by Byrne » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:15 am
From <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.medialens.org/board/" target="top">medialens messageboard</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>U.S. air force blow up 12 Afghan police/Karzai re-appoints U.S.- backed intelligence chief</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>Posted on August 18, 2006, <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5260174.stm" target="top">Afghan police killed by coalition</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>BBC Online<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>At least 12 Afghan policemen have been killed by a bomb dropped from a US-led coalition aircraft in south-east Afghanistan, officials say.<br>Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the raid, in Paktika province.<br><br>But US officials said they were confident that the two trucks they hit were the same ones which had been used in an attack on coalition forces.<br><br>...cont</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Well it sure looks like those trucks got what was coming to them, which is the important point, hence it's prominence in the BBC's coverage.<br><br>Less prominent - actually, buried in the last para - was news that Karzai has re-appointed Amrullah Saleh as head of intelligence (the BBC spell his name Salehi, which is wrong).<br><br>They don't, however, mention that it was Amrullah Saleh, as head of the National Security Directorate (NSD) who signed the decree that banned the Afghan media from doing their job:<br><br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>On June 12 [2006] , representatives of Afghanistan’s major media outlets were summoned to a meeting at the NSD where they first received the list of press restrictions, signed by Amrullah Saleh, the head of the NSD.<br>The two-page directive restricts, among other things, “Those reports that aim to represent that the fighting spirit in Afghanistan’s armed forces is weak,” and “Negative propaganda, interviews and reports which are provocative or slanderous and which are against the presence [in Afghanistan] of the international coalition forces and ISA.”</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>A free media that can't criticism the occupation? Yeah, sure.<br><br>Nor have the BBC ever mentioned that Amrullah Saleh, who has for several years occupied a powerful position in the Afghan security apparatus, <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.cleary.edu/About/News/11_29_05bpr.htm" target="top">received an honary doctorate</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> from a U.S. university:<br><br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>November 29, 2005, ANN ARBOR, Michigan - Cleary University announced that Amrullah Saleh, director of the Afghanistan National Security Directorate, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Analysis at the University’s 2005 Winter Commencement on Saturday, December 10, in Ypsilanti.<br>Saleh was nominated for the honorary degree by U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers, who is a Cleary emeritus-trustee.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
