ianstone
09-23-2010, 08:06 AM
3 Journalists Arrested in Afghanistan
By ROD NORDLAND (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/rod_nordland/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
KABUL, Afghanistan — International forces arrested two Afghan journalists during raids of their homes in the early hours of Monday and Wednesday on suspicion of collaborating with the Taliban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the United States military said Wednesday.
Related
The Lede Blog: Afghans’ Reporting Called ‘Propaganda’ (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/al-jazeera-reports-arrest-of-cameramen/?ref=asia) (September 22, 2010)
On Saturday, the Afghan intelligence agency also arrested a radio reporter who was the leader of the Kapisa Province journalists’ association, according to a spokesman for the governor, who would not say what the charges were.
The international forces arrested the two journalists because “coalition and Afghan forces have a responsibility to interdict the activities of these insurgent propaganda networks,” a spokeswoman for the NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org)-led International Security Assistance Force, Maj. Sunset Belinsky, said in an e-mailed statement.
One, a staff correspondent for Al Jazeera (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_jazeera/index.html?inline=nyt-org), Mohammed Nader, was arrested about 4 a.m. Wednesday in Kandahar (http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/taliban-facilitators-captured-in-kandahar-overnight.html); the other, a freelancer who worked for Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, Rahmatullah Nekzad, was arrested early in the morning on Monday in Ghazni (http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/suspected-taliban-propaganda-expert-captured-in-ghazni.html), according to accounts by colleagues and family members. The radio journalist arrested on Saturday was Hojatullah Mojadadi, according to the governor’s spokesman, Abdul Halim Hayar.
The international forces initially did not announce the arrests of Mr. Nader and Mr. Nekzad, saying only that Taliban “facilitators” had been detained.
The American military has frequently arrested journalists in Afghanistan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/afghanistan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and Iraq, holding them for long periods of time before releasing them without charges. So far as is known, no journalists have been convicted by a court on charges of working for insurgents either in Afghanistan or in Iraq.
Family members and colleagues complained that the journalists were accused of having contacted the Taliban, something both foreign and local journalists do regularly in Afghanistan.
Major Belinsky, in a telephone interview, disputed that assertion.
“They were apprehended because we had good information they were associated with Taliban activity,” she said. “Doing due journalistic diligence would not be enough to get arrested. But being with the insurgents while they were planning or instigating operations would be.”
The authorities decided to detain Mr. Nekzad for further action, she said, whereas Mr. Nader “is still going through the process of determining if he is someone who needs to be detained.”
The Jazeera bureau chief in Kabul, Samer Allawi, said the two had worked for many years for the news organization and had extensive contacts not only among the insurgents, but also among government and coalition forces. Mr. Nader had previously been embedded with American troops in Afghanistan, he said.
“We do not expect officials to break into our reporters’ homes and arrest them after midnight,” Mr. Allawi said. “It’s easy for them to call them and they will come to them anytime and answer any questions they have.”
Mr. Allawi said the only concrete evidence the authorities had was the discovery of two hand grenades in Mr. Nekzad’s home.
“This means nothing because almost every house in Afghanistan has weapons in it,” he said. “They are both journalists who were just gathering news as any other journalist would do.” Mr. Nader, he said, had complained often of receiving threats from the Taliban because of his work in Kandahar.
The international forces described Mr. Nader as “a Taliban facilitator” and said he was “responsible for collecting information relevant to the Taliban information campaign in Kandahar City,” according to its official statement on Wednesday’s arrest, which did not identify him by name.
In its statement on the arrest of Mr. Nekzad (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5imbJzOzwnw8pj194hhu9xDVpRaTwD9ICL7P00) in Ghazni, which also did not identify him, NATO forces described him as “a suspected Taliban media and propaganda facilitator, who participated in filming election attacks.”
In a statement, a spokesman for The Associated Press, Paul Colford, said that Mr. Nekzad had worked as a freelance photographer and videographer “from time to time” since 2007, chronicling the war’s impact on daily life in Ghazni Province. The statement made no comment about Mr. Nekzad’s arrest or how the news agency viewed it.
Zalmai Aoubi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province, complained that Afghan government officials were not informed in advance about the arrest of Mr. Nader, a well-known and popular figure among Kandahar journalists.
“We strongly condemn the arrest of Mohammed Nader, and this is against journalistic principles,” he said in a telephone interview. “Whoever did this job, whether a special force, NATO or Americans, it was not a good job.”
The international forces insisted, however, that “in both instances, Afghan and coalition forces had intelligence information linking them to Taliban propaganda networks,” Major Belinsky said. “The insurgents use propaganda, often delivered through news organizations, as a way to influence and, in many cases, intimidate, the Afghan population.”
Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, said in a statement (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010922101014298937.html) posted on its English-language Web site that the arrests of the journalists were part of an escalation of pressure by the international forces, which it claimed had threatened its bureau chief, Mr. Allawi, over Al Jazeera’s coverage.
The network said it would continue to cover the Taliban’s side of the conflict as well as the government and NATO’s side.
Mr. Allawi said that both of the arrested Jazeera journalists had accompanied Taliban insurgents for their reports, but that they were forbidden to be present when insurgents were planning operations. “I always insist that my colleagues not take part in anything which is pre-attack or pre-action; we refuse it,” he said. “This is our policy.”
¶ Officials with the international forces and Afghan officials said about 30 Taliban insurgents were killed as they tried to attack a remote outpost in Khost Province close to the Pakistani border.
¶ Waheed Omer, the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/hamid_karzai/index.html?inline=nyt-per), angrily disputed an account in a new book on the Afghan war by Bob Woodward, the longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, that Mr. Karzai suffers from manic-depressive disorder and takes medication to control it.
“This is a baseless, inflammatory comment that has its roots in a defaming propaganda campaign against President Karzai’s personal integrity, leadership and his stances on matters of Afghan national interests,” Mr. Omer said. “The president is safe and sound. I can confirm that he takes no medication.”
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, and Afghan employees of The New York Times from Kandahar and Khost Provinces.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 23, 2010, on page A9 of the New York edition.
By ROD NORDLAND (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/rod_nordland/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
KABUL, Afghanistan — International forces arrested two Afghan journalists during raids of their homes in the early hours of Monday and Wednesday on suspicion of collaborating with the Taliban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the United States military said Wednesday.
Related
The Lede Blog: Afghans’ Reporting Called ‘Propaganda’ (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/al-jazeera-reports-arrest-of-cameramen/?ref=asia) (September 22, 2010)
On Saturday, the Afghan intelligence agency also arrested a radio reporter who was the leader of the Kapisa Province journalists’ association, according to a spokesman for the governor, who would not say what the charges were.
The international forces arrested the two journalists because “coalition and Afghan forces have a responsibility to interdict the activities of these insurgent propaganda networks,” a spokeswoman for the NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org)-led International Security Assistance Force, Maj. Sunset Belinsky, said in an e-mailed statement.
One, a staff correspondent for Al Jazeera (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_jazeera/index.html?inline=nyt-org), Mohammed Nader, was arrested about 4 a.m. Wednesday in Kandahar (http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/taliban-facilitators-captured-in-kandahar-overnight.html); the other, a freelancer who worked for Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, Rahmatullah Nekzad, was arrested early in the morning on Monday in Ghazni (http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/suspected-taliban-propaganda-expert-captured-in-ghazni.html), according to accounts by colleagues and family members. The radio journalist arrested on Saturday was Hojatullah Mojadadi, according to the governor’s spokesman, Abdul Halim Hayar.
The international forces initially did not announce the arrests of Mr. Nader and Mr. Nekzad, saying only that Taliban “facilitators” had been detained.
The American military has frequently arrested journalists in Afghanistan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/afghanistan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and Iraq, holding them for long periods of time before releasing them without charges. So far as is known, no journalists have been convicted by a court on charges of working for insurgents either in Afghanistan or in Iraq.
Family members and colleagues complained that the journalists were accused of having contacted the Taliban, something both foreign and local journalists do regularly in Afghanistan.
Major Belinsky, in a telephone interview, disputed that assertion.
“They were apprehended because we had good information they were associated with Taliban activity,” she said. “Doing due journalistic diligence would not be enough to get arrested. But being with the insurgents while they were planning or instigating operations would be.”
The authorities decided to detain Mr. Nekzad for further action, she said, whereas Mr. Nader “is still going through the process of determining if he is someone who needs to be detained.”
The Jazeera bureau chief in Kabul, Samer Allawi, said the two had worked for many years for the news organization and had extensive contacts not only among the insurgents, but also among government and coalition forces. Mr. Nader had previously been embedded with American troops in Afghanistan, he said.
“We do not expect officials to break into our reporters’ homes and arrest them after midnight,” Mr. Allawi said. “It’s easy for them to call them and they will come to them anytime and answer any questions they have.”
Mr. Allawi said the only concrete evidence the authorities had was the discovery of two hand grenades in Mr. Nekzad’s home.
“This means nothing because almost every house in Afghanistan has weapons in it,” he said. “They are both journalists who were just gathering news as any other journalist would do.” Mr. Nader, he said, had complained often of receiving threats from the Taliban because of his work in Kandahar.
The international forces described Mr. Nader as “a Taliban facilitator” and said he was “responsible for collecting information relevant to the Taliban information campaign in Kandahar City,” according to its official statement on Wednesday’s arrest, which did not identify him by name.
In its statement on the arrest of Mr. Nekzad (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5imbJzOzwnw8pj194hhu9xDVpRaTwD9ICL7P00) in Ghazni, which also did not identify him, NATO forces described him as “a suspected Taliban media and propaganda facilitator, who participated in filming election attacks.”
In a statement, a spokesman for The Associated Press, Paul Colford, said that Mr. Nekzad had worked as a freelance photographer and videographer “from time to time” since 2007, chronicling the war’s impact on daily life in Ghazni Province. The statement made no comment about Mr. Nekzad’s arrest or how the news agency viewed it.
Zalmai Aoubi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province, complained that Afghan government officials were not informed in advance about the arrest of Mr. Nader, a well-known and popular figure among Kandahar journalists.
“We strongly condemn the arrest of Mohammed Nader, and this is against journalistic principles,” he said in a telephone interview. “Whoever did this job, whether a special force, NATO or Americans, it was not a good job.”
The international forces insisted, however, that “in both instances, Afghan and coalition forces had intelligence information linking them to Taliban propaganda networks,” Major Belinsky said. “The insurgents use propaganda, often delivered through news organizations, as a way to influence and, in many cases, intimidate, the Afghan population.”
Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, said in a statement (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010922101014298937.html) posted on its English-language Web site that the arrests of the journalists were part of an escalation of pressure by the international forces, which it claimed had threatened its bureau chief, Mr. Allawi, over Al Jazeera’s coverage.
The network said it would continue to cover the Taliban’s side of the conflict as well as the government and NATO’s side.
Mr. Allawi said that both of the arrested Jazeera journalists had accompanied Taliban insurgents for their reports, but that they were forbidden to be present when insurgents were planning operations. “I always insist that my colleagues not take part in anything which is pre-attack or pre-action; we refuse it,” he said. “This is our policy.”
¶ Officials with the international forces and Afghan officials said about 30 Taliban insurgents were killed as they tried to attack a remote outpost in Khost Province close to the Pakistani border.
¶ Waheed Omer, the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/hamid_karzai/index.html?inline=nyt-per), angrily disputed an account in a new book on the Afghan war by Bob Woodward, the longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, that Mr. Karzai suffers from manic-depressive disorder and takes medication to control it.
“This is a baseless, inflammatory comment that has its roots in a defaming propaganda campaign against President Karzai’s personal integrity, leadership and his stances on matters of Afghan national interests,” Mr. Omer said. “The president is safe and sound. I can confirm that he takes no medication.”
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, and Afghan employees of The New York Times from Kandahar and Khost Provinces.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 23, 2010, on page A9 of the New York edition.