Spinning pop tunes to beat the Taliban
A US-sponsored radio station endears itself to Afghans by broadcasting the truth – along with a few good hits. Part 3 of three.
Page 1 of 2
By Scott Peterson
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NARAY, EASTERN AFGHANISTAN –
The first words 1st Lt. Daniel Hampton learned in Pashto were ones he had heard time and time again in the remote reaches of eastern Afghanistan: "
Mana raka radio," or "Give me one radio."
First Lieutenant Hampton's Afghanistan "combat" has turned him into something of a disc jockey, running a small radio station that broadcasts from this American firebase into the Kamdesh district of Nuristan, along the Pakistan border - the target of a US counter-insurgency effort to defeat Taliban-led militants.
Hampton has handed out about 4,000 small radios, sometimes distributing them while his Afghan journalists report at events such as the openings of a new school, mosque, or women's clinic.
It's a rare distinction for a combat arms officer in the US Army's 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry, who has been trained more to win battles than wars of ideas.
Once part of what the miliary called psychological operations, or "psy-ops," such propaganda exercises are now called "information operations." Senior officers say that distinction matters in this remote area, where they recognize the risk of being seen purely as a mouthpiece of US forces. They - and the Afghan journalists working for the station and a new regional magazine - are trying to gain credibility with their audience by presenting more balanced news content.
The result has turned the journalists into celebrities in these far-flung villages - and also into targets for insurgents.
"People like the music. Everybody has a radio, and they can listen," says Mohamed Iqbal, the 19-year-old translator who launched the station in early June and helped expand it with other journalists. "People walk around like this, holding their radios in their hand, listening," says Mr. Iqbal, gesturing with his hands, "They love news."
The aim of the radio station is to help win support by publicizing the Army's local development projects. The programming is diverse: Daily progress reports on US-funded projects; the death tolls of insurgents and US soldiers alike; and a mix of popular music that brings in 40 tune request letters a day from local villages.
But the need for credibility with the audience has led to an unlikely departure for the military.
"I want the car bomb effect," says Lt. Col. Michael Howard, commander of the 3-71 Cavalry, describing his first rule for the radio. "As when a car bomb goes off in Iraq, and everyone knows about it, I want everyone in Nuristan to know that we really are building a road, a water pipeline."
Lt. Colonel Howard says his second rule is: "Just facts. No psy-ops," referring to the units that the military has traditionally deployed to spin information aimed at a local population. At ground level, US soldiers and Afghans alike say that "no psy-ops" is the only way they have a chance to be heard in these villages.
"It's not just the good stuff," says Hampton, of the news decisions. "If we lose a US soldier, we broadcast it. We let them know we are human, and are here to help them. What's helping us up here is not the bad guys we're killing, but the facts of what we're doing, coming from these Afghan voices," says Hampton.
The killings of two prominent men in the district in the past month for cooperating with the Americans - a village elder and a border police chief - are coinciding with an increased number of threats, delivered after dark, in what are called "night letters." Journalists now stick closer to the base at Naray, and travel less on dangerous roads between villages.
Page 1
|
2 |
Next page
|
RSS feed