This diary would have been titled "Total U.S. Media Blackout of Afghan Parliament", except that I can find one paragraph in the New York Times, half-way through a three-page story; and I can find one sentence in a story from "All Headline News" out of Las Vegas.
Nothing in the Washington Post. Nothing in the LA Times. Nothing on CNN.
The Afghan parliament, over the past few days, has been passing bills to kick out US-NATO forces, offer amnesty to insurgents, and to reconcile their warring parties. They are trying to end the war.
[Update 5/13/07 9:58 am EST by LithiumCola]: brainwave found another US media outlet, Reuters, with a story on this. (brainwave has since reminded me that Reuters is primarily a British outlet.)
Compared to this, it's been easy finding information in the U.S. media about the Iraqi parliament's efforts to set a timeline for ending the U.S. occupation. But the Afghan parliament is trying, too, with some hints of support from President Karzai.
Of course, the overall story to this, the theme which I won't go into here, is that Bush and the Republicans' dreams of Middle East war are falling apart all over the place . . . at the hands -- the raised hands -- of small-d democratic votes.
Anyway.
Here's the one paragraph in the New York Times. New York Times, May 13, 2007:
This week Afghan’s upper house of Parliament recommended that the government start peace talks with the Taliban, and that foreign forces cease all offensive operations. While the chances of passage as worded are unlikely, the proposal was one measure of the rising popular anger.
Look again at the second sentence of that throwaway paragraph; the one not boldfaced: "While the chances of passage as worded are unlikely, the proposal was one measure of the rising popular anger."
The NYT wants the reader to think that it's no big deal, just a case of popular indigestion, or something, that the Upper House of the Afghan parliament has voted on a timetable to kick the US out, and for talks to reconcile with warring factions.
That is, to end the war in Afghanistan.
As I mentioned, there is nothing at all on this at CNN. Nor anything at the Washington Post or LA Times. The Washington Post, did, in fact, run a two-page story, Saturday, about Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of US-NATO forces; it was headlined, astonishingly, "Afghans Growing Irate Over Casualties". But in that entire story there was nothing about the parliament.
South Korea, OhMyNews, May 9, 2007:
Members of the Upper House voted on Tuesday in favor of holding talks with the Taliban militants who have been waging war against the Afghan government and foreign troops since their ouster from power in the late 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
-- snip --
Apparently they have two bills in the works:
The same call was made a day earlier while the senators were voting for a controversial bill granting amnesty. to all those accused of war crimes and violations of human rights during the past two-and-a-half decades of war and internecine strife in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, PakTribune, May 9, 2007:
Afghan parliament approves reconciliation bill
Wednesday May 09, 2007 (0741 PST)
KABUL: The upper house of Afghan Parliament has approved a bill for national reconciliation, a local newspaper reported.
"Mushrano Jirga, or the upper house of parliament, approved the reconciliation and amnesty bill," Outlook said.
Wolesi Jirga or the lower house of Afghan parliament has already ratified the bill.
One of the two reconciliation bills, then, has been approved by both houses of the Afghan parliament. It awaits only a signiture from Karzai.
Did you know this? I didn't know this.
In fact, I did find one other citation in an American media outlet. From May 9, in a news service called "All Headline News", based in Las Vegas. The very last line of a story about the Iraqi parliament sneaks this in, about the Afghani parliament:
Iraqi Parliament Drafts Law Setting Timetable For U.S. Troops To Withdraw
May 11, 2007 1:57 p.m. EST
Linda Young - AHN Staff Writer
Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Even as a U.S. general is asking for more troops in Iraq, the Iraqi members of parliament are gathering signatures to boot American forces out.
-- snip to last line of story --
Earlier this week Afghanistan's upper parliament moved to oust U.S. troops from that nation when it passed a bill to establish a timetable for the U.S. to leave.
Am I missing something, here?
Is this, you know, not important? Huge, in fact?
South Korea, again:
Before calls were made by the parliamentarians for dialogue with the Taliban, the president as well as officials from other quarters, including foreign backers of the Afghan government, namely Italy and Germany, had issued statements recommending that talks be held.
China:
The bill, if signed by President Hamid Karzai, will grant amnesty to all those involved in the past decades of war and conflicts in this country.
So what are we getting from, say, CNN, today? Predictible warmongering and death, and a total blackout of the duly elected government of Afghanistan's efforts at peace:
NATO: Taliban mastermind killed in Afghanistan
POSTED: 8:48 a.m. EDT, May 13, 2007
(CNN) -- A top Taliban commander -- a man described by one Afghan official as a "killer of killers" responsible for the terror outfit's day-to-day operations -- is dead, NATO said Sunday.
NATO's International Security Assistance Forces confirmed earlier reports by the Afghan government that Mullah Dadullah was killed in southern Afghanistan.
Dadullah "left his sanctuary into southern Afghanistan where he was killed in a U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO," the organization said in a statement.
It's enough to make you think our major US media aren't all that independent. It's enough to make you think they just parrot the Pentagon, and the President.