Global Policy Forum

By Stephen Gowans

There are two levels of deception being practiced in connection with the horrible slaughter of Taliban prisoners at the Qaila Jangi fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif.

The first is the 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil' approach of the U.S. media, in which you'll find little mention of the atrocity.

"A computer database search of U.S. newspapers from recent days reveals an almost total absence of stories examining the issue," says Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, in its November 30 edition.

Cowed by letters and telephone calls from jingoes branding even the mildest criticism a sign of sedition, and anxious to avoid charges of 'fifth columnist' activity, the U.S. media sticks to an uncritically patriotic line, which means leaving atrocities committed by "our side" unmentioned or under-reported.

As Richard Hartung, director of the New York-based World Policy Institute, says, "I don't know whether they've been intimidated or whether they have just been drawn into the war."

Here's a clue: above all else, the media is a business, and the trusted stewards of shareholders' interests are smart enough not to let some dumb idea of the public's 'right to know' get in the way of keeping an audience and turning a profit.

Free, independent, critical – that's all public relations mumbo-jumbo. The bottom line is what drives the U.S. media, and if that means covering up, toeing the line, passing off official press releases as original copy, so be it.

Another level of deception is being practiced by the Canadian media. Although just as much under the yoke of shareholders as American concerns, Canadian outlets have a little more leeway. Canadians aren't as happy about seeing Afghans killed as their southern neighbors, so Canadian reporters can get away with a little more. That is why they're ready to acknowledge that the Mazar-i-Sharif story is being suppressed in the U.S., indeed, they're happy to, since it makes them seem all the more open by comparison.

Remember what happened? Foreign Taliban troops – Pakistanis, Chechens and Arabs mostly - were being held at the ancient Qaila Jangi fortress outside Mazar-i-Sharif. They had negotiated surrender with Northern Alliance General Rashid Dostum, who said they would be allowed safe passage to Pakistan.

Afghan Taliban troops had already been allowed to return to their home villages or had been integrated into Northern Alliance units.

A skirmish erupted inside the fortress walls. Why is unclear. The official story, to be developed later into the bizarre pseudo-dichotomy that 'this wasn't a massacre, it was a battle' (it was both) is that some Taliban fighters smuggled arms into the prison.

The story stinks. Why would fighters lay down their arms, allow themselves to be herded into a fortress, surrounded on all sides by Northern Alliance troops and U.S. and British special forces, and then, when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable, dozens of them with their hands bound behind their backs, resume the battle?

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had said days earlier he didn't want to see foreign Taliban fighters go free. Dead or confined to a prison, was the outcome he preferred. But dead or confined to a prison wasn't the outcome that was going to happen if Dostum kept his word. Who was going to prevail: Dostum or Rumsfeld?

The question doesn't even need to be asked. American forces were in control at Qaila Jangi, indeed in control of the Northern Alliance and much of the country, a point that may suddenly and shockingly have occurred to the prisoners inside the fortress walls. They weren't going to Pakistan. Indeed, they probably weren't going to live. Did they realize they had been double-crossed, that there was nothing left but to fight?

Whatever the case, once the uprising had begun, the Taliban's jailers had two options: kill everyone or bring the riot under control. They chose to hand Rumsfeld his wish. American forces called in air strikes. And not just jet fighters to drop bombs, but low-flying Hercules aircraft, specially outfitted to take out ground troops. According to Northern Alliance sources, most of the Taliban were killed by U.S. bombs.

But U.S. pilots weren't the only ones pulling triggers. As the Globe and Mail put it, "The revolt was crushed...with the combined efforts of Alliance troops plus U.S. and British special forces." If a brutal massacre had occurred, it wasn't only Northern Alliance troops who were eagerly mowing down Taliban insurrectionists – it was U.S. and British special forces troops, too. So, now you have U.S. air strikes killing most of the prisoners and an acknowledgement that U.S. and British special forces participated in the massacre; you'd figure the Globe and Mail would conclude something along the lines of: "The U.S. media are suppressing the story of the massacre of hundreds of Taliban prisoners because U.S. forces may have been involved in the commission of a brutal war crime."

Not a bit of it! Instead, the air strikes and the role of U.S. and British troops was swept under the rug, and readers were told: "Hundreds of pro-Taliban Afghans and foreigners killed this week in a prison uprising...were ruthlessly butchered by their Northern Alliance foes". As for the alliance's allies, the newspaper concluded, "U.S. forces may have been guilty of failing to intervene to prevent atrocities". Whatever happened to the ruthless butchering of Taliban prisoners by U.S. air strikes and U.S. and British special forces?

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