since they
know that the Pashtuns are the only people capable of ensuring this
eventual humiliation. Unfortunately, all this happens at the cost of
Pashtun lives and livelihood. <br /> <br /> We would like to make two
essential points one pertaining to the domestic constituency of Afghan
minorities enjoying the decade of occupation and the other point
pertains to the US national interests. <br /> <br /> The Americans have
desecrated the Holy Koran on a number of occasions in Pashtun villages
and detention facilities in Bagram; however, since the non-Pashtun
population was not present during the desecration, it did not matter to
them or they did not believe Pashtuns’ claim of desecration. Especially,
the supporters of the Northern Alliance did not want to address any
redress that would undermine their economic gains with the foreign
forces. When the desecration of the Holy Koran took place at Bagram
Airbase, these Afghan minority workers were shocked to see with their
own eyes what Pashtuns complained about for the past ten years.
Consequently, these workers submitted to their emotions and Islamic
believes by expressing their disenchantment and outrage. <br /> <br /> We
have a message to these hypocrites that the Pashtun people have endured
this type of treatment for the past ten years while the non-Pashtuns of
the Northern Alliance collaborated with the invaders. These
collaborators enjoyed the leftover dirt thrown at them at every turn of
the way. Meanwhile, the US government has to reassess this business of
subcontracting information to these information mercenaries. The
elements of the Northern Alliance serving as translators labeled every
Pashtun man as a Talib fighter and every Pashtun family as collaborator.
Consequently, Pashtun men, families and villages have been targeted
with no mercy. </span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">The traitorous behavior of these translators and advisors
cost the lives of thousands of Pashtuns all over Afghanistan. Hence,
these translators and advisors could not save themselves from the wrath
of the Afghan nation including the resistance. However, the US
government should also hold these translators and advisors responsible
for their misguided assistance. Moreover, the so-called ‘think tanks’
mushroomed in the aftermath of 911 of which there are dimes a dozens at
the consultancy landscape. They should have been scrutinized not
bankrolled for providing flawed self-serving advice that ruined an
entire nation, Afghanistan. </span></span></h6>
<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><br /> However, since the US days seem to be
numbered in Afghanistan, it is a little too late to undo this flawed and
criminal approach wherein peoples lives are subcontracted to an army of
self-centered and self-sold individuals and organizations. This
subcontracting along with the continuous bombing and murders and
deprivation of the Pashtun people from all spheres of normal life
constitute too great of cost to undo at this time. The only feasible
action at this time would be to start the process of complete withdrawal
of all foreign forces and instituting justice and peace in All
Afghanistan. <br /> <br /> The Afghan nation whether Pashtuns or
non-Pashtuns have realized in the past week when the Holy Koran was
desecrated that the US in Afghanistan has not only cost the lives of the
people there but also undermined their religious and cultural
principles. <br /> <br /> All Rights Reserved, 2012</span></span></h6>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-54974297598550085762012-02-18T23:21:00.000+00:002012-02-22T07:42:37.875+00:00President Obama signs killing of Afghan civilians<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://hananhabibzai-pashto.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post_05.html" target="_blank"><b>Hanan Habibzai</b></a></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you are Afghan, you don't dare to write any facts about the
atrocities American military is continuously committing in Afghanistan, but
this is the time to speak out, because the future of the country is constantly
under attack. There is no future for the current generation of Afghanistan, as
American-led military is intentionally targeting children and women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This week's (<a href="http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/182916.html" target="_blank">02/06/2011</a>)massacre of 12 children and two women in southern Helmand
province left no option, but provoked thousands of Afghans to either join the
Taliban or express their sympathy towards them. Therefore, the Taliban are
becoming anti-occupation heroes and their popularity is increasingly spreading
across the country. American-led foreign troops do not help themselves, but
they strengthen the Taliban's position, when they appear to kill civilians from
the air through heavy bombs containing white phosphorous and other chemicals. </span></div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzNF9MxtN1z-znFECAG07enycIjpvDT292rD9_8M72B3ihw1DSdStfHYTKQOjHQD7WZVS3Xt5PHdseP6gZp3w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Al Jazeera reports on similar catastrophe,2011</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The officials who authorize the airstrikes on Afghan houses are
actually, intentionally abusing the justice, humanity and freedom Obama claims
in almost every speech. President Obama's speech of May 2nd was full of terms
such as justice, freedom and democracy when he announced the death of Bin
Laden. ''Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth
or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all'', he added.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the other hand, the same United States of America is killing children
and women to insure ----freedom, democracy and justice for American people.
Does the United State of America stand for Justice, freedom and democracy, or
for brutality against<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>poor
nations? Does America colonize poor nations by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/16/spinning-afghanistan-americas-longest-war" target="_blank">force</a>? The answer can only be
that the American president Obama is authorizing the killing of Afghan
civilians; we never see any American military commander being brought to
justice for the charges of killing Afghan children and women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Do the American people accept justice or freedom as a result of killing
children, women and at the cost to the future of one of the world's poorest
countries? According to human Rights codes of conduct and the Geneva
Convention, killing civilians, children and women is Unforgivable. That's why
Afghans could not tolerate it, and anti- American feeling is widespread in the
war shattered country. </span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="FA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If I were to count the number of civilians including children and women
who have been killed by the American -led military in Afghanistan, you would be
shocked when you realize the bloodshed and hostilities carried out by those
forces who claim to be<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>soldiering
for humanity and freedom. In recent months we witnessed the crimes revealed by
Rolling Stone, we also witnessed the killing of nine children at Kuner, eastern
province of Afghanistan earlier in March.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">These crimes against humanity were followed by a series of other similar
attacks on Afghan houses. These compelled president Karzai to issue a so-called
final warning against American -led attacks on Afghan civilians. When I read
the statement issued<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>by President
Karzai against those attacks, I realized that an authorized document exists in
Kabul (which) allows foreign military to kill women and children, as Karzai
stated that 'no more attacks on civilian houses', means foreign troops carrying
out a pre-authorized order</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="FA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Karzai may repeat this warning again and again but who cares? ''We most
clearly state our understanding that Afghanistan is an ally, not an occupied country.
And our treat with NATO is from the point of view of an ally. If he behaves
like an occupying<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>force then of
course Afghan people know how to deal with that'', Karzai warned in a press
conference. He may perhaps be talking to the regional audiences who have a huge
lack of confidence in his government, which doesn't make a change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The sovereignty and integrity of Afghanistan have been terrorized;
therefore, Taliban propaganda easily influences the public mind. Machiavelli's
15 century views are still relevant in a modern century, he cited in The Prince
his popular book: ''if one depend for freedom and self-dependency on foreign
troops, it will be a penalty of death to a king's power''. An
artless leader, Karzai still not sure if it is occupation, because he doesn't
understand the meaning of foreign troops turned his country on<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>a
ground of military game and bloodshed. There is no difference between how
Soviet forces acted in Afghanistan and now the American-led troops' behaviour
against Afghan civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The United State of America is a powerful country which deserves
justice, and from the point of views of invaders, Afghanistan is a poor country
deserved to be harmed, if Afghans are seeking justice, then they also need to
be powerful enough. In present day, world justice is not given, but taken;
Afghans do not deserve that for being poor. I remember Russians and now am
witnessing Americans in Afghanistan as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tens of thousands including women, children and men have been killed,
poverty grew and thousands of others forced to leave their homes and
properties, since America invaded the country. They empowered domestic war
criminals, and the justice has simply<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>been
ignored. Now, the US-led occupation is entering its tenth year, but those
victims of atrocities never allowed knocking a door for justice. Afghans don't
know where they go to obtain justice; the voiceless people are going through a
hard time. Those who authorize the air strikes on Afghan houses need to think "what
if these children were their kids</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="FA" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>"?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-78748647138514540872012-02-10T02:55:00.000+00:002012-03-15T22:04:01.430+00:00NATO Killed Children in Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span>NATO Killed Children in Afghanistan </b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></b>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By Hanan Habibzai </span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kapisa district police chief</span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Abdul Hamid Erkin told AFP that "Two
nights ago foreign special forces carried out a raid on a house in Geyawa
village in Nejrab district.” The next morning their plane carried out an
airstrike on a house in the village as a result of which seven children and one
adult were <b>martyred</b>." He said commanders of French troops who
operate in the area "claimed that the target was a group of Taliban
facilitators, but we checked the area and there were no Taliban.” In fact the
people in the area have very strong anti-Taliban feelings. We filmed the victims,
who were children, and showed it to the French commanders," Erkin said. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoYq2IefeanMRdgoJAdc-UzdNJFq2R4t12p6brdMPHnCu5KP0nlEK0LFOF9_xOinNUStydf93cZXoe3fsGXaE10U5X4cFQxMjygISORI3_-X39s3O_84Bows3Ec70_uigUkT83gjLCl0/s1600/children_killed-afghanistan.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoYq2IefeanMRdgoJAdc-UzdNJFq2R4t12p6brdMPHnCu5KP0nlEK0LFOF9_xOinNUStydf93cZXoe3fsGXaE10U5X4cFQxMjygISORI3_-X39s3O_84Bows3Ec70_uigUkT83gjLCl0/s1600/children_killed-afghanistan.jpe" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thewe.cc/weplanet/asia/afghanistan/afghanistan_continues.html" target="_blank">Children are the main victims</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Presidential statement confirmed Thursday that
NATO airstrike killed eight children in Kapisa province northeast of the
capital Kabul. The children were aged between about seven and 15, he said,
while the adult was a mentally-handicapped 20-year-old. The tragic incident
comes about two weeks after Four French soldiers were killed by a loyalist
Afghan officer in the same province (Kapisa) last month, pressuring French mission
in Afghanistan. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately announced
that France will pull out its soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of 2013, a
year before the international deadline for a pulling out of combat forces in
2014. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/afghanistan/2010/01/27/773/" target="_blank">An article that I wrote almost two yearsago </a>on a similar case is still relevant, I’d like to share that again. </span></div>
<h2 style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Promote peace
talks, Afghan war is not a success</span></h2>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The attack on
Kabul on January 17,<sup> </sup>2010 which took place only metres away from the
Presidential Palace, was evidence that not only have the international
community and the Afghan government failed to win the people’s hearts and
minds, but also they have lost their trust. The military conflict has now
reached even the heart of Kabul. It is hard to imagine anywhere safe in the whole
country. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But at this
time of intensification of conflict, a debate is taking place among Afghan
parliamentarians questioning the presence of the US and NATO in
Afghanistan. </span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is the
anti-Western sentiment that the Taliban have for long been whispering into the
ears of ordinary Afghans in the villages and valleys of the restive regions.
Those Afghans who saw their children die, those who watched their women and
elders in pools of blood, are increasingly becoming susceptible to this type of
rhetoric. Many are in the process of changing their minds about the
international troops.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The military
commanders say that they have now made “protecting civilians” their priority,
but just last month, 10 children were killed during a night-time raid carried
out by US-special forces in eastern Kunar Province. As long as these incidents
keep happening public anger against the US presence in Afghanistan will
continue to grow.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Military
attacks carried out by foreigners and that result in the killing of civilians are
an insult to Afghans’ traditions and beliefs. In many instances, when the local
population accuse international forces of killing civilians, the troops deny it
and often dismiss evidence provided by Afghans. Also commonly heard is
that troops were targeting terrorists in a raid, even when the victims are
school children, or mothers with young children.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sadly these
tradgedies overshadow the killing of civilians in suicide attacks by the
Taliban – preventing the public mourning of the innocents who lose their lives
in such attacks. It has given cover to Taliban attacks that result in civilian
killings across the country. Ordinary Afghans are now only talking against US
military behaviour and forget attacks by Taliban which have killed hundreds of
civilians. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In 2003 and
2004, I was reporting for international media agencies on clashes between two
notorious warlords in the north, Rashid Dostom and Atta Mohammad. At the time I
regarded the American presence in Afghanistan as crucial for protecting the
country from war criminals and for helping to bring stability to the country.
But now, I have begun to lose hope. The international security forces are
creating such a terrifying atmosphere that it is hard for people to sleep at
night.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These days,
when I watch state-run Afghan TV, which is funded by American money, I am
surprised by how openly Afghan experts criticize US military tactics in
Afghanistan. This is new. A recent discussion program featured an influential
historian and supporter of President Karzai, Habibullah Rafi. Rafi was talking
about civilian casualties and warning American troops to end their animosity
towards Afghan people. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The other
guest, parliamentarian Iqbal Safi, warned that if American troops continue to
kill civilians, they will face the same fate as the Red Army, which left
Afghanistan, defeated, and shamed.The MP’s anger was clearly visible. The
tension between Afghans and Americans is just beginning to surface but both
countries are yet to see the terrible consequences of the discrepancy.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Americans
should stop their stubborn approach in Afghanistan and take a more diplomatic
and talk oriented track. Afghan Taliban should be brought to the political
process and should be recognised as a political entity in Afghanistan. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Traditionally,
mosques are run and controlled by Mullahs and historically they have enormous
impact on peoples’ opinion in Afghanistan. One of the most effective ways to
achieve stability in Afghanistan is to win the support of Mullahs and of influential
religious leaders. I recommend that the international community
negotiates with Taliban. War alone will never produce a brighter future
for Afghans; it can only result in the loss of more and more lives. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Only when the
violence ebbs will the torch of democracy be lit. As long as the fear
and instability spreads, as long as each family is mourning a loss, so the
enmities will deepen between families and tribes, and between the US and
Afghanistan. Negotiation is always going to be more productive than violence.
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some will say
that the Taliban are too cruel, and that if they become a part of the
government, they may not allow women to go to work or school. Others will say
that before negotiations there needs to be political reform to remove the
warlords who massacred thousands, and some of whom were backed by the United
States. There will be questions, and concerns. But in spite of these, there can
be no doubt that what Afghans want more than anything is for the violence and
killing to stop.</span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-40376369163756281292011-12-31T20:25:00.000+00:002012-05-13T19:25:51.702+01:00The Times Remembers the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: large;">The Times<a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/17/hanan-habibzairemember-the-massacred-prisoners/" target="_blank"> Remembers</a> the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre</span></span></strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: large;">By Prof. Edward Herman</span></span></strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></span></strong></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">t is always interesting and enlightening to see the <i>New York Times</i> picking up a story belatedly and tracing through the reasons for its early neglect and later resuscitation. This often fits the Orwellian Big Brother principle of using a story only when it is politically helpful and suppressing it when it is inconvenient—forgetting, "and then, when it become necessary again [drawing] it back from oblivion" (<i>1984</i>). </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">My favorite case was the failure of the <i>New York Times</i> to mention the Salvadoran army death list of 138 left-wing and liberal politicians back in 1982, when the United States was supporting a "demonstration election" there and publicizing the death list would suggest unfavorable electoral conditions, but then mentioning that list in 1989 when the left was tentatively entering an election and the paper was anxious to put that election in a good light, contrasting it with the bad old days (Lindsay Gruson, "A Fingerhold for Dissent," March 17, 1989).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Of course, examples of this and other Orwellian processes abound. An important and notorious one was the almost complete suppression of the Reagan-era alliance with and support for Saddam Hussein—weapons supply, intelligence aid during the war with Iran, agricultural loans, protections against UN condemnations or more biting actions following his use of chemical weapons—after he was transformed into "another Hitler" on August 2, 1990 (he invaded Kuwait on August 1). Again, quoting Orwell: "The Party said that Oceania [here, the United States] had never been in alliance with Eurasia [here, Iraq]. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia so short a time as four years ago." No denial in the U.S.-Iraq case, just a playing dumb about the earlier alliance along with a freshly minted intense indignation at the bad man.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="10" style="width: 243px;"><tbody>
<tr><td bgcolor="#000000" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i><a href="http://afghanistan.phrblog.org/get-the-facts/photos/" target="_blank">Dasht-e-Leili grave—photos from</a></i></b></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i> </i></b></span></span><b><i><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://afghanistan.phrblog.org/get-the-facts/photos/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Physicians for Human Rights</span></span></a></span></i></b></span> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Another fine case can be seen in connection with the recent <i>New York Times</i> front-page article and editorial on the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in Afghanistan (James Risen, "U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.s Died," July 11, 2009; editorial, "The Truth About Dasht-e-Leili," July 14, 2009). This case harks back to November 2001 when, as asserted in a recent (July 14) editorial, "fighters under the command of Gen. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Abdul Rashid Dostum stuffed surrendering <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2003/5/23/afghan_massacre_the_convoy_of_death" target="_blank">Taliban prisoners</a> into metal shipping containers without food or water. Many suffocated. Guards shot others to death. The victims are believed to be buried in a grave in the desert of Dasht-i-Leili in northern Afghanistan."</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">The editors now denounce as a "sordid legacy" of the Bush administration its "refusal to investigate charges" of these killings. "There can be no justification for the horrors or for the willingness of the United States and Afghanistan to look the other way." But the truth of the matter is that when the Bush administration refused to "investigate charges" and "looked the other way" back in 2001 and 2002, so did the <i>New York Times</i>. The paper had no editorials or opinion columns on the case and only two news articles by John Burns even dealt with the Dasht-e-Leili massacre (a word that Burns doesn't apply to this case), neither published till August 2002.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">In the first one, Burns mentions that "as many as 1,000 others [prisoners] died from wounds or during transport in freight containers to that notorious prison at the northern town of Sheberghan, their desperate appeals for water and fresh air denied by captors who buried them later at a mass grave near the remote village of Dasht-e-Leili." This lonely sentence seems a bit cavalier for a cruel and large-scale massacre and its insignificance is highlighted by the title of Burns's article, which featured not the killings, but the "problem" posed by prisoners to Afghan president Karzai ("Foreign Prisoners Becoming a Problem for Karzai," August 23, 2002).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">A second article by Burns does focus on the massacre: "Political Realities Impeding Full Inquiry Into Afghan Atrocity" (August 29, 2002). This article, which closed out the <i>Times</i>' interest in this story till 2009, was surely precipitated by what was possibly the most substantial news article on the Dasht-e-Leili massacre to appear in the mainstream media—a <i>Newsweek </i>piece on August 26, 2002, "The Death Convoy of Afghanistan." Burns again says that "as many as 1,000" Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners may have died in this convoy, but this estimate is on the low side. (Jamie Doran, who spoke to many participants and witnesses in making his documentary, <i>Massacre at Mazar</i>, estimates between 3,000 and 5,000.) </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rJ6OytX80NI" target="_blank">Afghan Massacre: The Convoy Of Death, part 1</a></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YSnc-I1XIk&feature=related" target="_blank">Afghan Massacre: The Convoy Of Death, part 2</a></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aRdfNJar7s&feature=relmfu" target="_blank">Afghan Massacre: The Convoy Of Death, part 3</a></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REi9UW1ES1U&feature=relmfu" target="_blank">Afghan Massacre: The Convoy Of Death, part 4</a></span></em></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Most of Burns's article is on the "political realities" that make pursuit of the case unlikely. Mostly, it's about how General Dostum is in charge in this territory and he hasn't cooperated. The UN representative for Afghanistan said that an investigation was stymied because investigators and witnesses couldn't be protected. Nowhere does Burns mention that Dostum was on the U.S. payroll or suggest that inaction flowed from a U.S. unwillingness to pursue the matter. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Toward the end, Burns cites a U.S. general claiming that there had been no involvement in this atrocity by U.S. personnel and that the U.S. would only consider helping with an investigation if the Pentagon "were asked by the Kabul government" to do so. Burns does not dig any further on the relations between the U.S. and Afghan governments or the truth of the claim of U.S. non-involvement or the possible deeper reasons why the Pentagon might have dragged its feet.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Physicians for Humans Rights (PHR), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch all called attention to Dasht-e-Leili in 2001 and 2002 and PHR urged the importance of protecting the huge burial site for possible future investigation. This was not reported in the <i>New York Times</i>, although in its editorial of July 14, 2009, the editors rather late in the game do say "the site must be guarded and the witnesses protected." </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">The <i>Times </i>had an opportunity to look more deeply into the case when <i>Massacre at Mazar </i>was shown in Europe in June 2002. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">This documentary cited a number of witnesses testifying that U.S. Army, Special Forces, and CIA personnel were on the scene when the atrocities occurred and, at several points, seemed to be in overall command. One witness claimed that U.S. personnel urged a quick burial to avoid satellite observance. While this documentarywas shown and reported on in Europe, it was never mentioned in the U.S. mass media, including the <i>New York Times</i>.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Another occasion when this story surfaced occurred in March 2004, at which time the "Tipton Three" were finally released from Guantanamo after several years of incarceration and torture. This release followed British government documentation that the claims of their involvement in terrorism were based on torture-induced falsifications. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">While the British media were full of quotes from the released victims on the "hell" they had undergone, the four <i>New York Times</i> articles that mentioned this case were essentially apologetics for Guantanamo, with no details or quotes from the victims and twice as much space given to Pentagon replies than to victims' claims. <i>Times </i>reporters never mention that the Tipton Three were falsely accused by other prisoners, apparently based on torture, and that the Three themselves eventually gave up and "confessed," before an inquiry in Britain showed them to be innocent.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">Most relevant here, none of the <i>New York Times</i> articles mention the Tipton Three's experiences in Northern Afghanistan and their claims about the Dasht-e-Leili massacre in which they were among the small number of barely surviving victims.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;">For half a decade the <i>New York</i> <i>Times </i>followed the official, Bush administration party line that sought to evade any investigation, let alone search for justice, in the Dasht-e-Leili massacre case. With each opportunity to look more closely at the subject and bring it to public attention, the <i>Times </i>failed to do so. The Bush administration wanted the paper to look the other way and it did, and the "sordid legacy" of George Bush is also part of the sordid legacy of the <i>New York Times</i>.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Why is the paper changing its tune now? The editors are open about it. They say that "the administration is pressing Mr. Karzai not to return General Dostum to power. Mr. Obama needs to order a full investigation into the massacre" (ed., July 14, 2009). Now, the editors acknowledge that back in 2001 Dostum "was on the C.I.A. payroll and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in the early days of the war." </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">But seven years ago John Burns quoted a Pentagon general saying that "there is no evidence that America troops were in any way involved in what happened at Shibarghan [sic]." At that time General Dostum was doing what the Pentagon wanted him to do; now the Administration wants Dostum out of the way. And the news fit to print changes accordingly.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Edward S. Herman is an economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media.</span></i></b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: black;"><em>Source: <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/the-times-remembers-the-dasht-e-leili-massacre-by-edward-herman" target="_blank">ZCommunications</a></em></span></b></span></span></span><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-20589423426988437842011-11-08T16:22:00.000+00:002011-11-08T16:22:50.573+00:00BBC commitment to impartiality questioned in its coverage of Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BBC commitment to
impartiality questioned in its coverage of Afghanistan</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/02/bbc-commitment-to-impartiality-questioned-in-its-coverage-of-afghanistan/" target="_blank"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">By</span> </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Hanan Habibzai</span></b></a><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">This article analysis the work of three media
organizations relating to their coverage of the same event in Afghanistan. On
10<sup>th</sup> February 2011 Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman from the Afghan
National Security Directorate, gave a press conference to the world’s media
claiming the government had arrested two men suspected of carrying out a
suicide bombing in Kabul that killed eight people.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The BBC Pashto Service report of the conference, compared to coverage of
the same event by the USA’s Washington Post and an Afghan online news agency
Pajhwok calls into question the BBC’s impartiality when reporting on Afghan
affairs. The BBC is renowned for its relatively strong commitment to impartial,
professional journalism focused on truth in the public interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘‘Impartiality lies at the heart of public service and is the core of
the BBC’s commitment to its audiences. It applies to all our output and
services – television, radio, online, and in our international services and
commercial magazines. We must be inclusive, considering the broad perspective
and ensuring the existence of a range of views is appropriately reflected’’.<sup>1
</sup>Yet the corporation’s reporting in Afghanistan through its Afghan Section
continuously deviates from these principles. The press conference in Kabul is a
telling example of this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BBC PASHTO SERVICES’ APPROACH </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The original news story in Pashto, an official language of Afghanistan,
was broadcasted on 10<sup>th</sup> February 2011. For this analysis, I use an
English translation. <sup>2</sup> The story was treated as a high profile news
item on the day with a picture of Lutfullah Mashal covering the top half of BBC
Pashto’s online front page. The headline chosen, ‘Intelligence says a
Pul-i-Charkhi prisoner was guiding suicide bombers’, even though the person
presenting the information is a government spokesman and not the prisoner
himself. The term ‘says’, has been used, when perhaps ‘claims’ might be more
accurate. In using this headline the report has already taken what the
government says as fact without challenging its version of events, something
imperative to good journalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Looking at the body of the story, the language used is more evidence to
support the notion that the reporting is biased. The first sentence of the
story represents a point of view, in this case that the men arrested are
terrorists, even though no trial had taken place to confirm or refute this.
Other reports carefully refer to ‘alleged bombers’ or ‘suspects’, as impartial
journalism should; yet here the reporter is corrupting reader impartiality by
stating as fact the government line that the men arrested were in fact
terrorists rather than suspects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The language used is one-sided, therefore compromises on the principles
of the impartiality and independence of journalism. In other words, the
language used is very opinionated which intentionally endeavours to influence
the opinion of the reader. These are contrary to the nature of true journalism.
‘‘The language of the news plays a major part in the construction of what
Berger and Luckman have referred to as the ‘social construction of reality’ (1976).
It assists in the creation of a set of public discourses through its selection
of narratives and the language it employs to project them’’ (Conboy, 2007:5).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The job of journalists is to provide the best obtainable version of
truth rather than drive the readers in a particular direction. It is only at
the end of that long first sentence that the reporter attributes it to the
government spokesman. The opening is more like a government statement than a
paragraph in a news story. The language in this first paragraph is political,
not factual. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If a report subsumes the strong views of politicians in this way,
it suggests complicity in the state’s attempt to control information; in effect
it implies that the reporter is partisan. Yet the BBC is supposed to be a
source of impartial and professional journalism regardless whether they are
reporting in Britain, Japan or Afghanistan. To illustrate, there are
alternative words that can be used instead of ‘terrorist’, some of which are
available in BBC’s guideline:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘‘We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such
as bomber, attacker, gunman, kidnapper, insurgent, and militant. We should not
adopt other people’s language as our own; our responsibility is to remain
objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own
assessments about who is doing what to whom’’<sup>3</sup>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The directorate
spokesperson, Mr Mashal, is the reporter’s second source; his primary sources
are the detained suspects, who also attended the conference. For accuracy, the
story should be told using their own voices, after all they are the ones
accused of masterminding the suicide attack. How can the BBC Pashto journalist
be so sure that the national directorate’s side of the story is the factual
side? The reader needs more reporting or at least a caveat from the reporter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter gives very little detail on the circumstances of the
arrests of the suspects, where were they arrested or what did they say verbatim
at the press conference? How were the attacks masterminded from prison? Via the
internet or cell phone? More information is needed for this to be plausible.
Instead, the only development the reader is given is that these men are
‘terrorists’ and bombers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This and the incorporation of Mr Mashal’s comments
into the body of the news report (outside quotations), compromises the reporter
as he is placed as a supporter of the claims made by the intelligence service.
In short, the main critique of this piece of reporting is that the journalist
appears to support one side of a story, which has skewed his reporting in a way
favourable to the government. Here is the last sentence of the report: ‘It is
not yet clear whether these people confessed by force and pressure’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The first
half of the sentence hints at proper investigative reporting; the journalist
reverts back to ‘say’ is more neutral than ‘‘confirms’’. The second half of the
sentence containing acceptance of Mr Mashal’s claims: ‘but intelligence says
the arrested people had direct links with Pakistan’s Lashker-e-Taiba and
Jalaluddin Haqani network’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">While BBC World Service English is professional in its work reporting on
international conflicts, its Afghanistan section too often deviates from high
quality output elsewhere. The mindless regurgitation of particular terms used
by state authorities like ‘terrorist’, ‘tragedy’, ‘bloodshed’, ‘painful’,
‘cruel’, ‘innocent’, ‘plot’ and so on, indicate an unquestioning acceptance of
state propaganda of the worst kind. ‘‘Victimising language like ‘devastated’,
‘defenceless’, ‘pathetic’, ‘tragedy’ which only tells us what has been done to
and could be done for a group of people by others. This is disempowering and
limits the options for change’’ (Lynch & McGoldrick, 2009: 29).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Indeed the use of language is a sensitive business for every journalist.
Every word generates a meaning; we listen, hear or watch it. Biased language
used in a report immediately raises questions about the ownership of a
particular media organisation and its ulterior motives. ‘‘News is determined by
values, and the kind of language in which that news is told reflects and
expresses those values. Audiences feel that the way in which language is used
must affect the content of what we receive from the media’’ (Bell, 1993:2).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">PAJHWOK AFGHAN NEWS (PAN)’S APPRAOCH </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To further illustrate the case, let us look at Afghan news agency
Pajhwok coverage of the same event <sup>4</sup>. Pajhwok refers to the alleged
bombers as ‘suspects’ in the article title because the men accused have yet to
be tried.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter steers clear of suggestive language in his opening sentence
referring to ‘arrested men’, whereas BBC Pashto says ‘terrorists’. The skilled
approach avoids the personal involvement of the reporter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter tries to reveal details about possible seize of the
military equipment with suspected individuals who appeared in the press
conference, and he tried to raise issues to do with the suspicious role of
alleged bombers in the attack on supermarket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter only quoted Mr Mashal when he made an effort to talk about
the areas where ‘men’ have been arrested and the equipment which linked to the
suspect bombers. Well use of source and professional practice of language by
Pajhwok news agency, when the journalist refers to the suspicious role of the
arrested ‘men’, he quotes the primary sources. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">Despite the fact that Pajhwok has a smaller budget and fewer resources
than the BBC, it still emerges as the more professional outfit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">THE WASHINGTON POST’S APPROACH </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Washington Post also reported the same event from Kabul on 10<sup>th</sup>February
2011. The Washington Post’s story titled ‘Kabul grocery bombing said to target
French diplomats’<sup>5</sup>, avoids using controversial terms such as
‘terrorist’. The reporter focuses on the primary sources, the suspected
bombers, present at the press conference<sup>. </sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The story opens with a quote from Mr Mashal, the official source, but
when reporting the details of the bombing and arrests, the post gives time and
space to the suspects themselves and not the government spokesman. As a result,
the reader is given a descriptive report of the event right down to the type of
clothes the suspected bombers wore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This sample of reporting from a western media outlet contradicts claims
that western journalists in Afghanistan are not impartial and instead voices
for the international security forces. The Washington Post reporter’s
comprehension of political and cultural implications of this event is such that
he reports in a sensitive way. Thus he avoids being seen as part of state
propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">INTUESIS & CONCLUSION </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">When reporting in Afghanistan it is important to recognise the different
interests that exist. Outside of Kabul, the Taliban are a political and
cultural force that may resonate with ordinary Afghans. The use of language
which obviously misleads audiences creates an unbridgeable gap of confidence,
which can too easily be filled by scepticism. In such matters the BBC
guidelines suggest that the possibility of some things being in the public
interest for one section of the population, but against the interests of another
is a matter of some debate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘‘We must not knowingly and materially mislead our audiences with our
content. We may need to clarify the nature of some content by labelling (for
example, verbally, in text or with visual or audio cues) to avoid being misleading
‘’.<sup>6</sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><sup><br /></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Another example where BBC journalists working in Afghanistan seem to
disregard these guidelines is the BBC Persian TV broadcast on 19<sup>th</sup>
February 2011 titled ‘My Kabul’. <sup>7</sup> The reporter presents the
experiences of a small section of society who enjoy life under the current
circumstances in Kabul. But he ignores the largely voiceless majority that live
in poverty and with the constant threat of death outside Kabul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter goes so far as to suggest that the Kabul police are
trustworthy a laughable claim since even those inside Kabul recognises the
systemic problem of police corruption. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter’s rose tinted view of
Afghanistan continues with the claim that because there are post-Taliban
private TV channels, there is also freedom of speech in the country. Yet this
ignores the murder and kidnap of many journalists and the continued threat to
investigative reporters. What of the BBC’s own Samad Rohani, killed in 2008?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The presenter airbrushes out the death of another journalist Sayed Hamid
Noori, killed in the heart of Kabul late last year. Private TV channels do not
mean freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without
fear of death or kidnapping.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporter does not question the decreasing authority of the Karzai government,
where injustice and corruption are widespread. According to Anderson, Peterson
and David (2005) the journalist must question the arrangement of an event and
only report the true picture rather than the painted official picture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘‘Both liberal democratic theory and the various strands of critical
theory share a central underlying concern with issues of news representation
and source access. Questions concerning whose voices are given prominence,
whose voices are silenced or marginalized, and the role of the media in
representing ‘public opinion’, is the subject of intense debate’’ (Anderson,
Peterson, David 2005:188).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The reporting of the BBC’s Afghan section is indicative of wider
problems with Afghan media. Many media organisations employ citizen journalists
rather than professionals, which significantly impacts the quality of reporting
in the country. Most Afghan journalists appear to ignore the political, social,
economic and cultural sensitivities of the country; instead their focus is on
the government agenda through press conferences and official statements. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Symbolic of this is the way that in the reporting of the February press
conference, the suspected bombers, such a compelling visual for readers, were
studiously ignored by the BBC reporter, and instead the government spokesman
was the star of the show. Such reporting suggests audiences and their interests
are not important, which makes it little more than a government propaganda
machine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">And so it is the interest of editors, who have their own political
agenda, which takes precedence in newsrooms across Afghanistan. This agenda
usually fits to what the government wants. This trickles down to junior staff
members, whose focus is avoiding poverty and unemployment, which means toeing
the party line at the expense of journalistic integrity. End.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Notes </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">1: See </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-impartiality-introduction." target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BBC editorial guidelines online version</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">2: Click </span><a href="http://hananhabibzai.blogspot.com/2011/03/intelligence-says-pul-i-charkhi.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">for a translation of BBC story</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">3: See </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-war-practices-accuracy/#user-generated-content" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BBC editorial guidelines online version</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">4: Click </span><a href="http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2011/02/10/suspect-recounts-lead-kabul-supermarket-blast" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">for Pajhwok’s original story</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">5: Click </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kabul-grocery-bombing-said-to-target-french-diplomats/2011/02/10/ABWS3qQ_story.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Washington Post’s original story </span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">6: See </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-accuracy-avoiding-misleading-audiences#sources." target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BBC editorial guidelines online version</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">7: Click for </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXX9tOtU258" target="_blank">BBC Persian story </a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">REFERENCES </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Anderson, A &Petersen, A, David, M & Allan, S. (2005), News
Production and Sources Strategies, Journalism Critical Issues, New York:
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Bell, A. (1993), the Language of News Media, Oxford: Blackwell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Conboy,M. (2007), The Language of the News, New York: Routledge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Lynch, J & McGoldriick, A. (2005), Peace Journalism,
Gloucestershire: Hawthorn Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The first draft of this article is reviewed
by Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, a UK based journalist, and the second draft of
this article is reviewed by Dr Fred Mudhai senior lecturer in global journalism
at Coventry University, UK. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-58226783995942833082011-11-02T20:28:00.000+00:002011-11-15T09:41:28.876+00:00Pashto and Pashtuns: In the Light of Linguistic Perspective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/02/pashto-and-pashtuns-in-the-light-of-linguistic-perspective/" target="_blank">Pashto andPashtuns</a></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">In the
Light of Linguistic Perspective<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">By
Prof.Dr.M.A. Zyar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pashto is
the language of Pashtuns. Pashtuns (Afghans) are the biggest majority ethno-linguistic
tribe and the most long living residents of Afghanistan. The name of the
country is links with the name of largest majority, the Pashtuns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">From the
point of view of history and geography Pashtuns belong to northeastern areas like<i>
Pamir</i> and <i>Balkh</i>. The grandpas of Pashtuns were named as <i>Sakas</i>,
<i>Kasyan</i> and <i>Sakan, </i>and the Pashto itself were the grandson of <i>Saki</i>
language. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Other
current Saki languages belong to <i>Saka</i> origins like: Osety (Caucasia) and
12 or 13 other Pamiri languages are considered close sisters. <i>Sakas</i> are considered
the fifth <i>Aryanian</i> origin along with, Awesta-speaking <i>Zartostrians</i>,
<i>Partians</i>, <i>Madians</i> and <i>Parsians</i>, which created big empires
many centuries before Christ in the Middle East, Caucasia, to northern west
India and Kashmir, and defended its main residential territory (Bacteria or
Balkh and the area around Axos river) from Greek invaders led by Alexander the
Great and later established its first <i>Greeco- Bacter</i> government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">From today 1965 years back some Sakas
moved from north to south and named Halmand down area (Zarangia>Zaranj) with
their name Sakistan, which later changed as Sistan. In second century AD when
the empire of Sakistan collapsed, in the north the Saki origin Koshanian</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">s</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <span lang="EN-US">set the foundation of another
empire, which controlled the north, west and south as well as the northwest of
India and Kashmir. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Since then<i> </i>Pashtun Sakas
established big and small feudal governments in the Ghor and Herat, the valleys
of Helmand and Arghandab to Ghawara Margha -</span><span dir="RTL" lang="PS-AF" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">غوړه</span><span dir="RTL" lang="PS-AF" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span dir="RTL" lang="PS-AF" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">مرغه</span><span dir="RTL" lang="PS-AF" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> - (Arakoziya, current Arghistan), and to the skirt of Kasay the Solaiman
Mountains which were later spread to Sindh, India and Kashmir. This way Pashto was affected by Indian Aryan
languages and collected a lot to its skirt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">For the first time, the name of Afghan as <i>Apaga</i>
is found (252-6 B.C.) in Aechamenian eara, later Apakan as nickname of Sasanian
king Shahpuhr the First (309-378).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> In
ancient Indian books, in sixth century has been published it as <i>Avagana</i> by
Indian astrologer, Aramihra, and <i>O-po-kien</i> in Chinese sources.The <i>Avaganas</i>
are the todays' Pashtuns which make the largest majority of Afghanistan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">In this
point, let us quit the tales of the history, and let us discuss the current
situation. Pashtuns suffer the historic tortures, even though Pashtuns
traditional Jirga and meetings are good examples of democracy, but the nation
could not experience the democracy with real meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">To bring
democracy and establish civil society in the war-shattered country, it was
necessary that Pashtuns should have been educated, though, historically,
Pashtuns have been used as a force of war, as the ruling sources used them to
defend against the invaders and that is it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The largest
tribe, with tribal values does not know anything about globalization or the
real meaning of democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pashtuns have been pushed to war in the
history because of some foreign movements who invaded Afghanistan time to time in
the course of the history to gain control over the region through geopolitical
position of the country. Simply like other free nations military, cultural and
political interferes of foreign countries were considered as attack on the soil
and the values. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Currently
their language fights with a cultural invasion and there is no policy within
Afghan government to protect Pashto from foreign assaults, and such a bad
condition. The Pashto language has almost been separated from official
activities intentionally and Pashtuns think that internal and foreigners have
launched conspiracies against their language and values. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Many
Pashtun intellectuals and writers say if the society does not begin a peaceful cultural
struggle to protect its language, does not protect it from negative affects of
neighboring Persian language, and does not give hand together against the
rivals. It is possible that Pashto will be separated completely from the
political ground of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">In a
society where there are not enough educated people, its members will be deprived
from intellectual evolution in technological age. Pashtuns are so behind from
the international movement due to involvement in the wars that it needs
successive and a lot of efforts to integrate them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Military wars
in their environment and civil war among Pashtuns have made it difficult for Pashtuns
to get together to tackle hurdles against them, coordinately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Looking to
the current military and political situation Pashtuns pay the biggest
scarifications to survive their future role in the country’s politics, in other
hand they appeared main victims of so-called war on terror in Afghanistan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Taliban
are fighting in Pashtun areas and international alliance and its Afghan collaborators
non-Pashtun allies so-called Northern Alliance also searches their Pashtun enemies
in Pashtun areas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">This
condition has given hope to those minorities who attempt to defame Pashtuns and
would replace Pashtuns in political ground, as proxies of neighboring countries.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Those who
do not accept Pashto-Pashtuns and Afghans- Afghanistan, enjoy the current
situation in Afghanistan, the struggles against Pashtuns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">They accept the articles of the
constitution which have been set in the constitution by Iranian instructions to
protect their separatism and sectionalist interests. For last 70 to 80 years newly created
terminologies used by Iranian have also been used by these minorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">For
instance, since king Amir Shir Ali Khan (1868-79) up to present all military
and administrative terminologies were in Pashto among 47 Afghan linguistic groups
and this should not be contradicted, but, they ignore the fact and say why it
should not be in both languages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Even when
some others do not have any other reasons they say that there has been no limit
for these terminologies. </span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">When
Persian speaking Afghans write a texts and needs to write Afghan terminology then
they do not write them in the way it is written in Pashto, as instead of Pashto
(</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">څ</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">=ts</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">) they
would write Arabic (</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">س</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">) or instead of Pashto (</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">ښ</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">=ş</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">) they
would write Arabic( </span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">ش</span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">) and such others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Even
though such issues look ordinary to many people, but this type of official activities
made many Pashtuns upset and have distanced from government officials. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Dari is
a </span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">dialect </span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">of Persian, as Tajiki Persian, and was
forcefully added to Afghan constitution in 1964 as Dari language. They think, if Dari owns its original Persian
linguistic name, then its origin should be recognized as southwestern<i>
Aryanian</i> languages, not northeast <i>Bakhtari</i> group. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Historian Muhiuddin
Mehdi discovered the <i>Surkh Kotal </i> in
1956 and later in 1993 <i>Rubatak</i>, provided historic information from inscriptions
about 200 to 300 other scattered discove- ries has picked up information from Professor
Hinning to the current alive Sims Williams (SOAS, Lodon) as a famous Aryasnist (Iranist) and has selected the position of
Pashto and Pamiri (as of Yadghi and Monji) and also Soghdi, Bactri, Parti and
Khawarezmi. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">This best
historic-geographic position and long and prosper activities and literature of
Pashto has attracted the attention of many Aryanists since18<sup>th</sup>
century and have undertaken significant academic researches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Following
French expert J.Darmesteter and German W.Geigar, distinguished Pashto language’s
scholar, Professor George Morgenstierne devoted 60 years of his life on new
linguistic knowledge about Pashto and the related languages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">He was
always saying that the <i>Landay</i> (special type of Pashto popülar poems), and
Khushal Khan Khatak (1613-1689), the great Pasho poet, were enough for me to
get special interest and involvement with all <i>Aryan</i> and then <i>Aryanian</i>
languages, in particular the Pashto. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">As
Pashtuns have spent over 2500 years in defense and invasive wars due to its
geographical location, they could not find time to nourish Pashto, and in new
Aryanian eara. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 19px;">On the
other words, in the beginning of Islam, Pashtuns were in need or were pushed to
use and utilize the south-western Persian as second Islamic language.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">This
requirement and motivation forced a famous king Sekander Ludi to use and send
Persian language letters to India instead of his native language Pashto, and
then pave way to Sory rulers and Turk- Mongol rulers to use Persian and at the
end from Kabul to Dakan, the Indian city, Persian became the language of majesty courts
and offices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hotaks
with the support of fourth Hotak king Shah Hussian (1729-38) started to
accommodate Pashto language, but storm came on them from west of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ahmad Shah
Baba also designed a map to support Pashto, but his successor ignored it,
particularly when King Teemor Shah chose Kabul as the capital with the
consultation of Turk-Mongol colonizers, which thrown all hopes and efforts to
Kabul River.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">It was a big
cause, since then the culturist and developed minded Amir Shir Ali Khan attempted
to restore the position of Pashto Language, but his successors up to present could
not help stand Pashto as equal rival to Persian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Very
unfortunately at the present, the Pashtuns and Afghanistan are confronted
ethnic groups, anti-national unity filthy alliance and foreign military
occupation which challenge the war torn Pashtuns and their war shattered
position.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> And much rudely with provocation and support
of Iranian leaders implement the tripartite Persian states concept, that has
been initiated by Raza Shah pehlavi in .1936, (you will read more about this in the
upcoming chapters) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Afghanistan ministry of information and
culture expressed concern over the use of Iranian terminology in media. </span><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">An origin
Pashtun, former minister Karim Khuram viewed concerns over the Iranian
increasing influence. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 19px;"> He went a step ahead and made efforts to
encourage media to use national terminologies, but, no one heard his voices, instead,
following his comment, Iranian cultural sources in Kabul criticized him.</span><br />
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span dir="LTR" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Afghan
experts say, if the international community wants peace in Afghanistan, they
should pave way for the establishment of Pashto research centers and
development of the language. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 19px;">Pashtuns
will consider the move a good news, and this way international community will attract majority
Pashtuns to support foreign efforts in Afghanistan. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-4126253611450225182011-10-05T22:31:00.000+01:002011-10-07T21:36:40.849+01:00The complexity of newsgathering in Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span lang="EN"><a href="http://cjr2011.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/the-complexity-of-news-gathering-in-afghanistan/">The complexity of newsgathering in Afghanistan </a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span lang="EN"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<i><span lang="EN">By Hanan Habibzai</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span lang="EN"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">INTRODUCTION</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
The local communication is characterised by
restricted media culture which involves ethnic and sectarian ideologies. In an
environment where decades of conflicts destroyed everything, thinking style is
consequently exaggerated one way or another. Therefore, the function of
communication system and resources shape the audiences opinions toward
particular direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">The ‘‘journalists are licensed agents of
symbolic power – authorised by their status as employees of news organisations
to tell the stories through which we make sense of our society’’ (Meikle &
Redden 2011:10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">An Editorial policy requires, and the audiences
should be in the heart of this guiding principle. Although <i>Pajhwok</i> has a
specific written editorial guideline, but mostly news gathering process in
Afghanistan comes through oral and unwritten editorial management. The news
gathering methods are often borrowed from western media organisations news
guidelines such as the <i>BBC</i>, and the <i>Reuters News Agency</i>, but
frequently remain overshadowed by professional concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">This essay examines the complication of news
gathering in Afghanistan, and provides a scholastic definition of news
production in the country where searching truth becomes difficult due to
security risks. My analysis is based on a statement by Danish Karokhel the
founder of the <i>Pajhwok Afghan News</i> (PAN) and relevant studies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">THE AFFECT OF TENSE SURROUNDINGS </span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">News production is severely controlled by
powerful people and criminal gangs outside and inside Afghanistan’s government.
The journalists usually recognise the threat consequences of a particular story
might pose; they also can feel the state’s influence further more visibly.
Reporters receive calls from known and unknown officials concerning particular
news stories. </span>As a result, the meaning of the news text changes or the coverage
of a particular event prohibited. Free discussion through news controls one way
or another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘News matters. It remains the main forum for
discussion of issues of public importance. It offers an arena in which
journalists and media firms, politicians, other high – status sources of
information and audiences come together to inform, persuade, influence ,endorse
or reject one another in a collaborative process of making meaning from
events’’(Meikle & Redden 2011:1a). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Journalists put themselves in the line of fire
of powerful members of society who attempt to consolidate their power through
political corruption. They utilise their positions to influence the process of
agenda settings and editorial decisions within private media organisations, a
reason which distress the news gathering process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">News gathering ‘‘involves reporters,
correspondents, producers, news editors and planners. They use sources such as
people, documents, news releases and Internet –and other media outlets. They
use equipment from a pen and notebook to audio recorders and cameras’’ (Franklin,
Hamer, Hanna, Kinsey & Richardson 2005:169).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Journalists require these things to elevate the
truth and keep their audiences informed. However, the interest of audiences
widely decreases when the meanings of news text become causality of direct
influence by political actors. Many people working across Afghan Media face
lack of ethical and professional skills, simply for the reason that they are
more citizens rather than professional journalists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">BBC’s Inayatulhaq Yasini says his experience of
nearly 18 years of work as a journalist shows that most of those working in
Afghan media face lack of professional skills. He summarises the reasons as
below:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN">‘‘Media organizations are not paying attention to the training of
their staff; they just concentrate on how to cover the events.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN">People are mostly recruited if they got personal relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN">The payment is very low, that is why most of journalists are forced
to have second jobs, which affects their journalistic work.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN">Lack of security, which force journalist to self-censorship.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN">Most media outlets are supported by foreign or local donors, and
everyone has its own agenda, it is forcing journalist to follow strictly
what the boss saying even on the expense of violating journalistic
values’’ (Yasini,2011).<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">THE EYE WITNESS JOURNALISM</span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span lang="EN">Pajhwok Afghan News </span></i><span lang="EN">is
based at the heart of Afghan news. Like eye witness journalism, its reporters
closely observe every day events all across the country, which allow them to
have a full coverage of Afghan developments. The ‘Eye witness journalism is in
one sense the purest and best of what we do. It has the power to settle part of
the argument, to close down propaganda, to challenge myth-making. It is the
first draft in the writing of history and, in itself, a primary source for
future historians’ (Little 2010:10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">The environment in which<i> Pajhwok</i> runs
remains a dangerous region for journalists and reporters where the freedom of
speech regularly victimised or offended by powerful officials, drug lords and
militants. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘We live in a world where journalists are kidnapped and beheaded
and so becoming embedded has become a necessary evil. It needs to be seen in
context (as the reporters quoted here stress): embedded reporting is only part
of the coverage of the war’’ (Hayward 2010:54).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">At least one of PAN’s reporters and several
other journalists lost their lives searching for the truth and ever since, news
gathering has become an even more complex job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Journalists who cover Afghan issues face the
anger of many: warlords, drug lords, war criminals, corrupt officials,
insurgents and killers – the people who hate truth tellers. Afghanistan is a
dangerous country (particularly for journalists who want to tell the truth)
quite simply because the people who are in the business of killing and the drug
traders are the real power in the land’’ (Habibzai 2010: 57) and these are the
people who remain major sources for the news as well. Quite simply, what they
want to hide and what they want to tell is up to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘The Afghan authorities think foreign
journalists have the strong support of the international security assistance force
and hence they offer them excellent access. However, local journalists do not
enjoy such access: there is no security assurance for them to cover big issues
such as corruption. On that issue, local journalists can only report from press
conferences. But foreign journalists can investigate it deeper because they
enjoy the support of their organisation and the Western countries’ military and
political presence’’ (Habibzai 2010: 57a).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Access to the information is an elaborate
process drives journalists to leave a number of key stories uncovered. The
local reporters and journalists see and hear what is happening in their
environment, but often security events need the confirmation of local officials
which usually arrives too late or not happening at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">NEWS GATHERING IN TRICKY SITUATION </span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Danish Karokhel is the founder and director of <i>Pajhwok
Afghan News</i> (PAN) is satisfied to some extent for the work his organisation
does in Afghanistan.</span>‘‘We have won the confidence of people owing to
our constant adherence to objective, clean and responsible journalism. Groups
of people from different parts of the country come and share their problems
with us. To quote just one instance, representatives of the remote Wakhan
district in Northern Badakhshan, Ghorband and central Ghazni and Kabul recently
shared their concerns with <i>Pajhwok</i>, which they view as an effective
forum for raising such issues in a constructive and rational manner’’(Karokhel
2011).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Talking about the complexity of news gathering
involves some risks to security. This is because it can cause the rich and
powerful to be embarrassed which biases them against the news media. The
poverty of human resources within Afghan government and on-going conflict in
the country resulted in the transfer of power to people with criminal
backgrounds. Many journalists don’t dare to cover the issues to do with bribery
and political corruption in Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Raising issues to do with illegal business could
cost people their lives for which there are quite a few examples of journalists
losing their life in pursuit of the story. Going to the scene of events, they
may find many things that are news worthy, but they are forced into silence due
to fear for their lives. Many local journalists are not ready to work in such a
tense surroundings where the exposure of truth becomes problematic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Because of these security and economic
problems, <i>Pajhwok</i> has had a difficult struggle with staff attrition.
Replacing staff has been made more difficult by the related flight of qualified
Afghan journalism trainers to better paying jobs. The problems are even more
acute in turnover within <i>Pajhwok</i>‘s management team’’ (Danish, 2011a).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Several types of censorship exist in the process
of news gathering which can alter the true meaning of a story. The majority of
news reports contain censorship and thus, the reality remains a casualty of the
on-going situation. By studying and better understanding all types of news
stories as sociological practice, one can easily find out the difficulties
journalists are facing every day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Local journalists are the main victims of
the conflict. They don’t have life insurance and so they do not dare to go on
dangerous assignments. If they are brave and say the truth they immediately
face death threats’’ (Habibzai 2010:58b). Since, Afghanistan is a war shattered country; specialism is an issue for media
and other governmental and non-governmental organisations. Therefore, the news
gathering process in the country is quite unlike that in the west. However, <i>Pajhwok</i>’s
founder Danish Karokhel insists that journalists working for the organisation
are absolutely given professional training and capable of modern journalistic
skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">NEWS PRODUCTION </span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Apart from professional codes, almost every
media organisation has particular norms for processing news production.
‘’Journalism has a distinct culture with norms, conventions, and expectations
of behaviour from those who are part of the culture. Many of those expectations
are fuelled by the public service aspects of the profession-the feeling among
journalists that they are working for the public good, not just for their
private benefit’’ (Stovall,2005:22).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">The preventions drive the significance of a news
story from one side to another because from outside the newsroom, several
factors interfere with the process of news production. Those factors involve
political interests of the gatekeepers and text producers’; therefore, Afghan
media outlets always containing single focus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">This culture generally exists in countries lead
by an authoritarian system. Afghanistan can be relatively characterised as an
authoritarian country because the public sphere theory does not exist and the
powerful men use official positions to undermine the freedom of speech. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">William H Hachten [2001] points out that the
press nearly always magnifies the bad and underplays the good. ‘‘The media are
no longer seen as society’s truth-Sayers. By embellishing the bad and filtering
out the good, a negative picture emerge’’ (Hachten 2001:115). This is what
powerful people accuse journalists of focusing on political and military
corruption and ignorance of ‘so called’ development in Afghanistan. They are
also blaming media on more favouritism toward negativity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘It is clear that Afghanistan’s institutions,
despite, all the rhetoric are one of the most corrupt in the world. There might
be some exemptions but generally speaking corruption is high everywhere. This
has affected every aspect of the country. The problems with media
organizations, particularly which are based in Afghanistan are under the
influence of different reasons. The news organizations are looking to the
events according to their ethno-political interests and affiliations’’ (Yasini,
2011a).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">The continuous war and violence, state
corruption, political fraud and crimes against humanity overshadowed the so
called reconstructive development in the country, if there is any. Many
journalists including <i>Pajhwok</i>’s reporters trying to raise issues to do
with above mentioned phenomenon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘There are many times more new events
circulating than any newspaper or magazine could ever print. So it has to
select those items that will have the most interest to its target audience’’
(Niblock 2005:75) .In this case Afghan media seem to have no cross ethnic and
cross border audiences, and the politics of media organisations are mostly
interconnected with contemporary political factions . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">The essential uses of functional sociological
theories in the study of news reporting may help a scholar to identify the
impact of such product on audience as well as the confrontation with a tricky
process to raise a truth. This can be recognised as a study of sociology of the
news subjected by general sociology of the knowledge. The men or women setting
in the newsroom waiting for a complete package of materials and expect a
comprehensive story, but they have to pay less attention to understand that
informational crisis drives the story toward meaningless direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">In this type of condition journalists covering
the everyday issues require specialised knowledge of news gathering and news
production. ‘‘This need will encourage new forms of journalism and new
journalistic skills to emerge. A more instrumental journalism will transform
journalists into information brokers drawing on a variety of journalistic,
graphic and database skills to supply particular clients with information
relevant to their concerns’’ (Manning 2001:77).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">To ensure this purpose, the practice of
journalism ‘‘requires extraordinary energy and intellectual accomplishment
under the constant pressure of daily deadlines. Journalists have to perform in
pressure-packed environments. They have to produce, and they have to find ways
of producing’’ (Stovall 2005:25a) a news story. The text of a story affects
when a news source denies providing basic information. Many Afghan journalists
claim that the content of their work remains imperfect when they denied
information by Afghan authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">CONCLUSION </span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">State corruption, political and military chaos
have characterised major challenges against free and independent discussion
through media outlets. Political and armed instability is a main reason pushing
journalists to censor his or her work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Journalists and media rights activists in
Afghanistan are warning of a growing threat to freedom of expression, while
officials contend that restrictions are imposed on media outlets only in
response to irresponsible reporting. Most recently, the Pashto-language news
website <i>Benawa</i> was banned on September 10<sup>th</sup> 2010 after it
erroneously reported that Afghan vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim had died’’
(Wahedi 2010).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘It is also moving to outlaw another widely
followed muckraking journalism site, <i>Tolafghan.com</i>. The steps come weeks
after Afghanistan’s government closed down one of Kabul’s most popular TV
stations, <i>Emroz TV</i>, following a request by the Iranian Embassy, and
enacted wide-ranging’’ (Trofimov 2010).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Benawa officials said the article was
corrected within half an hour and they accused information minister Sayed
Makhdum Rahin of slapping the barring order on them because of stories they had
published about him in the past’’[Wahedi 2010a]. ‘‘The flourishing Afghan media
scene is one of the success stories of the post-Taleban era, but the country’s
ministry of information and culture has come under fire for imposing bans on
several television stations’’ (Wahedi 2010b).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">‘‘Conservative values are also a strong force,
and many media outlets have been accused of carrying morally offensive
material. Some of this criticism has come from the Commission for Monitoring
Media Misconduct, a body set up by the information and culture ministry. Afghan
internet service providers have been told to block thousands of websites that
contain pornography or are linked to insurgent groups like the Taleban’’
(Wahedi 2010c).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Many Afghan journalists including <i>Pajhwok
Afghan News</i> reporters disputed against the denial of information by Afghan
officials, but so far officials show no signs of collaboration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN">REFERENCES</span></b><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Franklin, B, Hamer, M, Hanna, M, Kinsey, M &
Richardson, J, E. (2005), Key concepts in Journalism Studies, news gathering,
London: Sage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN">Habibzai,H.
(2010), The Challenge facing media coverage: an Afghan perspective , J. Mair, &
R. Keeble, (eds), <i>Afghanistan, War and the Media: deadlines and frontlines</i>,
p56 – 62, London: arima. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Hachten, W, H. (2001), the Troubles of
Journalism, Self-Criticism of the Press, MAHWAH: Lawrence Erlbaum Association,
Inc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Hayward, D (2010), </span>Why
embedded reporting is a necessary evil<span lang="EN">, J, Mair, & R, Keeble. (eds), <i>Afghanistan, War and the Media: deadlines and frontlines</i><i>,</i> p 49 - 55, London:
arima.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Karokhel, D. (2011), Info about Pajhwok, To Habibzai, Email
(18.05.2011).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Little, A. (2010), in defence of the non-embed,
J, Mair & R, Keeble, (eds), <i>Afghanistan, War and the Media: deadlines and frontlines</i>, p 6 – 12, London: arima.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Manning, P. (2001), News and News Sources, News
Technology and the Impact of Electronic News-gathering, London: Sage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Meikle, G & Redden, G. (2011), News Online, New York: Palgrave
MaCmillan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Niblock, S. (2005), practice and theory, R,
Keeble. (eds), <i>Print Journalism</i> <i>a critical introduction</i>, np, New
York : Routledge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Stovall, J, G . (2005), <i>the culture of
journalism, the world of the Journalism</i>, New York: Pearson Education, Inc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Tromifov, Y. (2010), <i>Afghan Media Freedoms Erode</i>
(Online), Available here<br />
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703793804575511941412671572.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703793804575511941412671572.html</span></a>
(Accessed: 18.05.2011).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Wahedi, F. (2010), <i>Afghan Journalists Angered by
Media Bans, Information ministry<br />
Accused of meddling after television stations shut down</i> (Online), Available
here<br />
<a href="http://iwpr.net/report-news/afghan-journalists-angered-media-bans"><span style="color: blue;">http://iwpr.net/report-news/afghan-journalists-angered-media-bans</span></a>
(Accessed:17.05.2011).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN">Yasini, I, H. (2011),<i> Challenges Afghan Media
face</i>, To Habibzai, Email. (08.06.2011).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-58342537723669059722011-09-07T23:03:00.000+01:002011-09-07T23:07:40.907+01:00Noam Chomsky: 9/11 - was there an alternative response?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119775453842191.html">Suppression of one's own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated.</a></b></div>
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By<b> </b><span class="byLine" id="cphBody_dvByLine"><a class="orangetext" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/profile/noam-chomsky.html">Noam Chomsky</a></span><span id="dvArticleDate"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We are
approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11,
2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1, the presumed
mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team
of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and
undefended, in Operation Geronimo.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A number of
analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some
major successes in his war against the US. "He repeatedly asserted that the only
way to drive the US from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing
Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately
bankrupt them," Eric Margolis writes. "'Bleeding the US,' in his words. The
United States, first under George W Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right
into bin Laden’s trap ... Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt
addiction ... may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could
defeat the United States” - particularly when the debt is being cynically
exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to
undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in
general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That Washington
was bent on fulfilling bin Laden’s fervent wishes was evident at once. As
discussed in my book <em>9-11</em>, written shortly after those attacks
occurred, anyone with knowledge of the region could recognise “that a massive
assault on a Muslim population would be the answer to the prayers of bin Laden
and his associates, and would lead the US and its allies into a ‘diabolical
trap’, as the French foreign minister put it”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The senior CIA
analyst responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden from 1996, Michael Scheuer,
wrote shortly after that “bin Laden has been precise in telling America the
reasons he is waging war on us. [He] is out to drastically alter US and Western
policies toward the Islamic world”, and largely succeeded: “US forces and
policies are completing the radicalisation of the Islamic world, something Osama
bin Laden has been trying to do with substantial but incomplete success since
the early 1990s. As a result, I think it is fair to conclude that the United
States of America remains bin Laden’s only indispensable ally.” And arguably
remains so, even after his death.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>The
first 9/11</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Was there an
alternative? There is every likelihood that the Jihadi movement, much of it
highly critical of bin Laden, could have been split and undermined after 9/11.
The “crime against humanity”, as it was rightly called, could have been
approached as a crime, with an international operation to apprehend the likely
suspects. That was recognised at the time, but no such idea was even
considered.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
</span><br />
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<td><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/the911decade"><img border="0" src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/imagecache/218/330/mritems/Images/2011/8/26/201182618597247734_20.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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<td align="center"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px;"><strong><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/the911decade">Click here
for more of Al Jazeera's 9/11
coverage</a></strong></span></span></span></td></tr>
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In
<em>9-11</em>, I quoted Robert Fisk’s conclusion that the “horrendous crime” of
9/11 was committed with “wickedness and awesome cruelty”, an accurate judgment.
It is useful to bear in mind that the crimes could have been even worse.
Suppose, for example, that the attack had gone as far as bombing the White
House, killing the president, imposing a brutal military dictatorship that
killed thousands and tortured tens of thousands while establishing an
international terror centre that helped impose similar torture-and-terror states
elsewhere and carried out an international assassination campaign; and as an
extra fillip, brought in a team of economists - call them “the Kandahar boys” -
who quickly drove the economy into one of the worst depressions in its history.
That, plainly, would have been a lot worse than 9/11.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Unfortunately,
it is not a thought experiment. It happened. The only inaccuracy in this brief
account is that the numbers should be multiplied by 25 to yield per capita
equivalents, the appropriate measure. I am, of course, referring to what in
Latin America is often called “the first 9/11”: September 11, 1973, when the US
succeeded in its intensive efforts to overthrow the democratic government of
Salvador Allende in Chile with a military coup that placed General Pinochet’s
brutal regime in office. The goal, in the words of the Nixon administration, was
to kill the “virus” that might encourage all those “foreigners [who] are out to
screw us” to take over their own resources and in other ways to pursue an
intolerable policy of independent development. In the background was the
conclusion of the National Security Council that, if the US could not control
Latin America, it could not expect “to achieve a successful order elsewhere in
the world”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The first 9/11,
unlike the second, did not change the world. It was “nothing of very great
consequence”, as Henry Kissinger assured his boss a few days
later.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">These events of
little consequence were not limited to the military coup that destroyed Chilean
democracy and set in motion the horror story that followed. The first 9/11 was
just one act in a drama which began in 1962, when John F Kennedy shifted the
mission of the Latin American military from “hemispheric defense” - an
anachronistic holdover from World War II - to “internal security”, a concept
with a chilling interpretation in US-dominated Latin American
circles.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In the recently
published Cambridge University <em>History of the Cold War</em>, Latin American
scholar John Coatsworth writes that from that time to “the Soviet collapse in
1990, the numbers of political prisoners, torture victims, and executions of
non-violent political dissenters in Latin America vastly exceeded those in the
Soviet Union and its East European satellites”, including many religious martyrs
and mass slaughter as well, always supported or initiated in Washington. The
last major violent act was the brutal murder of six leading Latin American
intellectuals, Jesuit priests, a few days after the Berlin Wall fell. The
perpetrators were an elite Salvadorean battalion, which had already left a
shocking trail of blood, fresh from renewed training at the JFK School of
Special Warfare, acting on direct orders of the high command of the US client
state.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The
consequences of this hemispheric plague still, of course,
reverberate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>From
kidnapping and torture to assassination</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All of this,
and much more like it, is dismissed as of little consequence, and forgotten.
Those whose mission is to rule the world enjoy a more comforting picture,
articulated well enough in the current issue of the prestigious (and valuable)
journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. The lead
article discusses “the visionary international order” of the “second half of the
twentieth century” marked by “the universalisation of an American vision of
commercial prosperity”. There is something to that account, but it does not
quite convey the perception of those at the wrong end of the
guns.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The same is
true of the assassination of Osama bin Laden, which brings to an end at least a
phase in the “war on terror” re-declared by President George W Bush on the
second 9/11. Let us turn to a few thoughts on that event and its
significance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On May 1, 2011,
Osama bin Laden was killed in his virtually unprotected compound by a raiding
mission of 79 Navy SEALs, who entered Pakistan by helicopter. After many lurid
stories were provided by the government and withdrawn, official reports made it
increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply
violating elementary norms of international law, beginning with the invasion
itself.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There appears
to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could
have been done by 79 commandos facing no opposition - except, they report, from
his wife, also unarmed, whom they shot in self-defense when she “lunged” at
them, according to the White House.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A plausible
reconstruction of the events is provided by veteran Middle East correspondent
Yochi Dreazen and colleagues in the <em>Atlantic</em>. Dreazen, formerly the
military correspondent for the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, is senior
correspondent for the National Journal Group covering military affairs and
national security. According to their investigation, White House planning
appears not to have considered the option of capturing bin Laden alive: “The
administration had made clear to the military's clandestine Joint Special
Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior US
official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer
briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him
alive.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The authors
add: “For many at the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency who had spent
nearly a decade hunting bin Laden, killing the militant was a necessary and
justified act of vengeance.” Furthermore, “capturing bin Laden alive would have
also presented the administration with an array of nettlesome legal and
political challenges”. Better, then, to assassinate him, dumping his body into
the sea without the autopsy considered essential after a killing - an act that
predictably provoked both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim
world.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As the
<em>Atlantic</em> inquiry observes, “The decision to kill bin Laden outright was
the clearest illustration to date of a little-noticed aspect of the Obama
administration's counterterror policy. The Bush administration captured
thousands of suspected militants and sent them to detention camps in
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration, by contrast,
has focused on eliminating individual terrorists rather than attempting to take
them alive.” That is one significant difference between Bush and Obama. The
authors quote former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who “told German TV
that the US raid was ‘quite clearly a violation of international law’ and that
bin Laden should have been detained and put on trial”, contrasting Schmidt with
US Attorney General Eric Holder, who “defended the decision to kill bin Laden
although he didn't pose an immediate threat to the Navy SEALs, telling a House
panel ... that the assault had been ‘lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every
way’".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The disposal of
the body without autopsy was also criticised by allies. The highly regarded
British barrister Geoffrey Robertson, who supported the intervention and opposed
the execution largely on pragmatic grounds, nevertheless described Obama’s claim
that “justice was done” as an “absurdity” that should have been obvious to a
former professor of constitutional law. Pakistan law “requires a colonial
inquest on violent death, and international human rights law insists that the
‘right to life’ mandates an inquiry whenever violent death occurs from
government or police action. The US is therefore under a duty to hold an inquiry
that will satisfy the world as to the true circumstances of this
killing.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Robertson
usefully reminds us that:</span><br />
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<td><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">“[I]t
was not always thus. When the time came to consider the fate of men much more
steeped in wickedness than Osama bin Laden - the Nazi leadership - the British
government wanted them hanged within six hours of capture. President Truman
demurred, citing the conclusion of Justice Robert Jackson that summary execution
'would not sit easily on the American conscience or be remembered by our
children with pride ... the only course is to determine the innocence or guilt
of the accused after a hearing as dispassionate as the times will permit and
upon a record that will leave our reasons and motives
clear.’”</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Eric
Margolis comments that “Washington has never made public the evidence of its
claim that Osama bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks”, presumably one reason
why “polls show that fully a third of American respondents believe that the US
government and/or Israel were behind 9/11”, while in the Muslim world skepticism
is much higher. “An open trial in the US or at the Hague would have exposed
these claims to the light of day,” he continues, a practical reason why
Washington should have followed the law.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In societies
that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair
trial. I stress “suspects”. In June 2002, FBI head Robert Mueller, in what the
<em>Washington Post</em> described as “among his most detailed public comments
on the origins of the attacks”, could say only that “investigators believe the
idea of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon came from al
Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, the actual plotting was done in Germany, and the
financing came through the United Arab Emirates from sources in
Afghanistan”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What the FBI
believed and thought in June 2002 they didn’t know eight months earlier, when
Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not
know) to permit a trial of bin Laden if they were presented with evidence. Thus,
it is not true, as President Obama claimed in his White House statement after
bin Laden’s death, that “[w]e quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried
out by al-Qaeda”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There has never
been any reason to doubt what the FBI believed in mid-2002, but that leaves us
far from the proof of guilt required in civilised societies - and whatever the
evidence might be, it does not warrant murdering a suspect who could, it seems,
have been easily apprehended and brought to trial. Much the same is true of
evidence provided since. Thus, the 9/11 Commission provided extensive
circumstantial evidence of bin Laden’s role in 9/11, based primarily on what it
had been told about confessions by prisoners in Guantanamo. It is doubtful that
much of that would hold up in an independent court, considering the ways
confessions were elicited. But in any event, the conclusions of a
congressionally authorised investigation, however convincing one finds them,
plainly fall short of a sentence by a credible court, which is what shifts the
category of the accused from suspect to convicted.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There is much
talk of bin Laden's “confession”, but that was a boast, not a confession, with
as much credibility as my “confession” that I won the Boston marathon. The boast
tells us a lot about his character, but nothing about his responsibility for
what he regarded as a great achievement, for which he wanted to take
credit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Again, all of
this is, transparently, quite independent of one’s judgments about his
responsibility, which seemed clear immediately, even before the FBI inquiry, and
still does.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>Crimes
of aggression</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It is worth
adding that bin Laden’s responsibility was recognised in much of the Muslim
world, and condemned. One significant example is the distinguished Lebanese
cleric Sheikh Fadlallah, greatly respected by Hizbollah and Shia groups
generally, outside Lebanon as well. He had some experience with assassinations.
He had been targeted for assassination: by a truck bomb outside a mosque, in a
CIA-organised operation in 1985. He escaped, but 80 others were killed, mostly
women and girls as they left the mosque - one of those innumerable crimes that
do not enter the annals of terror because of the fallacy of “wrong agency”.
Sheikh Fadlallah sharply condemned the 9/11 attacks.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">One of the
leading specialists on the Jihadi movement, Fawaz Gerges, suggests that the
movement might have been split at that time had the US exploited the opportunity
instead of mobilising the movement, particularly by the attack on Iraq, a great
boon to bin Laden, which led to a sharp increase in terror, as intelligence
agencies had anticipated. At the Chilcot hearings investigating the background
to the invasion of Iraq, for example, the former head of Britain’s domestic
intelligence agency MI5 testified that both British and US intelligence were
aware that Saddam posed no serious threat, that the invasion was likely to
increase terror, and that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had radicalised
parts of a generation of Muslims who saw the military actions as an “attack on
Islam”. As is often the case, security was not a high priority for state
action.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It might be
instructive to ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos had
landed at George W Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the
Atlantic (after proper burial rites, of course). Uncontroversially, he was not a
“suspect” but the “decider” who gave the orders to invade Iraq - that is, to
commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in
that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” for which Nazi
criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of
refugees, destruction of much of the country and its national heritage, and the
murderous sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.
Equally uncontroversially, these crimes vastly exceed anything attributed to bin
Laden.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">To say that all
of this is uncontroversial, as it is, is not to imply that it is not denied. The
existence of flat earthers does not change the fact that, uncontroversially, the
earth is not flat. Similarly, it is uncontroversial that Stalin and Hitler were
responsible for horrendous crimes, though loyalists deny it. All of this should,
again, be too obvious for comment, and would be, except in an atmosphere of
hysteria so extreme that it blocks rational thought.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Similarly, it
is uncontroversial that Bush and associates did commit the “supreme
international crime” - the crime of aggression. That crime was defined clearly
enough by Justice Robert Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States at
Nuremberg. An “aggressor,” Jackson proposed to the Tribunal in his opening
statement, is a state that is the first to commit such actions as “[i]nvasion of
its armed forces, with or without a declaration of war, of the territory of
another State ...” No one, even the most extreme supporter of the aggression,
denies that Bush and associates did just that.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We might also
do well to recall Jackson’s eloquent words at Nuremberg on the principle of
universality: “If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are
crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we
are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we
would not be willing to have invoked against us.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It is also
clear that announced intentions are irrelevant, even if they are truly believed.
Internal records reveal that Japanese fascists apparently did believe that, by
ravaging China, they were labouring to turn it into an “earthly paradise”. And
although it may be difficult to imagine, it is conceivable that Bush and company
believed they were protecting the world from destruction by Saddam’s nuclear
weapons. All irrelevant, though ardent loyalists on all sides may try to
convince themselves otherwise.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We are left
with two choices: either Bush and associates are guilty of the “supreme
international crime” including all the evils that follow, or else we declare
that the Nuremberg proceedings were a farce and the allies were guilty of
judicial murder.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>The
imperial mentality and 9/11</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A few days
before the bin Laden assassination, Orlando Bosch died peacefully in Florida,
where he resided along with his accomplice Luis Posada Carriles and many other
associates in international terrorism. After he was accused of dozens of
terrorist crimes by the FBI, Bosch was granted a presidential pardon by Bush I
over the objections of the Justice Department, which found the conclusion
“inescapable that it would be prejudicial to the public interest for the United
States to provide a safe haven for Bosch”. The coincidence of these deaths at
once calls to mind the Bush II doctrine - “already … a de facto rule of
international relations”, according to the noted Harvard international relations
specialist Graham Allison - which revokes “the sovereignty of states that
provide sanctuary to terrorists”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Allison refers
to the pronouncement of Bush II, directed at the Taliban, that “those who
harbour terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves”. Such states,
therefore, have lost their sovereignty and are fit targets for bombing and
terror - for example, the state that harbored Bosch and his associate. When Bush
issued this new “de facto rule of international relations”, no one seemed to
notice that he was calling for invasion and destruction of the US and the murder
of its criminal presidents.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">None of this is
problematic, of course, if we reject Justice Jackson’s principle of
universality, and adopt instead the principle that the US is self-immunised
against international law and conventions - as, in fact, the government has
frequently made very clear.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It is also
worth thinking about the name given to the bin Laden operation: Operation
Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound that few seem able to perceive
that the White House is glorifying bin Laden by calling him “Geronimo” - the
Apache Indian chief who led the courageous resistance to the invaders of Apache
lands. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The casual
choice of the name is reminiscent of the ease with which we name our murder
weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Blackhawk … We might react
differently if the Luftwaffe had called its fighter planes “Jew” and
“Gypsy”.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The examples
mentioned would fall under the category of “American exceptionalism”, were it
not for the fact that easy suppression of one’s own crimes is virtually
ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated and
forced to acknowledge reality.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Perhaps the
assassination was perceived by the administration as an “act of vengeance,” as
Robertson concludes. And perhaps the rejection of the legal option of a trial
reflects a difference between the moral culture of 1945 and today, as he
suggests. Whatever the motive was, it could hardly have been security. As in the
case of the “supreme international crime” in Iraq, the bin Laden assassination
is another illustration of the important fact that security is often not a high
priority for state action, contrary to received doctrine.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><em><strong><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/">Aljazeera</a>: Noam
Chomsky is Institute Professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Linguistics and
Philosophy. He is the author of numerous bestselling political works, including
<a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100992740" target="_blank">9-11:
Was There an Alternative? (Seven Stories Press)</a>, an updated version of his
classic account, just being published this week with a major new essay - from
which this post was adapted - considering the 10 years since the 9/11
attacks.</strong></em></span><br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A version of
this piece was originally published on <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175436/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky,_the_imperial_mentality_and_9_11/" target="_blank">TomDispatch.com</a>.</span></strong></em><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong><em><strong>The
views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-53223818856880465012011-07-28T22:23:00.001+01:002020-10-20T22:04:11.291+01:00LIBYA: THE PROPAGANDA WAR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>THE INFO-PROPAGANDA DRIVES LIBYAN COVERAGE TOWARD SINGLE FOCUS</b><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1316917477">By Hanan Habibzai</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1316917477"><br />
</a><br />
<strong><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/07/25/libya-the-propaganda-war/">Introduction </a></strong><br />
<strong><br />
</strong><br />
Gaddafi attracts no sympathy within either the Islamic or the western world because during decades of power he appeared to be a rude and selfish leader; therefore, the majority of global news coverage remains pro-rebels, focusing just on how weapons are used, regardless of the consequences for the future of Libya.<br />
There is increasing concern that as a result of the destruction created by the bullets, Libya could be marginalised, a fact that disrupts the fair passage of information. There have been many questions recently raised by scholars over the coverage of the Libyan conflict. Who was the intended target of those bullets? Who suffered the most? The wide-ranging info-propaganda presents a biased account of events and consequently innocent people come under pressure.<br />
The information coming out of Libya focuses on positive aspects of western engagement and military offences, the negative aspects of the war seem to be ignored. The destructive impact of this will shake Libyan society when the conflict affects relationships between families and causes strife between them. This is a war which could affect personal relations within Libyans— killing each other and causing ridiculous, meaningless bloodshed. The costs will easily outweigh any benefits and will impact severely on the future of the country.<br />
There are human rights concerns over the increasing numbers of migrants flooding to Europe or elsewhere. The uncertain future means struggle for life.<br />
My knowledge of Afghan misery suggests that such a conflict can easily destroy not only the institutions within a country, but the public mind set. The process of rebuilding a country and getting back to normal may take decades. This paper will consider the consequences of war and information propaganda on the future of Libya. I will draw on my experiences as an Afghan to inform my discussions in this piece of work<br />
<strong>The conception of information propaganda </strong><br />
In November 2006 Professor Philip Taylor gave a lecture on information warfare in Oslo. In his talks the professor of communication pointed out the art of war manufactured by Sun Tzu. He referred to the early military history of human battleground. In ancient era the warriors had had to face the enemy with a sword and so called shield, only the individual courage was everything. To promote courage in the battle field Sun Tzu offered exciting skilful recommendations for warriors to gain victory without combat. Sun Tzu proposed a philosophy of war that was intended to be victorious without the need to fight. According to Tzu, one hundred victories in one hundred wars are not the skill, but managing to overthrow rivals without hostility is genuine aptitude<sup> (1)</sup>. Along with physical battle, his objective was to use information or communication to demoralise the enemy. In the modern world, powerful people are trying to use the press for this purpose.<br />
Today, we live with technology and we computerise martial machinery. War in the information age is very different. The question which arises here is about the nature of war in the present-day world. Modern warfare still concentrates on how to use power and authority against the enemy, but the real focus is a propaganda battle that could overthrow enemy’s moral and psychological courage. Before they go to the frontline to combat the enemy, they begin a communication war and information battle.<br />
Foreign and defence authorities appear in front of the media from time to time and threaten the enemy by releasing certain information. Significant efforts are made to occupy the majority of news programmes and step-by-step these types of conferences and press statements dominate the news agenda settings. If we look at the Libya war, one could easily identify the clues that make up an information battle along with military one.<br />
<strong>The truth is traditional causality of war </strong><br />
A professional military (Gaddafi force) and newly trained military (rebels) are not comparable. Those with inadequate training could shoot the wrong target and ordinary people might become the victims of war. The pro Gaddafi army is somehow recognised as a professional one and they understand structured warfare tactics better than the rebels.<br />
In the meantime, along with using military options, the anti Gaddafi groups need to make use of information in order to shift public opinion towards the rebels. Therefore, alongside the bullets, you need to make use of information or propaganda to get ordinary people on side. You need these things to silence opposition voices which could perhaps shake the public against military activities or the military activities may face a possible resistance. To undermine or to ignore public anger, one needs to pass false information about something never happened.<br />
Look at the rebels’ publicity in the mainstream global media; it portrays Libya as a violent place to the news consumers, a different place from five months ago when these rebels had comparatively quiet and contented lives. Therefore, sometimes it is difficult to change public views. They may trust you for a while; if promises are broken then you may face challenges.<br />
Many journalists travel with rebels in order to make their stories colourful. There are many images drawn from the frontline of the war; for example, artilleries, small firings, rebels posing in front of the cameras making victory signs, their fingers up in the air whilst holding machine gun in their other hand. Audiences only watch how the weapons are being used and how the rebels get majority of the coverage.<br />
The rebels and Libyans do not understand the consequences of the war against their own people, as well as the consequences of posing in front of cameras, fingers up to suggest victory, and use of weaponry in front of the cameras. It would be too difficult for rebels either to force Gaddafi to step down or to establish a desired democratic government. This seems to me to be impossible because of the use of weaponry, frontlines of war will destroy not only the infrastructures, but also the public psychology and mind set.<br />
Imagine what would happen if they did force Gaddafi to step down and to establish a government with significant help from the international community? The answer is simple, immediately several groups and factions would arise and they would propose different styles of governing and, they would come up with unlike demands. It would set up a division of power and would create different conflicts Then, Libya would need a unity government to make possible a so-called fair election. As a result none of engaged groups would fulfil the goals which led them to pick up guns in the first place. Or either all estimated parties will appear with some demands which could characterise a starting point of a new war for gaining power in post Gaddafi Libya. The conflict will force international community to say that Libya needs a unity government.<br />
In this case by their extensive coverage global media may raise some facts behind the close doors, such as human rights issues and war crimes, but the information could transmit in the favour of international community.<br />
That would lead to a situation in which the media would compete to cover the discrepancies of the situation and they would transmit information leaked by various groups and factions. This is exactly what is going on now in the current military situation of country: global journalists wish to present to the world the rebel angle of the conflict. Media contents are more dominated by rebel’s perspective rather than neutralism.<br />
The information that rebels are manufacturing through their activities —- provides enough broadcasting materials to the global media, and also western engagement offer massive similar outfits. Since most information is presented according to anti-Gaddafi point of views, some parts of the story are simply never told, thus news consumers may possibly receive incomplete information. The majority reporting characterised by the scholars more selective rather than fair representation in consequence truth may become main causality of war.<br />
<strong>Foreign Interest: Keep the public quiet </strong><br />
The rest of Arab world is either silent or it wants to see Gaddafi leaving power because it has not been happy with Gaddafi in the past. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are helping the rebels and now Turkey has also joined them. Western powers have their own individual interests in Libya, but they have a common interest in removing Gaddafi from power.<br />
They are competing over the future of Libya for having particular agenda and interests. The role involves warfare economy and information warfare that may provide jobs and financial support to many, including rebels and some Libyans in exile. They need to empower small groups to work for foreign interests, marginalise the majority of the people who might find themselves outside the political process.<br />
Something similar happened to Afghanistan, in 2003 -2005. New York based organisation ‘Human Rights Watch’, listed a number of ethnic militia commanders who had violated human rights, and who had committed war crimes. They had not faced justice and the international community brought them to power. Steps taken by the international community disappointed many Afghans, and pushed them to join anti-government militancy or to express sympathy, because the killers of their sweethearts had power which damaged the trust of many.<br />
The war could affect the sovereignty of a country by allowing many foreign intelligence sources to create networks across the country. These cells could be used by them for certain interests that could threaten the unity and safekeeping of the country; this is something that happened in Afghanistan.<br />
<strong>Afghanistan model </strong><br />
In the 1990s immediately after the collapse of Soviet-made government under President Dr Najibullah, Iran, Russia, India, Pakistan and some centre Asian countries came forward to play their competition game in Afghanistan. These particular countries hired old friends and proxies in Afghanistan (they made during Soviet invasion in 1980s) and provided them military and financial equipment to secure their interests.<br />
Since that post-Soviet situation, Afghanistan ‘‘has suffered over two decades of war. This is the typical opening of most reports, articles, and speeches written about Afghanistan today. The statement, usually used to help explain the country’s post-Taliban challenges, is repeated so frequently. Yet few efforts have been made to study the history itself and its significance for Afghanistan’s current situation. More remarkable, despite the fact the two-decade period was marked by widespread human rights abuses, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, the statement is rarely followed by suggestions that perpetrators of past crimes, most of whom are still alive, should be brought to justice’’<sup>(2)</sup>.<br />
The devastating attack of 9/11 was an example of one of the worst inhuman massacres that Americans ever suffered. It was something similar to Afghan slaughters committed against the people of Afghanistan after US-led invasion of the country. Here I referred you to the investigative reports by Human Rights Watch featuring atrocities and war crimes in the north of the country against ordinary public in late 2001 and at the beginning of 2002. In this case Professor Noam Chomsky‘s viewpoint is fairly close to an Afghan perception of the fact.<br />
The warnings made by US and its allies against Afghanistan immediately after 9/11, Chomsky characterised them ‘textbook terrorism. ‘‘George Bush had informed the Afghans, the people of Afghanistan that the attack will go on until they hand over wanted suspects. Remember that overthrow of the Taliban regime was a sort of afterthought brought in a couple of weeks after the bombing, basically for the benefit of intellectuals so they could write about how just the war is’’<sup>(3)</sup>.<br />
Media coverage was additionally based around US and its Afghan allies activities, focused has been done only across US slogans of women rights , capture leaders of Al -Qaida and the collapse of Taliban regime. The negative aspects of military intervention, the use of heavy weaponry including the deliberated crimes against humanity have marginalized.<br />
The arrest of Bin Laden could be easily happened, if diplomatic communication was encouraged. Current allies of the United States such as Qatar, Saudi, Oman, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates could offer a solution, but US ignored political options.<br />
Therefore, the invasion of Afghanistan happened which took tens of thousands of lives. Professor Chomsky also mentioned the reality, and outlined the narrative in his book called Media Control [2002]. ‘‘The Taliban regime did ask for evidence, but the US contemptuously dismissed that request. The US at the very same time ,also flatly refused to even consider offers of extradition , which may have been serious ,may not have been ; we don’t know because they were rejected’’<sup>(4)</sup>.<br />
The coverage of media was very rare to these issues; press was more interested to give value to the US military and its Afghan allies, namely war criminals listed by Human Rights Watch. Tens of thousands of Taliban armed men have been killed in the result of US airstrikes and thousands other captured as war prisoners, but in the end of the day limited number of them returned to their families, many of them have been brutally massacred and buried in <em>Dashty Lily</em> area in the north of Afghanistan, since that the term <em>Dashty Lily</em> incorporated to the Afghan literature.<br />
After ten years of suffering and struggles, finally Bin Laden, the number one enemy found and killed in a different country, his killing was the top priority of US invasion of Afghanistan, but US military is still emphasising on war against Afghan people.<br />
Many Afghans complained what US military say is potentially newsworthy than civilian causality. Media is still focus single aspect of the situation ,the re-emerged Taliban are not characterised as a source of news, because US recognise them as a ‘terrorist’ group while none of Afghan Taliban ever attacked a foreign country.<br />
Few people give access to the media tribune talking in the favour of Afghan government and its allies, but ignoring those who criticize the corruption and on-going atrocities. According to US Department of State ‘‘Members of the media reported that they did not interview Taliban commanders or leaders due to government pressure; police in Helmand Province jailed journalists for speaking to the Taliban. Some media observers considered it more difficult for journalists to operate in the areas of the country that the government controlled than in Taliban-controlled areas’’<sup> (5)</sup>.<br />
<strong>Conclusion </strong><br />
In the case of Libya, Gaddafi needs to deeply think about the future of his country and the future of Libyans. Staying in power at a time when all other countries are against you is not work of wise politician. The rebels who enjoy the support of western and Arab world need to communicate with Gaddafi. The diplomatic solution will prevent Libya to turn into a second Afghanistan.<br />
Traditionally, the hatred and disgust from guns and pistols are widespread in any battle field; ordinary people are the main victims at the end of the day. The consequences of war far outweigh its benefits.<br />
We Afghans can understand this; we had similar experiences and we lost the honoured life we gained over centuries, but the world is not pleased with us and our human rights are never considered to be equal to an American’s human rights. Many Afghans think that they are victims of widespread racism; I can’t really confirm this claim, but I have seen members of one single tribe dying in Afghanistan.<br />
A single pistol bullet may be worth two dollars in the market, but in order to use it one needs to employ someone else to shoot it. If the target is a human being, you can never buy the second life for him/her; if it is a city then you need to invest 100 thousand times more on psychological and physical direction at the end of the day.<br />
It is not the gun and weaponry itself destroying human nature, but human being himself uses it against his or her counterparts to gain power and wealth. At this point to explain it more passionately I will end with renowned Afghan poet Abdul Ghafoor Liwal’s latest writing:<br />
‘‘ Don’t purchase pistols and guns<br />
To your wholesome kids<br />
Because,<br />
They shoot the dolls’’<sup> (6)</sup>.<br />
<br />
<strong>Notes</strong><br />
(1). Taylor, P [2006], Informational warfare [online], Available <a href="http://www.slidefinder.net/c/cclecture8/9233821">http://www.slidefinder.net/c/cclecture8/9233821</a> [19.07.2011].<br />
<br />
(2). Human Rights Watch Report [2005], Blood Sustained hands [online], Available, <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands?print">http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands?print</a> [18.07.2011].<br />
<br />
(3). Chomsky, N [2002], Media Control, textbook terrorism, New York: Seven Stories Press.<br />
<br />
(4). Chomsky,N [2002], Media Control, textbook terrorism ,New York : Seven Stories Press.<br />
<br />
(5). US Deportment of State, 2010 Human Rights report, Afghanistan, Washington: USDS.<br />
<br />
(6). Ghafoor, A, L [2011], The Kind Feeling, poem translation</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-16491549817582088992011-07-28T22:19:00.000+01:002011-07-28T22:19:41.413+01:00Afghan reporter killed in coordinated Taliban attacks on southern town<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<h2><a href="http://en.rsf.org/afghanistan-afghan-reporter-killed-in-28-07-2011,40716.html">Afghan reporter killed in coordinated Taliban attacks on southern town</a></h2><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">By Reporters Without Borders</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn that <strong>Ahamad Omid Khapolok</strong>, a reporter for the <i>BBC</i> and the Afghan news agency <i>Pajhwok</i>, was killed today during Taliban attacks on several buildings in Tarin Kot, the capital of the southern province of Oruzgan. Khapolok was in one of the targeted buildings, the provincial headquarters of the national radio and TV station.<br />
“We offer our condolences to Khapolok’s family and friends,” Reporters Without Borders said. “A talented young journalist, he had the courage to work as a reporter in the south of the country, a Taliban bastion. This crime must not go unpunished. We demand the truth about the circumstances of his death. Enemies of media freedom, the Taliban are murdering a still growing number of journalists and ordinary citizens.”<br />
Suicide bombers and gunmen began a series of coordinated attacks on several Tarin Kot buildings including the radio and TV station, the governor’s house and police headquarters at around 12:15 pm. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi confirmed that they were carried out by his organization but denied that the Taliban killed Khapolok.<br />
Khapolok’s brother told the <i>Pajhwok</i> news agency that his brother sent him an SMS message after being badly injured in which he asked him to pray for him. He died before emergency services arrived. At least 17 people were killed in the attacks.<br />
Khapolok is the third Pajhwok journalist to be killed. <strong>Abdul Samad Rohani</strong> was killed in Helmand in June 2008 and <strong>Janullah Hashimzada</strong> was killed in northern Pakistan in August 2009.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-64467826247674983442011-07-15T02:46:00.000+01:002011-07-15T03:22:08.934+01:00The kind feeling<a href="http://www.afghan-bios.info/index.php?option=com_afghanbios&id=969&task=view&total=1992&start=969&Itemid=2"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">By Abdul Ghafoor Liwal </span></strong></a><br />
<br />
<em><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Translated: By Hanan Habibzai </span></strong></em><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The first presidential order! </span><span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Don’t purchase pistols and guns<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To your wholesome kids <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Because, <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "AR ESSENCE"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">They shoot the dolls <o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-21556902340242272002011-07-15T00:25:00.000+01:002011-07-15T00:26:54.887+01:00Afghanistan,Pakistan:A Human View<span style="font-size: 20px;">The country is situated in a pressurized and tense position, like, a batsman who needs six runs from one ball to win, that only all-rounder Imran khan can hit. </span><br />
By Hanan Habibzai<br />
<a href="http://www.opinion-maker.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Afghan-fighters-fought-Soviets.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-14009" src="http://www.opinion-maker.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Afghan-fighters-fought-Soviets-300x195.jpg" style="float: left; height: 195px; width: 300px;" title="Afghan fighters fought Soviets" /></a>In early 1980s when I just opened my eyes, I found myself under a tent provided by UNHCR, far away from my own hometown in a neighbouring country, inside Punjab province of Pakistan. It was a tough time not only for my family, but for entire Afghan nation. Like other millions of Afghan my family migrated to Pakistan as the Soviets invaded my country. Soon after the invasion, they set up a major army base, the 40<sup>th</sup> military regiment near my village, in Baghlan province, north of Afghanistan.<br />
At the end of 1979 Russians built their base across the Kabul – Polikhomri high way, and began to raid the nearest houses where only local farmers lived. On first day of the raid they massacred around 40 civilians and arrested dozens others, including children. Among the deaths there were my close relatives, who were shot to death whilst working in cultivated area. The killing forced nearly whole village to rise up against the Soviet occupiers. They called themselves Mujahedeen. My father and three brothers also joined them.<br />
Their lands and properties have been occupied by local officials who wanted to impose communist ideology by force. The Mujahedeen were forced to leave their homes and took their families out of Afghanistan. They entered Pakistan as refugees and set to begin a new life. Pakistan welcomed the villagers and my family, and we were treated as honourable guests, each family was given tents, foods and some cash to restart the life. The refugees were in grief, they lost their wealth, properties and country occupied by foreigners, something they gained in centuries easily destroyed or occupied by foreign troops.<br />
I grew in a refugee camp in Mianwali, Panjab province, I joined a UK funded primary school called Afghan commissionaire. Most of our teachers were Pakistanis, they taught us Pashto and Urdu languages. Later my family shifted to Peshawar, as it was difficult for my brothers to visit us when they were returning from the front line of the war against Russians. I started my school in Peshawar and began to know Pakistan as a good friend of Afghans; usually I was listening to speeches which praised Pakistan.<br />
I began to know Pakistan as an honest friend of Afghanistan. I read a lot about Pakistani military, they were an enemy of India and great friend of Afghans. People were talking about Indian atrocities against Muslims in Kashmir, and this way they were trying to attract sympathies. Many elderly Afghan refugees influenced by those campaigners who wanted people to took part in the war against India in Kashmir while their own country was occupied by Russians. <br />
I was just 13 years old; I was interested in fighting the Russians, when the Mujahedeen visited my father at home, I wore their martial shoes to act as an anti-russian fighter, but I was told to focus on my studies. Western officials including Americans were flooding to Peshawar to support Afghans against the Soviet Union, I witnessed them smiling with those who later appeared as Hikmatyar and Mullah Omar.<br />
Apart from school, I started to read news and commentaries in local newspapers on Afghan Jihad against the Russians, and Pakistani military engagement in Kashmir. I learnt that Pakistan stands against India to free Kashmiri Muslims from Indian occupation. This way I grew up in an environment where every single talk was dominated by politics that could be characterised as preparation for future wars. Afghanistan never survived from the war started by Russian invaders. I was born exactly on that year, since then I saw my generation dying.<br />
Afghanistan was in the war; Russian invaded the country and forced Afghans to fight for their land and honours. Finally, Afghan blood and western money defeated the Soviets, American power increasingly spread across the world, and my country was forgotten. However, Pakistan was not in direct war against anyone, but preparing to defend the country against India.<br />
In 1990s, the politics in Islamabad handed to a group of people who wanted to challenge the sovereignty of Afghanistan when western countries left Kabul behind. India, Iran and Russia potentially invested on civil war in Kabul to challenge Pakistani interests. Afghanistan became a ground of meaningless civil war. Thousands of Afghans have been killed, many others left their homes, gunfight dominated the streets in capital Kabul, and the anarchy led to the rise of Taliban.<br />
They destroyed armed checkpoints collecting illegal taxes from passengers throughout high ways. I witnessed a money exchanger in Kabul loading sacks of cash to a vehicle, and carried out that cash to Herat province; there was no robbery and no street killings.<br />
The Taliban regime collapsed as a result of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York. The US and its allies formed a new government in Kabul and the war-shattered country came on the top of international political agenda.<br />
The majority ethnic Pashtuns, who generated the Taliban were marginalized, but still many of them previously working under Taliban, prepared to work with international community. Most of them participated in 2004 presidential election, they allowed their women to register for polling, who never been outside home even for medical check-up in the course of pregnancy, because of conservative traditions. In the aftermath of election those who took part in election, were either arrested or bombed from the air, as a result, many people either decided or were forced to leave Afghanistan and enter Pakistan once again.<br />
Americans pressured Islamabad for apparently being a supporter of the Afghan Taliban, in reaction to those claims tens of thousands of military personnel deployed in tribal areas, Pakistan turned into the ground of potential armed activities; as a consequence its military used full power against their own people. The attack on Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad by General Parvez Musharraf increased the anger within conservative Muslims in Pakistan. On 15<sup>th</sup> June, 2009, when I saw the most powerful man in Pakistan General Ashfaq Kayani fly an F-16 fighter jet with a co-pilot to take part in an air operation against his own people in northwest of the country, I understood Pakistan’s future and its consequent destabilization.<br />
Killing of its own people was a wrong step no matter what the exigencies were. Now, its people need to think more for Pakistan to uplift their country from present shatters. The power that was supposed to be used against its traditional enemy, stands used against own people. Now its not only the economy but the infractious society that needs to be woven back.<br />
As a result according to cricket legend and current politician Imran Khan, corruption grew, joblessness grew and violence across the country increased. Islamabad’s ties with its neighbor Kabul overshadowed by political conflict and inconsistency. When Parviz Musharaf allowed American military to attack Afghanistan from a Pakistani air base, Afghans decided to rethink their stances about Pakistan, because its government appeared as an unfaithful friend. Even though, recently Afghan officials accused Pakistani counterparts on shelling artillery on an Afghan village across Durand Line. It is what India wants to see their rival in a bloody war, as a weapon which may break up the country, you know, India is in two fronts now, Kashmir and Afghanistan.<br />
Recently I have been following Imran Khan’s manifesto for a better Pakistan, under his leadership it will emerge better neighbor to Afghanistan as well. I remember 1980s Pakistan, peaceful country, a host for millions of foreigners including western citizens. Contrary to that, today’s Pakistan turned a dangerous place not only for foreigners, but also for local people. The country is situated in a pressurized and tense position, like, a batsman who needs six runs from one ball to win, that only all-rounder Imran khan can hit.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-47492104377152461872011-05-02T10:35:00.000+01:002012-03-15T21:45:25.014+00:00AMERICAN ERROR: AFGHANISTAN SUFFERS BECAUSE OF MISGUIDED TERROR POLICY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
AMERICAN ERROR: AFGHANISTAN SUFFERS BECAUSE OF MISGUIDED TERROR POLICY<br />
<br />
<em><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/02/american-error-afghanistan-suffers-because-of-misguided-terror-policy/" target="_blank">By Hanan Habibzai</a> </em><br />
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Finally, Bin Laden the most wanted man has been killed and the news is being celebrated across the United States, the news Americans were waiting for teen years. In fact, this is the biggest news in the world I have heard in the last decade. At last, he was found in a non-Pashtun area in a small town which president Obama refers to as ‘deep inside Pakistan’, in a region where there is the key military academy of the Pakistan army surounded the city.<br />
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His presence in Pakistan is not a surprise because many Al Qaida members, such as Khalid Shiekh and Al-libey and number of others previously arrested or killed in that country. This makes it clear that Al Qaida is not in Afghanistan but in Pakistan. <br />
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Bin Laden was a priority in American military invasion of Afghanistan, for that <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ScreenHunter_41-May.-02-12.52.jpg"></a>priority thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed during the operations. The civilian casualties since late 2001 in Afghanistan may be three times higher than those of 9/11. The same may be the case with the financial losses.<br />
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Nearly 3000s innocent men, women and children were killed in a catastrophic attack on world trade centres on 11<sup>th</sup> September 2001. This hurts anyone who believes in peace, harmony and human dignity, as president Obama added. The hunt for Osama resulted in the invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime. After the fall of Taliban, the military struggle to capture Bin Laden and his friends moved to the villages of Afghanistan where he actually did not exist at all.<br />
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US-led troops were saying that they are in Afghanistan because Al Qaida is hiding in the country, but today it has been proven that the killing and blaming of Afghans as supporters of Al Qaida was an incorrect analysis for which Afghans witnessed their sweethearts being killed or tortured.<br />
I was inspired by Jonathan Steele’s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-afghanistan" target="_blank">article</a> in <em>the Guardian</em> newspaper where he portrayed an actual history of Bin Laden and his association in Afghanistan. After the collapse of Taliban regime by US military invasion, the south and east of Afghanistan are being punished for the wrong reason, the mistaken belief that Afghanistan was home to the 9/11 terrorists.<strong> </strong><br />
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<strong>This is inexcusable.</strong><br />
Years ago, I listened to George Galloway <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0m6pxBbSs" target="_blank">challenging</a> Jane Silk on Afghanistan. Galloway claimed that, of the terrorists, none were Afghans who went to the US or any other Western country to attack innocent citizens.<br />
The argument, that Afghan villagers in the south and east and other parts of Afghanistan are challenging the US presence in Afghanistan as a justification for occupation and continued war is insane.<br />
There are hundreds of thousands Afghan refugees living in West including the US and they have always condemned extremism and violence. The US seems to know nothing about Afghanistan and its people. Hilary Clinton has very clear arguments on Afghan war against Soviet. She has repeatedly <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY92kuXDmRg" target="_blank">stated</a> that Al Qaeda is not an Afghan problem.<br />
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Yes, in 1980s bin Laden came to Afghanistan and began to fight against Russians in the country. He founded the Al Qaida and fled Afghanistan and went to Sudan after the Soviet was defeated there, however he becomes an Afghan problem when brought back to Kabul.<br />
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According to Steele ‘When he decided to leave Sudan, his previous headquarters, the Afghans who gave him a place to stay were the former mujahideen leaders who were fighting for their lives against the emerging new Taliban movement. Bin Laden, with his wives and followers, flew to Jalalabad on an official plane provided by the then Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who remains an associate of the current president, Hamid Karzai, as chairman of the high peace council’.<br />
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Since then Osama becomes an issue and headache for Afghans,however, with the death of Al Qaida leader, a violent era of the history ended and this is the time to talk about peace in Afghanistan rather than war in the country. Peace comes when the strategies include justice for Afghans too. <br />
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Those prisoners of war who were barbarically massacred in north of Afghanistan in 2001 and those who have been killed in suicide attacks and military reactions to those attacks must be given justice.<br />
The war shattered people long remained the victims of war on terror. Now,after the death of most wanted man, many Afghans may come forward and ask for the price for the losses in their country during the US campaign against Bin Laden.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-53421227962067333132011-04-20T16:55:00.000+01:002011-04-20T17:02:52.894+01:00Afghan Government denied the right to report the news<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">By Hanan Habibzai <br />
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Reporters without Borders expresses its concern over the alleged obstruct of journalists trying to cover suicide attacks. The organisation accuses Afghan government that its security forces have beaten several journalists and mistreated by guards when they protested against a denial that prevents media workers to cover a suicide attack on Afghan defence ministry, Tuesday.<br />
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The France based journalist defend organisation condemns all the techniques that the Afghan security forces use to prevent journalists entering the scene of an armed attack on the defence ministry in Kabul. ‘‘Only crews from a few foreign and Afghan TV stations were allowed to visit the scene of the shooting’’, a statement said.<br />
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Just few metres from the presidential palace, an unknown armed man wearing Afghan security men’s uniform entered Afghan defence ministry main building which houses the office of minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak. The attacker uses a gun killed two Afghan soldiers and injured number of others. The intruder then shot dead before he could trigger the explosives. <br />
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Tens of journalists went to the defence ministry to cover the consequences of the attack but they were not allowed to properly report the incident. “We understand that, in such serious circumstances, protecting civilians must be the priority for the security forces,” Reporters Without Borders said. <br />
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This is not the first time that the Afghan government is trying to censor news coverage of the Taliban activity. In March 2010, the interior ministry made an attempt to ban all live media coverage of Taliban attacks on the grounds that the information provided by journalists could be used by the militants to organize their activities. <br />
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“The news coverage is also a priority and must be respected. Without media coverage, there is a real risk that the facts will be dressed up and the public will be misinformed in a way that suits the Afghan government and its allies. Without proper reporting, it will not be possible to rally the public’s support for the fight against terrorism”, the organisation articulated the concern. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6345066172896148372.post-85191153718932498882011-04-18T01:40:00.000+01:002011-04-18T01:40:22.482+01:00Wikileaks: 'War Crimes' Evidence in Afghanistan<iframe height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oZRvEgHLj5E?fs=1" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0