Does Afghanistan currently have anything in their "consititution" regarding free speech? Is there a place on-line where we can access this?

So glad to have found you. Since Patrick Graham left Baghdad there seems precious little reportage that is Canadian. Get Steve Maher in Ottawa on this one.

The biggest problem that I see in Afghanistan is that we, the US, who invaded that country to kill or capture 9/11 suspects left before the job was done.
We do not curtail or destroy the opium production in Afghanistan saying that it is the only income for such an impoverished people. We allow the 'warlords' the unfettered movement and destruction of rivals as if they, the warlords,were doing our bidding.
When will the gutless and guileful George Shrub truly remember 9/11 and deal with Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia in a more appropriate wasy?
I suspect never.
Thx
papatom

There's lots of talk of free speech, and the Afghan news media and public are off and running with an ironclad belief in this key democratic liberty. But sadly too many of Mr. Karzai's ministers can't survive if people learn the truth about them. And so, evidently with the support of the White House, they are cracking down.

This is a typical modus operandi for those desperate to cling to power, and make no mistake, Power does not like to leave witnesses. I fear for those arrested and Arthur, if you can get their names, maybe we can work on keeping them in the worlds eye.

Count on it, John. Within minutes of the raid, my phone started ringing, and facts started flowing. The Afghan people are not going to put up with another bunch of authoritarian bullies. They've experienced that - with the Taliban.

I'll be anxious to see if this is on the CBC news tonight and the slant that is put on it. Sabat, the Kabul airport scandal over the increase of heroin shipments and the dismissal of the chief Afghan narcotics fighter should be part of the report. Rex Murphy is obligated to give his opinion on this event. I wonder what the Canadian public would say if a television station in Canada was raided and taken off the air or forced to give the government line. Yes, they have been raided for news footage, but to arrest reporters for doing their job is unheard of here. Maybe I am being too sanctimonious. BUT, Once again I am on my soapbox, our troops are not there to support a corrupt government (maybe they are. eh Harper!) but certainly NOT to be used as cannon fodder for roadside bombs. The Taliban, Al-Quadia, the Karsai bandits and probably foreign governments are involved in the spoils of the Afghan herion trade, who's profits are used to buy weapons (roadside bombs) against out troops in Afghanistan. Mr. Harper what are you doing to stop the herion trade in Afghanistan to protect our troops? Maybe CROP ASSISTANCE to the Afghan farmer instead of planning a 15 year fight.

Keep up the good work. I love your reports for its honesty and bravery in presenting truth as is. Thanks you so much!!!

So glad to see you at work. Missed you. And glad you say the Afghanis care about their freedoms. Maybe we can emulate this.

I like the various entreaties to Mr. Harper. The regime in place in Kabul is not of his doing, but he now is in a position to do something about it -- at the very least threaten or actually revoke the citizenship of the rogue attorney general. It would be a very Canadian thing to do.

The right journalist, in the right time, with the right resistents and the right reports.
Bravo

I will say Media are free in Afghanistan but they use this freedom for Political comments ,

Afghanistan Media always look to the nagative part never prepare any report on GOVT possitive works,

read above(resistance)

papatom..
Do you really believe the crap about a bunch of mudhut dwellers highjacking and crashing planes in the most heavily protected country in the world??? Or are you just here to perpetuate the myth? When will the media start reporting the facts and circumstances concerning our "mission" in Afghanistan? FOr those who have yet to awaken to reality, do a Google search on "Afghanistan pipeline" and read up on your history.

This is just more "blood for oil" and more evidence that foreign policy is determined and written by Corporations - not governments or their constituents.

Peace (please?)

Peace absolutely - ordinary Afghans work and strive for that every day. The US, Britain, Canada and the rest of the "international community" should do more than talk about helping the Afghans achieve their goals. Address the safe havens issue in Pakistan, and help Afghan parliamentarians do some housecleaning of the Karzai government. That won't cost anything more in lives and dollars, but it would succeed. The Afghans, believe me, would make sure of that.

I am saddened that a Google for "tolo tv afghanistan" didn't turn up many hits for this story. Radio Free Europe came through. Mainstream media had only past articles of crackdowns. A search of Tolo tv site gave me blank news articles. I might not have the right software. Maybe someone else can try.
Sudbury

As an Afghan here is my two cents. The biggest mistake that the international community makes is that they continue to talk about "warlords" and "rogue ministers" and yet assume that Karzai is an angel.
You cannot go after certain ministers or "warlords" and have Karzai and his drug dealing brothers in power. There are too many dirty hands. Half of the country would have to be brought to justice if one wants to bring justice. There will be civil war again if we continue to go after Afghan figures at this point. No one has clean hands to be judge and jury.
Our biggest problem is Pakistan and their harboring of Al-Qaeda and Taliban.
Karzai can reshuffle his cabinet all day long that can't help anything so long as Taliban get funded in Pakistan.

FreeAfghan - that's some two cents! But there's no denying the truth of what you say. We in the west have allowed our governments to play The Great Game for far too long. Our support for the Afghan people should be about getting results, not finding a way to fit in to the Bush administration's warped world view. And as you say, the first result we should demand is reform in Kabul, the second a cessation of Pakistani interference.

Thank you Mr. Kent. But as you very well know, the US mistakes precedes the clueless administration of today in DC. Unfortunately Afghanistan's problem gets viewed through Pakistani lenses. That has to stop.
Also immediately after 9/11 Western media folks were labeling certain Afghans as "warlords" and saying Pashtun this, Tajik thaht because almost all of them came to Afghanistan through Pakistan and seemed to get info from there.
I remember how Ashley Banfield was reporting from Kabul, interviewing these women doing the laundry in the dirty Kabul river. Banfield asks the woman why she is not washing the clothes at home?
She says in Farsi "because we have no running water". The Pakistani translator says "she said because the warlords destroyed the water before the Taliban". Think of how many other things have happened like this.

You're right, FreeAfghan, it's been a long trail of disappointment. For instance, many of us in Peshawar in the 1980's - journalists, aid workers, diplomats - tried to persuade U.S. officials that they were being deceived by Pakistan's ISI about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. No, they told us: Hekmatyar's killing Russians. Now he's one of America's most wanted terrorists. Duh.

Oh yes sir he is on the list, but how actively are we looking for him? Not to mention that he also killed other Mujahiddin, not just Russians. I am sure you are aware of that plus how some journalists were also killed by his group in the 80's.
So have you learned any of the local languages there over the years?

Oh yes - but only enough to find food and tea!

I cared for msny Mujahudin during the Russian-Afghan conflict. These Mujahudin made it very clear to me that while they were fighting the Russians...Gulbuddin Hikmatyar was killing other Afghan Mujahudin (Freedom Fighters) to gather more power for himself.He is a negative and dangerous force for Afghanistan.

Hey Arthur,
Firt of all great job about your websit. How on earth could any one imagine that a country called Pakistan today which was a part of India less than five decades ago and did not even exist until very recently, used to be ruled by Afghansitan while a part of India could have had so much influnce and say in Afghan and other international affairs. Pakistan itself with serious indentity crisis is attempting to earse and re-write history. A military dictatorship, often refered to as a failing state, one of the most corrupted and absuers of human rights, perhaps the only country where it's former elected prime ministers and other officials get thrown out of the country by military dictators could have the nerves to leture Afghans and even the West about governence, parlimentary and political systems or even about human rights in Afghanistan. A sanctuary of terror not only against Afghanistan but also India, Iran and even the West as we have all been witnessing the connections in London, Canada etc lately. When would the West and particularily the U.S wake up and get serious with this country. It deceives the West by getting billions of dollars off them in pretext of so called fighting terrorism which it creates itself in the first place and then back stabing them killing their citizens and soldiers through their allies like Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Hekmatyar etc. Imagine which country is destablizing the region and the world as a whole? Thanks to the billions of dollars of westernern's hard earned taxes to Pakistan which results in their own bloodshed. The only country that has benefited enormously from the three decades of death, destruction, pain and sufferings of Afghanistan and Afghans. Pakistani made and supported Afghan tragedy poured in billios of dollars into that country at the expense of Afghans. So it will continue to benefit from it as long as there insecurity and misiry in Afghanistan.

It may be time for a Robert Borden style confrontation between our leader and this young Karzai government. Sometimes I wonder if all this tiptoeing around the issues should instead be dealt with by frank statements about what our country's involvement comes with. The cost of Canadian lives isn't free.

This website is wonderful, finally, the truth. I am thankful I stumbled across it looking up Sabat info. How did a man on the Canadian terrorist list become the Attorney General. Hezb-e-Islami is on the Canadian terror list, Sabat is a longtime member. How did a journalist like Jalali become Interior Minister? How did a restaurant worker like Karzai become a president? How did a laundry manager become the Minister of Defense? How did a janitor in London fake his diplomas from Oxford and become the Deputy Minister of Justice (Hashamzai)? All of this sounds strange.

I can tell you how. The US Department of State promoted them as educated enlightened men because they could speak English, and that made it easier for the State Department to communicate with them, and because they had foreign citizenships, it made it easier to control them. It's about control people, control by Zalmay Khalizad over his abandoned country.

Today, we have foresaken our Northern Alliance allies (made up of ALL ethnic groups) and sent them off to be farmers, while bringing Karzai's farmers to the battlefield. Do you wonder why we are losing to the Taliban? For all the complaints about "warlords" it seems to me, having been there then, that Afghanistan was free and safe under the command and leadership of Ahmad Shah Massood's freedom fighters. They fought by our side, paid with their blood, and were paid back by the US State Department with disarmament, prison, poverty, and exile. Isn't it wonderful how we treat are real friends?

The translation about the water reminds me of watching the trial of American Special Forces soldiers who were fighting with Massood's forces. The translation was so wrong it was comical if it hadn't been so horribly unjust. yet we left those guys in an Afghan prison because they were working with the Northern Alliance in contradiction to a secret DOD/DOS policy to sever all ties with our allies and promote Karzai, his drug smuggling brothers, and a Taliban presence in the government.

And this is where it got us.

Afghan Soul, you are correct. The BIG story is Pakistan and their concerted efforts to keep the region destabilized for their own advantage, and I suspect, for the advantage of the U.S. as well. Their double-dealing must come to an end, and soon. This is a BIG story and must be told.

It's terrific to hear from all of you. Please keep those comments coming. And keep an eye on our updates about the Karzai government's strongarming of Afghanistan's news media. Something's gotta give...

Think of the 2 countries created by the British in 1948 along religious lines who have been nothing but cancerous to their respective regions.
I say this as a Muslim about Pakistan and their crimes against humanity and I say the same as a human being about Israel and how the oppressed have become the oppressors.
Most of the problems around the world today point to these two States. Their citizens held hostages by greedy and war mongering leaders for decades.
They are our supposed allies, but both fit the profile of ALL the tahings that we used to apply the label of "Axis of evil" to other States.
Do they harbor terrorists? Yes indeed.
Do they possess weapons of mass destruction? Yes indeed
Do they ever comply with any UN resolutions? No sir
Do we give them billions in aid? Yes sir
Do we view the events of their respective regions through their lenses? Yes sir
Has it helped the US/West by doing so? Not at all.

Pakistan and Israel are here to stay and as much as both States have zero legitimacy aside from British approval when they became nations, they are now members of the world Community.

But the fact that they get away with so many crimes is because WE allow it and finance it.

This doesn't mean that us Afghans and the Arab States are innocent and angels. But fact of the matter remains about these 2 States that continue to takes down the wrong path in that part of the world.

The world is a game. Powerful countries are players who want more power. Other countries are just a part of the game. It is not your fault, neighter mine. But the one who plays with os. Suffer the humanity, Suffer the weak.

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