Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Criminal Reporting


Poor Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson couldn't do a decent report out of Afghanistan if someone else wrote it and handed it to her. On Tuesday's ATC she describes an assassination attempt against one of the sleazy Karzai brothers [this one - not this one] as follows:
"For now, provincial council members meet in the well-guarded home of council chair Ahmed Wali Karzai...the brother of Afghan President. He was himself the target of an assassination attempt outside Kabul last week when gunmen ambushed his convoy."
Given that Ahmed is widely believed to be a key drug lord in the thriving Afghan heroin trade you might expect that information to find its way into the story. Not a chance; the possibility that the assassination attempt was related to Ahmed's criminality doesn't fit NPR's narrow script of good guys (the US and any and all followers) v. bad guys/Taliban (any Afghan who takes up arms against the US-led occupation of Afghanistan). Introducing Nelson's report, Michele Norris reinforces the narrative with this bit of speculation:
"In Kandahar...just yesterday suspected Taliban militants tried unsuccessfully to assassinate the brother of President Hamid Karzai...head of the area's provincial council."
To add insult to injury, not only does Nelson stick with this interpretation but then she hands the microphone to this thug so he can lecture us about "the struggle" (I think it's called Enduring Freedom...hee, hee):
"This is a war for justice and for freedom and for democracy, and we're not going to just run away from it. So it's tough but we will continue with our struggle against the terrorists and al-Qaeda."
To cut her a bit of slack, perhaps Nelson featured this truth, justice and the American way cant because she was afraid of what freedom-lovin' Ahmed Karzai might do to her if she did any actual reporting on him...

11 comments:

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Poor Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson couldn't do a decent report out of Afghanistan if someone else wrote it and handed it to her.I suspect that that's precisely what happened. Don't you?

Anonymous said...

And yet more criminal reporting by omission.

Where's NPR on the effects of "Obama's dirty little war" on the Pakistani people?

Not even a mention by NPR.


Swat valley could be worst refugee crisis since Rwanda, UN warnsI wonder if this was the "Change" (with a capital C") that Obama talked about. Accelerated terrorizing of civilian populations.

And quite apart from the moral aspect is the fact that Obama's own counter-terrorism experts (David Kilcullen) are quite adamant (to the point of writing Op eds to the NY Times) about the fact that Obama's policy (specifically use of drones to launch missile attacks) is highly counterproductive: creating more terrorists than it kills.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17exum.html

But hey, who cares what idiot advisers and the UN say, right?

Certainly not the "Changeling" (OBama).


And Karzai is clearly not the ONLY puppet acting as a "leader".

Obama is being "guided" by far more powerful people than Kilcullen.


///////////////
Swat valley could be worst refugee crisis since Rwanda, UN warnsince Rwanda, UN warns

* Declan Walsh in Islamabad
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 May 2009 20.18 BST
"The human exodus from the war-torn Swat valley in northern Pakistan is turning into the world's most dramatic displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the UN refugee agency warned."

"Almost 1.5 million people have registered for assistance since fighting erupted three weeks ago, the UNHCR said, bringing the total number of war displaced in North West Frontier province to more than 2 million, not including 300,000 the provincial government believes have not registered. "It's been a long time since there has been a displacement this big," the UNHCR's spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva, trying to recall the last time so many people had been uprooted so quickly. "It could go back to Rwanda."
/// end quote

WarOnWarOff said...

With "allies" like these, who needs enemies?

And something Obama apparently fails to understand it that they are only "allies" when it is convenient for *them* as has been the case for thousands of years in that region. So it is inevitable that American weapons are "falling into the hands" of the Taliban.

Anonymous said...

Afghanistan: Where empires go to die.

edk

Porter Melmoth said...

My Afghan friend tells me that everybody (at it were) in his home country has long known about Brother Karzai's mafioso activities: his Dubai real estate, his suddenly coming up with millions to build a hotel in London, not to mention the CEO-ing of Poppy International (again, as it were).

Elementary, my dear Nelson.

Porter Melmoth said...

Mytwords makes a pungent and ever-present point:

"To cut her a bit of slack, perhaps Nelson featured this truth, justice and the American way cant because she was afraid of what freedom-lovin' Ahmed Karzai might do to her if she did any actual reporting on him... "

This is an MO that has obviously been employed on the highest anchor chairs in NYC to the back alleys of Mogadishu. Talk about mafioso! Ahmed isn't the only godfather in town. Try Dick Cheney.

b!p!f!b! said...

"Sonsabitches, keep your mouths shut."

-Dan Rather

Anonymous said...

Afghanistan: Where empires go to die.I thought that was Yankee stadium.

gopol said...

Poppy International
George Herbert Walker's company?

Anonymous said...

Why is it that the "peaceniks" and other "wackos" always seem to make the most intelligent policy assessments and the most sense? (see link below)

And, on a related note, why does political influence and power seem to be inversely proportional to actual intelligence? (ie, the stupider one is, the more power and influence one has)

From "It’s Time for the President To Get Real on Afghanistan""There are alternatives, far more affordable and rational, than accelerating the military option in one of the poorest and most war-torn countries on earth. The U.S. could halt its military operations, especially the hated drone attacks in the Afghan-Pakistani border areas, and help organize a peace assembly led by widely respected Afghans, both men and women leaders. The U.S. also has the ability to launch a regional diplomatic effort, including Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Central Asian states."

"The American people are tired of war and sick of seeing their tax dollars go to bail out bankers and keep military contractors in the black. Afghanistan is not "the right war," it's a sinkhole for our lives and tax dollars and could be a disaster for the Obama presidency, which began with such optimism. Diplomacy, a drawdown of military involvement, and an exit strategy with a timeline -- that's the realistic path to freedom from endless war and debt. This course of action would show the values that most Americans support."
Janet Weil is a CODEPINK staff member and member of United for Peace and Justice. Her nephew is preparing to be deployed to Afghanistan in November.

Anonymous said...

"Afghanistan: Where empires go to die."
I thought that was Yankee stadium.

Hold on here just one minute my friend (and fellow malcontent)! Atlanta: Beast of the East!!!

edk