Afghan Attorney General, a resident of Montreal Raids Afghan Television

Rogue Attorney General Raids Afghan Television
skyreporter.com from Kabul April 17

Hamid Karzai’s controversial Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet, who is also a resident of Canada, led a squad of police into the studios of Tolo-TV Tuesday night. Three editors and journalists were arrested, reportedly after being physically assaulted by policemen.

Tolo’s evening newscast had just broadcast a recording of Sabet’s statements earlier in the day to the Afghan Parliament. Sabet claims his speech was misrepresented. However, according to Afghan Foreign Ministry officials critical of the move, the raid and arrests took place in the absence of appropriate warrants.

Afghanistan’s vibrant and assertive new news media has been under increasing pressure by the Western-sponsored Karzai government. But the spectre of paramilitary repression is unprecedented – at least for the current regime. The Taliban government exercised draconian information control, branding television cameras “instruments of Satan.”

Currently, President Karzai’s information minister, Karim Khurram, is drafting a law to curtail media freedoms (see skyreporter’s OUTFLANKED BY FLUNKIES, April 12). He and Sabet last week ordered Tolo TV to remove a popular programming stream from it’s Lemar channel – an order widely seen in the Afghan capital as retaliation for Tolo’s frank coverage of corruption and ineptitude in the Karzai government.

For the past several weeks, skyreporter.com has attempted to obtain comment from Canada’s Foreign Affairs department, and Immigration Canada, about President Karzai’s accident-prone Attorney General. After much delay, only a curt statement came in reply, claiming that Canadian officials played no role in Sabet’s appointment. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, too, has steadfastly refused to comment on Sabet’s entry into Canada several years ago, and his ongoing Canadian status – despite evidence that Sabet had concealed his past association with extremist groups, and that he had been denied residence in the U.S.

Please see skyreporter’s film reports on AFGHAN HEROIN , especially The American Connection . And of course AFGHAN NEWS BLUES and AFGHANISTAN’S NEWS MEDIA .

Prime Minister Harper: you cannot avoid the question any longer. Is this the kind of Afghan government Canadian troops are fighting and dying for?


Rogue Afghan Attorney General, who is also a resident of Montreal, leads violent raid on popular TV station

CALGARY, April 17 /CNW/ - Skyreporter.com Reveals Canada's Connection to Kabul Crisis. Five weeks after journalist Arthur Kent launched an investigative series of film reports on his new website, www.skyreporter.com, the shadowy figure at the centre of the anti-narcotics policing scandal at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan's Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet, has launched
an unprecedented crackdown on the country's burgeoning news media.

Tuesday evening in Kabul, Sabet led a squad of police into the studios and offices of Tolo-TV, Afghanistan's leading private broadcaster and an important source of news for Afghans angered by years of corruption and ineptitude in the Western-sponsored government of Hamid Karzai. Several reporters and editors were reportedly physically abused by Sabet's men. Three
journalists were arrested. Sources indicate that the raid and arrests took place without proper warrants.

Since early March, Arthur Kent has forwarded questions to the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay regarding Sabet's status in Canada. Sabet gained entry during the Taliban era and settled in Montreal - despite his past connections with anti-Western extremist groups in Afghanistan, and having had an earlier application to enter the U.S. denied by American
immigration authorities. Sabet returned to Kabul in 2003, and was nominated by Hamid Karzai last August as Attorney General.

Says Kent: "From Foreign Affairs, from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and from the Prime Minister's office, the silence has been deafening. The last thing the Harper government seems to want to talk about is Abdul Jabar Sabet, of Montreal and Kabul.

"But now, with a media crackdown underway in Kabul, another question looms large: is this the kind of Afghan lawman and government that Canadian troops are fighting and dying for?"

The raid was launched shortly after Tolo TV's evening newscast had featured a recording of Sabet's statements earlier in the day to the Afghan Parliament. Sabet claims his speech was misrepresented.

Kent's skyreporter website includes a film profile of Tolo TV, and a separate tribute to all Afghan journalists. Says Kent: "Afghanistan's vibrant and assertive new news media has been under increasing pressure by the Karzai government. But the spectre of paramilitary repression is unprecedented - at least for the current regime.

"It was the Taliban government that practiced draconian information control, branding television cameras 'instruments of Satan.' Now Sabet, along with President Karzai's information minister, apparently want to turn back the clock on freedom of speech."

Skyreporter.com is an independent website, managed exclusively by Arthur Kent, and features the latest technology for exhibiting video reports online. It was launched March 5th, 2007.

For further information: Adriana Salvia, (416) 274-8711,
Adriana@mondouxsalvia.com; or Jennifer Mondoux, (416) 530-1173,
Jennifer@mondouxsalvia.com