The die hards remain, the celebs and want to be celebs down to the E list have left. Perhaps only the true believers will be able to claim that they witnessed history and yet everyone who has left will tell tales of how they were here and watched it. I doubt that half the people here know the difference between the donkey and the elephant and who is blue and who is red.

Speaking of colors correspondent Greg Palkot and I almost had a heart attack when the embassy map showed the state of New York as red before they changed it to blue, apparently the computers colors everything red first , and then you have to change it.

In the next hour I hope to witness history, perhaps that is why working in the media is magic at times, then again anything is better than two weeks ago in Afghanistan.

Share This

Update: The air is stale , more of the guests have had more than would permit them to drive a vehicle home and yet still you cannot hear a coverage above the social chit chat. The best thing about the top of the hour is that the next round of results are due out and like a firework parade the whoas and ahhs will echo around the room.

Share This

The hard thing about time differences is that over here it is already tomorrow and yet the time on the East Coast is 8pm. And watching various monitors around the embassy you are beseiged by  the flashing of figures across screens, we cannot contribute much as there is no reaction to results because they are still to be counted. The mood of the party makes me wish that I had spent more time reading celebrity magazines like Hello as the guest list here grows and given that the locals have not figured out how to turn on the air conditioners correctly. Most of the guests sip white wine and try to network amongst themselves. The map on the wall has only two states colored and the cut outs have finally become somewhat irrelevant as almost everyone has had their photo taken with them. It appears that we will still be here at 3am at least providing those chads are a thing of the past.

Share This

US Embassy London Local Time 9 pm , East Coast Time 4 pm: Sitting in the Via Reception room at the US Embassy here in London is somewhat of a weird place to observe a moment in history that is likely to happen in the coming hours. The local evening newspapers here in London have all agreed that Barack Obama is likely in the coming hours to become the next President and here in the Reception room there are four cardboard cutouts of the candidates where you can have your photo taken with your favorite. So far no one has had a photo taken with McCain or Joe Biden. Obama is the favorite, though Pallin is popular because she is shorter.

We all remember where we were in great moments of history: Man on the Moon, 9/11 attacks and perhaps tonight is the next defining moment when a black man becomes President of the USA. Apart from that, we wait till the early hours of the morning here, as we are five hours ahead of New York and it is most likely that we will be here till 4 in the morning. Meanwhile the Obama cutout remains the most popular and if that is any indication of the cut out exit poll, perhaps the night will not be that long. And history may start a little bit earlier.

Share This

Afghanistan: September & October 2008

It would be easy to say that the war in Afghanistan is simply that a war between good and evil or a matter of faith depending on how you worship.  How does one define victory, there will be no peace accord signed or will we watch two sides try and rebuild there nations as in previous wars?

The cold hard reality is that no one cares about Afghanistan and never will.  Afghans did not directly blow up the twin towers on 911.  So the question they ask all the time is why are there still foreign troops on their soil.  The enemy is there but is not seen.

After nearly a month in Afghanistan, I look back and see nothing positive.  The role of the American soldier cannot be questioned, each and everyone I met was that of caring.  But we did meet soldiers with the look of defeat who openly questioned the effectiveness of the current strategy.  The look in his eyes was the best mirror to the current situation there.  And that reflection is the look of pointlessness.

Hard cold facts are never pleasant and the reality in Afghanistan is that corruption is pandemic. It is in and at every level of society and this cancer feeds on itself and the more money that is poured into Afghanistan every day, lines the pockets of the corrupt, twenty families now effectively control Afghanistan according to a recent British fact finding mission to Afghanistan.

Fact, you want to become a Police Chief, with a profitable narcotics route through your district – going rate is $150,000 and you get the badge, keep paying those above and take without mercy from those below.

Fact, In Southern Afghanistan, being a farmer, from Lashkar Gar and taking your crop and trying to bring your crop to Kandahar, to sell has become pointless.  Police and Bandits set up roadblocks on almost all roads and by paying all the bribes there is no money to be made.  So why grow crops when if you grow Opium you will have the protection of the local Warlord who in turn controls the Authorities.  The farmer can now feed his family and have safety.

Fact, Statistics were quoted ad nausem to us, complete with power point presentations, which at times are more boring than death by paper cuts. Close to 250 International soldiers have been killed this year, the most since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Civilian casualties have tripled to more than 4,500.  Highways that generals point out of helicopters at 1000 ft and speak with pride of rebuilding a nation are void of traffic.  No one dares to drive on them.  Private companies supplying the ISAF forces in the South are reportedly now being known to be paying nearly $4000 for a tanker of water or fuel to get through and onto the main base at Camp Bastion, of which a quarter of this amount goes to the Taliban.

Telephone companies operating cell networks in rural areas now turn them off in the evenings, at the request of the Taliban, according to an advisor to the Energy Minister four of the nineteen regional electricity companies are run by the Taliban.

It is not that the Afghan in the street wants the Taliban back, but the cause of the Taliban has been helped by the number of civilian deaths in the last year, killed in US air strikes.  Operation Enduring Freedom can hardly claim success from the air.  Nangahar, Farah and Azizbad are not household words in the West but in Afghanistan mention these towns and everyone knows the death count of civilians and shares a sense of outrage.

Fact the Taliban will pay a soldier twice the pay he receives in the Afghan Army, fighting for the other side for $180 a month is often considered better than being shot at for $90 a month.

Fact the safest ring tone to have on your phone in Afghanistan is not a top 40 hit, but the Taliban favorite ringtone, Death to the Invader, a reference to foreign troops. Reality TV, forget Afghan Idol, that ran into trouble despite its popularity, a young woman just won a cash prize, a plastic sofa and a trip to Dubai for winning Koran Idol, whereby contestants recite verses from the Koran in front of a judging panel of mullahs.

Fact, the best business in Kabul is to run a security company and get a lucrative contract with a foreign company or aid agency. Thirty-six international security companies have established themselves in Kabul and eleven more are setting up. Cost for license $300,000, and that is the clean figure.

Add to this Afghanistan is facing a drought that has forced the price of wheat up fourfold, you will not see the hunger in Kabul but behind the mud walls in the countryside, women and children will pay the price.

Afghanistan is not a Military victory waiting to happen, the amounts of money flowing into Afghanistan are obscene. The obscenity is what happens when the money gets in country.

I started this trip expecting the dangers of any assignment in a war zone, we were shot at by RPG’s whilst in a helicopter, ran the gauntlet of driving on high profile roads and slept in some pretty average places. Yet after the month it comes down to two images that remain and best sum up the situation that we face in Afghanistan.

One the look on the face of a Marine who was heading home after a six month deployment in Helmand, we met him back in April on our last trip. They had expected the operation to last four to six days, six months later a dejected marine sat on the bench at Bagram Air Base and his eyes told the story of a unit that had been betrayed.

The second image I cannot write about yet, for that story is still unfolding. Three people sitting around a table looking at a cell phone is a hard way to leave a country.

I praise each and every person from the Military that is over in Afghanistan, for they believe in a cause that is directed by an Administration that was attacked back on that fateful day in 2001. Every soldier should be proud of what they have achieved, the issue is that very little has been achieved for the average Afghan and that is what needs to change.

Share This

In 1985, Lieutenant Commander Waghorn and Lance Corporal Gill played Scrabble for five days when trapped in a crevasse in Antarctica. Which begs the obvious question … how do you manage to have a Scrabble board with you when you get trapped in a crevasse in Antarctica?

The same logic cannot apply to the team here in Afghanistan.

Not only do we have two sets of Travel Scrabble, we also have the Scrabble dictionary. There is an old military saying that, “God curses anyone who does not bring two of an essential piece of equipment.”

Whilst we have cases of cables, batteries and various cameras (seven in fact, counting all available means of capturing video.) We always carry a scrabble set with us (and the dictionary.)

There are times when we have a couple of hours between live shots or simply at the end of the day, when you are sitting around at the end of the world. Walking around kicking rocks gets boring after 10 minutes or even worse when we sit around and see who can make the highest pile of rocks by balancing rocks within arm reach.

Thus we strive for the ultimate “QUARTZY” (164 points) across a triple-word-score square with the Z on a double-letter-score square) or dream of OXYPHENBUTAZONE, 1778 points formed across three triple-word-score squares, while simultaneously extending seven specific already-played words to form new words.

The actual reality of life on the (tile) road here in Afghanistan, is that between us more arguments are caused by the playing of brilliant words like “MALTY” (adj, resembling malt) onto a triple than “ZINGARA” (n.pl, a female gypsy).

Not that we are competitive but given that we have played by kerosene lantern at our hotel here in Kabul.

Or we sat on the tarmac next to the Afghan Air Forces helicopters freezing to death whilst bemused Afghans tried to figure out what the hell these people were doing.

Then there is the story of our Producer Maryam Sepehri, locking her door and closing the curtains, and reading the Scrabble dictionary before a game, whilst I simply try to remember the two letter words by rote.

With a few days on this assignment to go the stakes and tensions are rising, if only I get the letters KIJUZMS tonight and have first turn, then face it Maryam its game over. You may be winning at the moment four games to two and then you did beat me by over one hundred points in one of those games.

Dana the official wordsmith of the team, correspondent and editorial expert claims that both Maryam and I cheat, and having consulted the dictionary CHEATY, is not a word unlike MALTY.

Share This

There was a choice of two types available under the glass knife counter in the Italian PX store here at the ISAF base at Kabul International Airport. The price difference was two Euros.

Unlike the US military bases in Afghanistan, here at the ISAF base, it is a different world. In so many respects and in attitude, it is like a little European Union and the US Military presence is minimal. We have spent a few days here working with the US Air Force who are training The Kite Flyers (Afghan Air Corps) as I called them the other day.

The commitment to the effort here in Afghanistan of International Forces to actually do anything beyond the wire and barriers is a source of annoyance and frustration. Publicly they cannot say anything critical of these nations. But in private their words are harsh. The base here at the International airport is small and the car park is full of brand new 4×4 SUVs that have never left the base.

However in the face of adversity, here are some examples of how International troops have embraced their deployment and somehow forgotten what this war is about.

Luke and Orsy have arranged for Salsa lessons for beginner beginning December, twice a week. There is the tabletop Foosball competition beginning soon, and a tribute to Depeche Mode is upcoming. The Beauty Salon is doing a roaring trade and massages are available. Are you the smartest person on the base? Well the Dutch have a Trivia Night coming up, then there is the Mini Soccer competition.

The Italian PX store has a range of coffee machines available, and the lack of dress sense they display in the Dining Facility can only make you laugh. Running trainers worn with a full Military uniform seems more than acceptable.

Is the stress too much for the Germans? Have no fear in there PX store there are stress balls in the shape of a women’s breast available, to take the tensions away.

If you seek “Strength, Flexibility and Relaxation” then sign up for the COMBAT Yoga class, instead of a downward facing dog maybe the upward facing bayonet pose will appeal. Instead of the sound of relaxing Tibetan mantras over running waterfalls, the “Ride of the Valkeryie” will help soothe your spirit.

After all that there is of course the choice of which bar and restaurant you would prefer, Thai, Italian or maybe a cold beer in the “Air Force One Bar and Restaurant.” All troops, with the exception of the US forces, are free to drink alcohol. If an American is caught drinking then a dishonorable discharge is pending, whilst the Europeans sip chardonnay on the outside tables.

It is not unusual in the evening to see male and female soldiers walking hand in hand around the base, or sitting and looking at each other between a bunch of plastic flowers. Condoms are available readily, (but I should add that they are available in stores on US bases also) there though I think they are used more for keeping dust and dirt out of rifle barrels, well that’s what they say.

It beckons the question of how committed many of the foreign nations are to the cause. World leaders like to boast about a coalition and commitment to Afghanistan, the reality is that some countries commit a hand full of troops and then place such caveats on there deployment that the greatest danger they face is a parking ticket on a day to day basis.

Under the glass back at the Italian PX, was a pair of standard metal handcuffs. Plain sturdy and functional cost 7 Euros. Next to them was a pair of Pink Furry Love Handcuffs, a vital piece of Military Equipment in a war zone, cost 9 Euros.

Share This

Flying back into Kabul, as the sunset, it was not the brilliant glow of fading golden light in the mountains that held my attention. But the sheer number of brightly colored kites that ducked and dived under the windows of the helicopter.

If you have seen the opening scene from the movie”The Kite Runner” where kites fill the frame from above and below, you will know what I mean. As we came into the city at about 500ft it seemed that the kite runners below were intent on attacking the MI 17 helicopter that we were in filming a story on the newly formed Afghan Air Force.

The MI 17 is no sleek looking Darth Vader designed weapon of death but ha been the stable workhorse of the eastern block for years, it has an elder brother which is a merchant of death the MI 35. But for Afghanistan?s newly formed Air Force the 17 is there workhorse, ideally suited for the altitude and terrain here.

It is bare bones, comfort and electronic sophistication not included. Our US pilot working as a mentor for the training team also mentioned that the rotors go the other way, just like water down a sink in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus if the rotors go the other way all the controls are the other way.

But in the cockpit along with our US mentor was the leading Afghan Pilot who managed to take flying at low levels to a complete new low. The other week in a US Blackhawk in the Eastern Mountains it felt like you could safely touch the ground. In the Afghan version we at one time were crossing mountain passes with five feet to spare. Watching out of the opened portholes yes opened portholes. I felt my date with destiny was rapidly approaching and over the intercom the US pilot was insisting we go higher whilst the Afghan said ?No No all is OK?.

I have had enough of helicopters for a long time.

There is a post note to the day and it was when after the first leg we came back from lunch at the base we were visiting. There was a delay in taking off, the crew on inspection found kite string wrapped in the main engine and in the tail rotor and for ten minutes the crew was seen pulling lengths of string from the engines.

No doubt The Kite Runner had run away.

Share This

• FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

Karga Lake is as close to a “Lovers Point” as Afghans know, about seven miles outside of the capital Kabul. The now infamous “Vice & Virtue Police” of the Taliban may be a thing of the past, however puritan standards do still remain.

Any young couple that wish to drive to the lake are stopped at one of the checkpoints manned by the Police and they are asked if they are married. Failure to verify often means that their parents are called and irate fathers mete out the consequences.

The other reason why the lake is so popular with young men is that there is a restaurant there that sells alcohol, and every young man is seen walking around with a coke can that has “evil and taboo alcohol” added to it. Whilst expensive random breath testing kits are way beyond the budget of the Police here, they have come up with their own version of testing for alcohol. Young men leaving the lake are randomly stopped by the Police on the checkpoints as they leave and have to breath on the Police. The elite nasal senses of these vanguards of virtue can immediately smell alcohol and for a few dollars the young men can excuse themselves from their lack of moral willpower.

We had been up at the lake for a shoot, talking to people about how they perceived life and issues and Kabul. A reputed warlord, who according to a diplomat here is best described as “a hard drinking human rights abuser,” owns the lake and area below the dam wall here lies one of the gems of Kabul.

The Kabul Golf Course, 9 holes (18 if you go around twice) opened in the late sixties closed twice for the minor matter of a Soviet Invasion and then during the years of the Taliban, who deemed golf not to be a decreed sport sanctioned by Sharia law.

We drove into the course and found the clubhouse, and the Golf Pro Mr. Afraid Abdul who has been the driving force of maintaining the tradition of golf in what can only be described as the most un-golf course in the world. Jailed and beaten by the Russians, jailed and tortured by the Taliban, Mr. Afzai Abdul is passionate about golf.

But before we even played a hole there are some facts about this golf course that make it unique in the world. There is not blade of grass anywhere, the greens are well not green in fact but compacted sand and oil mixed together. There is a water hazard somewhere, but there is no water, but if your ball lands in the water hazard you must take a drop shot. If you wish you may bring your own piece of Astroturf and use it for every shot. If you have any concerns about possible land mines on the course, rest assured it is safe, as it has been used for training of de mining teams over the years and completely swept.

There is one set of clubs available and a limited number of golf balls so caddies come in twos, one to carry the set of clubs and one to run ahead and chase the ball.

Correspondent Dana Lewis confidently drove the first fairway, I was second to tee off and hit the best shot of my life with a wood straight down the fair dirt. Maryam Sepehri our Producer looked the epitome of golfing fashion with her Ugg boots, but knows how to play this silly sport better than the rest of us.

Tom our Security Advisor had never played a stroke of golf in his life and upon his first tee shot was dancing like a kid who had won the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, whilst Akbar our local fixer was just glad to hit the ball.

Golf articles tend to enhance the beauty of any course, but few words are needed to relay the picturesque non-beauty of the Kabul Golf Course. It is an experience that few golfers in the world will ever get to play a round here. And bragging rights go far in a game where you chase a small white ball and ruin a pleasant walk in the late afternoon light of Kabul.

We all made it to the green, sand and oil swept with a rag and for anyone who wants an insight into the speed of the greens, be aggressive as the ball sinks and leaves a deep rut as it inches towards the cup.

Some days you do get to experience fun on the road in war zones, and for a couple of hours we lost ourselves in a pastime that no one associates with conflict.

For the record Dana, Maryam and myself double bogeyed, Tom forgot that you had to count and would not tell us his score and Akbar never knew about scoring.

Share This

FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

Share This

FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

_______________________________________________

7:45 Depart hotel en route to meet the man I have dubbed Sean Penn, from the movie, “Dead Man Walking.” He is the head CID Police Chief targeted three times for assassination in the last few weeks. The plan is to ride along with him for a few hours. The reality is that this is as dangerous as an embed.

8:05 Phone call shooting on Jalabad Road heading out 8:30 ninth and bottom of the innings, we ask why the baseball bat is in the car; he says his driver plays, but we think he hits more than balls.

8:50 Chief is tense, gripping his AK-47, as we drive to scene of shooting.

9:15 Jalabad bus station: chief examines bus with bullet hole , blood on seats and floor bodyguards all have fingers on their triggers as the boss walks around 9:30 at the NATO base. Reports that the French ISAF troops were involved, and now the chief has gone inside to investigate and reports that one person is dead and more injured. The French deny they were involved. We wait outside the base in the sun.

10:16 Sirens and singing driver speeding back into Kabul, more police escorting us, appears to be eight pickups loaded with police and guns in convoy.

10:46 Back at the police hq interview with the boss, as he continues to fidget with three phones in front of him, whilst a policeman with an ak 47 stands behind me at attention. They have not forgotten how Massood was killed by a TV crew here, just before 9/11. No one in any place of power here trusts a TV crew.

11:10 One more scene asks Dana “can you show us your police cells.”

11:12 Not exactly the black hole of Calcutta, but still the seven guys being held are not happy to see me with a camera pointed through the bars, espicially the man from Pakistan being charged with terror as he stares down the lens.

11:25 We take our leave, a frantic three hours and it feels good to take off the body armor.

Share This

FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

_______________________________________________

Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan — There is thrill and reality of covering the war in Afghanistan. It does not have to come from being in “kinetic action” as the new term for gunfights with insurgents is referred to. The thrill of being in a Blackhawk helicopter filming out of the window past the guns hanging out the side, with the wind rushing in and buffeting you at a 150 knots, as you fly twenty above the ground crossing mountain passes of 10,000 ft. You can feel your stomach lurch as the updrafts rise and drop, like a rollercoaster with no track.

We headed to the Eastern Province of Khorst and Camp Solerno. Moving around a battlefield is sometimes like a game of chess and getting from A to B is often a matter of waiting at C. C being back to Bagram and then driving to Kabul. The distance from our original starting point at Camp Shank to Kabul is less than forty miles by road; two hours drive at the most. But conditions here make travel on unsecured roads to risky. So air transport is the only way and it will take nearly 36 hours to safely get back to Kabul.

Our connecting flight on a C130 had a check in time of 11:30 pm, the logistics of moving troops, contractors, equipment and at times media like us, can only be compared to running a major airline. After we had checked in and loaded our camera kit and bags onto the pallet to be fork lifted onto the plane. The Army corporal in charge of check in, yelled out

“Could everyone please make sure that clips are removed from your weapon and that there are no live rounds in the chamber.”

There are no metal detectors here and you do not have to take your boots off or empty your pockets before boarding.

The bad news was that the flight was now not until 02:30. Even in the middle of a war zone, you wait in airports. Producer Maryam Sepeheri and I settled down to a game of scrabble, the only thing that opened was a chest of cold water in the corner and as we played on, soldiers slept in broken armchairs covered with the sweat and grime of previous passengers.

Finally a Sgt announced that our flight was inbound and let’s get ready.

“Make sure you are all wearing your IBA”

Individual body armor in plain English.

Walking out of the terminal into the night, you are surrounded b y blackness, the base has a blackout policy due to recent attacks by Insurgents that included truck bombs and suicide bombers at the front gate.

You can make out the rough image of the person in front of you and nothing else and out of the darkness you hear the plane land. No lights on the runway all operations for the pilots here are infrared, it is a strange experience to hear a plane and not see it. Like children on a pre school outing you file out to the plane, there is no talking as the drone of the blades and the smell of jet fuel blasting on you as you wait.

Shuffling on, you find a seat on the webbing and take your helmet off, Bagram is only thirty minutes away and we finally get to our bunkhouse on the base at 4am.

The thrill of the morning chopper ride over the mountains will remain with me forever, but the reality of traveling here, even short distances is brutal.

Post script – FYI I beat Maryam by 10 points in scrabble, Q on a triple letter.

Share This

FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

_______________________________________________

The view from Bee House 5 is a bunker; then again view is a wrong word to use, as there are no windows in barracks in Afghanistan. You live in a dark cocoon where day and night are realized by either opening the door to whether it is dark (thus night) or light (thus daytime), or you can look at your watch.

Most of the bases in the East of Afghanistan come under regular attacks from rockets of the Insurgents on a regular basis, there is no witching hour the rockets can come at any time and soldiers do get injured or killed again on a regular basis.

Whilst you can easily ignore a stewardess on a plane trip with disdain about what to do in the event of an emergency when the soldier introduced us to Beehouse 5, the first and foremost information parted was not where the closet latrine is or what hours the Dfac (Dining facility) opens for meals. But what to do in the event of a rocket attack.

Calmly it was explained that there is usually sixty to ninety seconds between the first strike and following rockets so if you are not hit in the initial attack make your way as fast as you can to the bunker.

The bunker outside our beehouse was about ten feet long made of two concrete U shaped bocks turned upside down and covered with sandbags. Inside there was a stretcher, two sandbags to sit on and 31 bottles of water. Blocked at each end apart for a squeeze entrance to get in and out off.

The next question, we faced was whether to sleep with your boots on or off. Whilst it may sound like a silly thing to consider before going to bed, the reality is that in the event of an attack, could I in the dark find my boots, tie the laces and get safely to the bunker. Then again I would also have to have my camera on and be filming at the same time using night vision scopes which are the hardest things to use whilst not in a panic and having your heart race at 150 beats a minute.

In situations like this the camera never leaves my side, if I go to the latrine the camera goes with me, brush your teeth or go for a meal the camera comes with you. Because at any stage an attack can happen and running across a rocky parade ground a couple of hundred meters to get the camera is not an option. If it not with me then I do not get the pictures, bunker or camera ? the bunker will win.

I finally went to sleep last night at around ten thirty, late by isolated Forward Operating Bases standard, fully clothed with my boots on. The local wisdom is that if you have not been rocketed by midnight then it is a good bet that the night will pass quietly. I had practiced counting my steps down the stairs to the bunker three times before lying down. Two normal steps then a small half step and a drop to the ground three steps to the right and into the bunker.

In the early hours in the dark I finally took my boots off in the dark, reached across and checked my camera with night vision was at arms reach before falling asleep.

Just another day (or night) on the frontline in Eastern Afghanistan, a clear night sky crystal clear with stars and luckily no rockets rained down.

Share This

FNC Reporter Dana Lewis and Cameraman Mal James are on a month-long assignment in Afghanistan. For all their blog entries, click over >>

_______________________________________________

Kabul — Last May I left Afghanistan with the words of the outgoing commander of international forces here assuring us that by 2011 all foreign troops will be out of here and a stable democracy would have been restored.

Driving around the capital of Kabul in the last two days reveals a city that is effectively underseige. New checkpoints dominate virtually every road that leads to any govt. building or embassy.

For the more than 5 million residents of this city, the greatest problem they face is corruption. It is a cancer that has pervaded every aspect of life here, and by all reports it goes to the almost top of govt, and even the president has a close family member that are regularly linked to the drug trade and corruption.

The figures are beyond belief; according to the US Government Accountability Office recent report the US Govt has spent close to $16 Billion on Military and Police training since 2002. And yet out of 105 Army Units only 2 are capable of conducting their primary missions, as for the Police. The figure is zero not one unit is capable of conducting effective enforcement.

I spent some time this afternoon filming Kabul Police conducting searches of cars, and again it is a matter of what is not being done that is more damming that what is being achieved. They would not stop a car with more than one male in it, cars with more than one male regularly waved off the police requests to pull over and continued with immunity, not one car with a woman was stopped at any stage.

I filmed for a while for a feature we are working on, then getting back into our car I asked our fixer could we go to the outskirts of Kabul and film the checkpoints as the forces checked trucks coming into the city. He said he would try but a problem would be that when we were filming the authorities would not be able to collect their bribes. I jokingly mentioned that we would pay them for the lost revenue and he thought for a moment and did not answer.

A reality check for everyone is that Afghanistan is now officially the fifth most corrupt country in the world according to the latest report issued by Transparency International. Only Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and bottom of the list Somalia are more open to corruption.

During an interview yesterday with an ex member of the Cabinet he told us that there were reports of Govt Officials who had assets in excess of $20 million dollars and yet they were paid only a few hundred dollars a month for their services to the administration here.

You can feel the frustration of everyone in this city as they are powerless to stop this cancer as the International Community continues to pour money in here with the hope that things will get better. For a select few the benefits are astronomical and the disease of corruption filters down till there is nothing left.

Share This

En route Tbilisi – You never leave a war zone … in my work, I depart one conflict and prepare for another.

In fact, between live shots the other day, I went down to the hotel gym to find Correspondent Steve Harrigan working out as well.

“Here we find ourselves in a war zone, training for the next one”

The next one being Afghanistan, in a few weeks time where I have a three to four week assignment coming up, to coincide with the U.S. Elections.

The last two weeks in Georgia have been physically draining, long hours , little sleep and the constant threat of danger. It is the danger you do not see that worried me the most. Isolated roads and ethnic tensions, add to that alcohol and guns and a lethal cocktail is created.

Who started the war in Georgia will be debated, Why Russia invaded can be argued from many viewpoints. I have no doubts that they had been planning this invasion for a long time.

I have learnt that you should never take sides and you cannot hate one side or the other. The secret is to simply despise both sides equally and be nice to the man with the gun or tank you are standing next to at the time. It is somewhat hard to explain what it feels like to drive across frontlines, one minute you are with one army the next with the other side with guns and artillery pointed at where you have just been and where you will be going too.

War is often not a constant Rambo’esque blaze of gunfire from the hip, but a slow calculated chess game, where moves are often made when the pieces are in place. And then the secret is not to be in the no man’s land

The one thing I dread about going home is the fact that I know that in the next few days, I will go through, what I call the “wakes in the night.” Where I will suddenly wake up and not know where I am in the dark, and it will take a few seconds to register where I am and the fact that I am not in a conflict zone. That is never pleasant and will take a week to get over.

The Afghanistan trip next month will be hard, and already not two hours out of Georgian War. My planning has begun already.

Finally after two weeks my beard is at the stage that the itching is beginning to drive me crazy, what is worse though is the amount of less than dark hairs that seem to populate my natural color.

Share This

Tbilisi, Georgia — Perhaps one the hardest things to come to personal grips with on assignments of this length is the toll of working hours in two time zones, and then having to work them twice or more in a day.

Time zones are probably my greatest enemy in many respects. Here in Tbilisi, we are eight hours ahead of Fox News Headquarters in New York. The effects of this after 12 days on assignment probably really hit home last night, or afternoon, depending on where you are reading this.

The day seems to begin the night before. We have to do a live shot for “Fox Report”, which means we are still working at 3 a.m. So as far as New York is aware, we have finished just after 7 p.m. … but by the I got to bed, it can be 4:30 local … and then to get up and gather the news for the day, I have to be awake again no later than 9 a.m., to get the kit ready from satellite gear to computers, power, cameras, first aid kit checks and the body armor.

Out of the hotel around 10 a.m. (which, remember, is in fact according to New York 2 a.m., and the day has begun.)

We head up the road to the frontline, film for a few hours, then head back to Tbilisi. I try to feed some of the material we have shot on the road so that the channel has material for us to run during the day, and this is before we start our rostered shift of live shots. Our block of lives yesterday was from 3 p.m. to the 7 p.m. shows, New York time, which meant we were going locally from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Then figure on getting up again and doing it again, sometimes the live shift good fall in your favor and we can wrap up by midnight. But you know that all things end, and at some stage life will be back to normal.

As far as what has happened here today, the reality is nothing, but my conspiracy theory for the future has no silver lining.

Share This

Outside Gori , Georgia

Well according to all the Russian troops, we’re supposed to be pulling out of positions at noon (that is when the big hand and the little hand on the watch, are together and pointing to the top.)

Now, as they say, try to stay fashionable and explain to me how come when we approached Gori, after the big hand little hand scenario whilst still in the sovereign nation of Georgia.

We approached and past through a Russian Military checkpoint some 10 KM’s outside Gori on the road to the capital Tbilisi.

Only to drive on and come to a complete stop to be turned around by guess who ?

There on the highway leading into Gori, in the country of Georgia was a Russian Officer who said that unless we had Russian Media Accreditation approved by the Kremlin or Russian Authorities, we may not proceed along a Georgian road into a Georgian city that was supposed to of been clear of Russian troops at midday.

Then again the artillery still on the hills dug in, plus the APC’s on the road, ohh and the camp of Russian soldiers.

Driving outside Gori , Georgia

Call me cynical, but I laugh when I got back to the hotel in Tbilisi an hour later and there on an opposition cable network was a running headline banner on the bottom of the screen “Russian Troops begin pullout.” If they bothered to leave the Presidential Suite they occupy on the sixth floor and drive up the road rather than rely on wires from agencies, that have been so inaccurate and propaganda tools for both governments in this conflict, then perhaps they could report the news.

So where does this leave us, the bottom line is I do not believe anything that I have not seen with my own eyes.

And from behind these hazel irises, the Russian troops remain in Georgia.

The next time someone comes up with a time, just double check which day, week, month and year they mean when they say noon.

Click here for Mal’s last blog >>

Share This

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Click KEEP READING for Mal James’ blog.

ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT

IGOETI, Georgia (AP) – Russian soldiers dug foxholes Saturday on a hillside near the capital of war-battered Georgia as a cease-fire went into effect, setting the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of fighting.

The Russian seizure of territory, including the strategic city of Gori about 20 miles from Igoeti, raised fears that Russia was aiming for a permanent occupation of the country that once was part of its empire.

As both sides waited for the truce to come into effect, Russian troops’ intentions were hard to read.

The shallow foxholes being gouged out of the earth at Igoeti by a small contingent of Russian soldiers on Saturday could indicate intentions to stay awhile. They could be intended as defensive positions for the Russians to guard their comrades as they withdraw

If you Google “IGOETI” thousands of hits will come up, all reflecting one thing, as the Associated Press Report above indicates the Russians have control of this vital city or town, every newspaper in the world will have a story almost identical, and around the globe the world holds it breath fearing for the fate of “Igoetians”.

Prior to the war, here. Googling “Igoeti” would of revealed a couple of hits relating to vineyards in the area.

We drove up to Igoeti yesterday, Saturday and filmed the Russian Tanks, APC’s and Soldiers digging foxholes overlooking the road. At the frontline yesterday it was a matter of Georgian troops and Russian troops literally 50 yards apart, sometimes soldiers would walk back and forwards crossing the line. No one caring or really bothered. Fighting is no longer a real factor here. Everyone knows who has won and that at any stage the Russians can move where and when they want.

We drove up today towards Igoeti, which is about half way between Tbilisi and Gori. The highway is virtually closed to all traffic and for the first time in this conflict we pasted with tape on our car the word “TV” on the windscreen, bonnet and rear window. So that when we approach checkpoints the risks are reduced of being an unidentified vehicle.

Our main concern today was not the threat of coming into contact, but the real danger of being robbed and having our vehicle stolen at gunpoint by roaming militants, or as Cher might say “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”. In a new 4X4 Toyota, “TV” on the windscreen, driving on a road with no law and no order, we were an ATM on wheels to anyone with an AK47, of which there are no shortage of here.

The Russians have pulled back a few km’s from Igoeti, and there is always the professional desire to check facts as true. But leaving the last Georgian Army checkpoint and heading towards Gori, the silence in the car reflected that knowledge that it was a risk not worth taking. Around a corner a Georgian Police car with a few people milling around gave a sense of safety so we pulled in to talk with the police. The trouble, as Rez our driver explained, that the police themselves cannot be trusted… they can just easily tell you that all is ok on the road ahead, watch you drive off and call their friends to steal your car and everything in it.

It was the first time in the week plus that we have been here that our driver Rez has expressed any concern in regard to this and Steve and him talked in Russian for a while. Basically, it could be done but the risk was just to high. So without saying anything to the police we turned back towards Tbilisi . We had not gone more than half a mile when we passed a Red Cross Aid convoy heading towards Gori. Being a convoy we turned and started to follow them past the police we had just left.

One minute past the Police, we came upon another checkpoint manned by uniforms that made no sense and this was a major worry. It took two seconds for us to make a fast very fast U turn and head back.

We try everyday to cover the war and tell a story, the last thing we want to do is become the story ourselves.

It was a day as they say that everyone’s sixth sense, became a little seventh. Sometimes the scariest sound is the sound of silence at a checkpoint.

Click here for Mal’s last blog >>

Share This

We all have them, and for whatever reasons you try not to break them, just in case it brings bad luck. Friends often are amazed as to what superstitions I have when in a war zone — and I do have a few — so in no particular order, here are some of the things that I believe bring me luck.

I never shave when covering combat. I can trim my beard under my chin, as it gets too itchy otherwise, and if it goes on for too long I may even trim my beard … but I never shave it completely. The exception is in the event that I have to wear a gas mask against a chemical attack, as was the case in the Iraq War, when a beard is more likely to kill me than save me, as the gas mask will not fit.

I always return home with one piece of clothing that I have not worn, nothing in particular, but one piece. On this trip it will be a black T-shirt. I always carry a red handkerchief, have done for years, and tucked away somewhere is the last thing someone gave me before I leave for assignment. This time it is a coin that the London Producer Tadek Markowski, picked up from the bureau floor and said, “Here you are mate, a lucky penny.” (Well a 2p coin is close to a penny.)

We head out in an hour or so back to Gori, 40 miles away and the front line. With my coin, handkerchief and a stubble of a beard … and most importantly photos of my two daughters, Louise and Brittany in my wallet.

Click here for Mal’s last blog >>

Share This

Fox News International Cameraman Mal James

Gori Georgia Law today on the outskirts of Gori involved a crazed Ossestian wielding a pistol firing a journalists — this directly in front of a Russian tank flanked by Armored Personal Carriers.

The fact that the Russian soldiers did nothing is not surprising as reports of all sides in this conflict are committing atrocities. In the spirit of the Olympics car jacking and robbery are now national sports, and as journalists, we are being targeted to new heights.

You can get that sense of calm and normality sitting around an army only to have it destroyed in seconds. We managed to get through all the road blocks and arrived on the outskirts of Gori, to find the Russians taking up positions and for the first time a tank barrel was pointing down the road. The soldiers seemed calm enough and after 30 minutes of media mayhem, most of us along with the Russian soldiers were sitting under trees chatting as they asked us to make calls home for them, and let their families know that they are OK. Unlike the U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, few have cell phones and the concept of Internet cafes and AT&T phone centers, these guys have nothing.

A young Kazach soldier lay on the ground playing with a puppy. After the melee of the first half hour, we had let our guard down, doubting that any trouble could happen surrounded by the Army. It was the crack of a single round that made me look up as Steve and I walked back up the road towards the tank and up ahead our car. Anya, our Producer was still getting besieged by soldiers giving her numbers of families to call.

I thought it was strange to hear a small arm sound. But the smell of cordite drifted down to us and I commented to Steve. “Smells like cordite!” Another ten steps and it was revealed, the entire media pack was running away back up the road, cars with tires squealing were bearing away, and between us and our car was “the law.” A middle aged man with a pistol was screaming as he wrestled with a cameraman trying to get his camera. The pistol was swinging wildly and he was between us and our car.

More shots sounded, a gun swinging around in the air. Steve and i were running to the side as he continued to wrestle with the cameraman yelling in Russian, “Give me your camera, you jerk or I will shoot you.” You do not stop or try to establish eye contact, you simply run, as fast as you can in a flak jacket. Each step seems to get slower. The distance to safety seems to become an eternity. Now with 50 yards between us and the gunman I yelled for Steve to start talking, the drama and tension as I ran on with the camera pointing back at Steve, at this moment in time framing and lighting even exposure takes second place. It is a matter of capturing the impact.

With a few hundred yards between us and the crazed militiaman, we slowed to a walk and for the first time I stopped and turned back, wondering where our Producer Anya was in this mayhem. I could not see her so I started walking back towards the scene. It seemed to have cooled down. Back 50 yards, and all of a sudden everyone is running back past me at full speed away. It was going to hell again. Cars with doors open full of media hanging out screamed off, shouts were drowned out by the sound of engines reving and horns blaring.

And I could not find my car, I could not even see it. So I ran around cars as they took off wondering if I should just jump into a half open door. This was not one of the times when life flashes past your eyes or everything goes into slow motion. This was full body contact effort, only my own effort was going to get me out and safe. It seemed an eternity and the sound of cars became less as they were just about all gone, when I saw our car ahead. The mere sight of perceived safety gave me a boost. This is no armored car, but as we call them “soft skins” but it is “sanctuary.” I remember my arm finally touching the handle and opening the door to scramble in and I turned the camera still rolling to my face, my eyes shot with blood, my breathing and heart rate pulsing to the maximum. Lifting the camera I turned to Steve and said go, rolling … “it’s a good thing Mal James is a triathlete, he just had to run about a mile in a vest.”

That’s how quickly things change here. One minute you are sitting down with Russian forces, next minute – car loads of Georgian forces drive up, they are furious, and they seem to take out that fury and humiliation on the people they can, which is the journalists. We saw one Georgian, irregular force, pointing a gun and then another fired. I don’t know the result, but I saw a pistol fat guy pointed our way and we just had to run by that pistol and keep running. This is an irregular, undisciplined, chaotic, angry, humiliated Georgian force. They don’t listen to orders, they fire on civilians from what we’ve just seen.” It is called Law and Un Order.

Click over for Mal’s last installment from Gori >>

Share This

Gori, Georgia — Covering a war like this one is honestly to a degree like rolling dice, hoping that snake eyes does not come out. You assess every risk and decision rapidly and logically. Just how far do you push the envelope to get a picture or story. All intel amongst the Press Corps was that the town of Gori was a no go zone this morning, eve one of the major agencies was reported to have decided that since their armored car took an attack yesterday that they were nit going to risk it today.

But events change so quickly that the line in the sand shifts and your assessment and gut feel is that, yes go for it.

We arrived at the gas station overlooking Gori and saw smoke rising but it looked more like fires than military operations and every now and then a team would bundle into a car and head into the town. We have been into Gori everyday for the past four days and had the feel of the geography and lay of the land. Seeing a bus of people returning after fleeing we jumped in the car and drove in following the bus. The bus stopped and people got out and we jumped into the bus to film faces and emotions plus a piece to camera, then having chosen a woman we decided to follow her home filming the return with all the heart ache and emotions associated. I only ever knew her as the woman in green, because of the shirt she was wearing.

She had to go to the hospital where she worked to say hello and check in on friends, by now there was probably twenty or so Press in the courtyard of the hospital. When all of a sudden a simple text came through from a fellow journalist somewhere else to a friend.

It simply said three words:

GET OUT NOW

The adrenaline kicks in at such speed that decisions that could be work shopped on merit for hours and made in a millisecond.

The options of why are not discussed but with camera rolling we ran for the car, the greatest threat is of an air strike coming in and from that there is no escape. You do not form up into convoys or wait for stragglers the moment we were half in the car we were driving out fast, not a crazy speed but enough to make distance fast and back to relative safety, like the gas station we were bombed at yesterday seemed very safe.

The streets were empty as we sped out of town and then face to face we met them.

As I sit in the front seat to film out the window, the first of the Russian Armored Personnel Carriers came into my viewfinder, then a second then for the foreseeable future we had run into the Russian Army storming into Gori. If they had wanted to shoot us we were dead but speeding cars going the other way are given usually the right of fleeing.

You do not stop to think you film and pray that it will be alright, Steve gave the commentary and I filmed this was a defining moment in our coverage to date.

We rounded a bend and came to the Gas Station, to an enormous mass of Press who had missed the Russians entering because they had come down a road out of sight of the long lens.

You stop for a few minutes, and then the emotions of risk kick in.

Share This