Satire

It's Thursday, September the 11th.

There's a new bin Laden videotape out. In it, he's seen walking along a mountainous path.

Currently, the Arabic television network, Al Jazeera, is considering putting together a "deluxe collectors edition" of bin Laden videos.

Along with the latest episode, you get:
"bin Laden, Sitting Around with a Bunch of Guys."
Then, there's "bin Laden, Sitting Around with a Bunch and Guys -- and Talking."

And, naturally, the unforgettable "bin Laden, Sitting Around with a Bunch Guys -- and Reading Threats from Loose Leaf Paper."

All in Widescreen. Dolby digital. 5-point-one.

This is the Current.

9/11 Commission – Family

The chaotic sounds from a day that changed the world. It was two years ago today that terrorists struck the World Trade Center.

The attack drew some now famous words from U.S. President George Bush.

Bush was talking about the terrorists who masterminded the attacks. But many families of the victims say the accountability needs to go further than that...and include U.S. officials who might have done more to prevent the tragedy.

One of those family members is Mary Fetchett. She joined us from New Canaan, Connecticut.

Congressional Commissioner

As you just heard, some family members are frustrated that it took so long for the 9-11 commission to be established. So we put those concerns to Richard Ben-Veniste. He's one of the the ten members of that commission. We asked him why the committee wasn't struck until late 2002 -- more than 400 days after the attack.

This summer Congressional Democrats accused the administration of stonewalling the inquiry. In fact, a report from the 9-11 Commission itself said that federal agencies under Bush's control -- especially the Pentagon and Justice Department -- were failing to fully co-operate with investigators.

The commission also told the American people it was concerned about the administration's refusal to allow officials to be interviewed without a colleague, or "minder," present. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, the commission chair and co-chair, said that amounted to "intimidation." Here's how Richard Ben-Veniste summed up the commission's complaint for us.

And finally, we asked Mr. Ben-Veniste whether he's seen any sign that the administration may be trying to stifle a potentially damaging inquiry.

That final product...a full report...is due in May, 2004.

Admiral’s Grandson

Ever since the September 11th attacks, there have been comparisons to the attack on Pearl Harbour, by Japanese forces, in 1941.

Even commission chair Thomas Kean has said he hopes his board will "have more success than the much-criticized panel created after the bombing of Pearl Harbour." Our next guest is intimately familiar with that panel. Thomas Kimmel is a former FBI agent and retired Navy captain. He is also the grandson of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during the Pearl Harbour attack.


Listen to The Current: Part 1

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Afghanistan – Anna Maria Tremonti Essay

That sound is the flutter of a kite. Kite-flying is a right of passage in this country. Boys as young as four learn not only to FLY one but to win a kite-fight -- to cut another boy’s string aloft and send that kite floating into oblivion.

There are even kite tournaments. They swoop .. and dip .. and glide .. and shudder .. and everyone looks up. No one flies a kite like an Afghan kid.

But when the Taliban took over this country in the 1990’s, kite flying was banned, and the crepe-paper toys that fluttered over every neighbourhood, from the hovels to the mansions, disappeared.

Now, today is September 11th -- and of course, two years ago, the world watched in horror as the twin towers of the World Trade Centre came crashing down.

The death and destruction of that terrible day triggered a series of events. The United States declared a war on terror. The US … and Canada .. and others … fought a war in Afghanistan.

And the day they pushed the Taliban out of Kabul, the kites came back.

Those fluttering bits of colour are a now symbol of a new freedom in Afghanistan.

But like the kite, that freedom is subject to shifting winds.

This morning, we are going to explore the changes this new freedom has brought.
Along with the kite, other expressions of Afghan culture are back -- and new ones have blown in.

Afghan Photographer

Some of the changes have taken place with the efforts of Reza Deghati. You may recognize his name; he is the photo-journalist who spoke of the Mujahadiin warrior Massoud on our program two days ago.

Reza is such a celebrated photographer here, and around the world, that he only goes by his first name.

After decades of seeing the remnants of war through a lens he realized that along with buildings, and land, and loved ones, war robs people of bits of themselves and of their culture.

To try to change that, he created a cultural center called AINA. And as you’ll hear, he is passionate about what culture can do to heal a nation.

Music

Title: “Beloved Kabul”
Artist: Farhad Darya

Afghan Idols

The singer Farhad Darya fled Afghanistan in 1990, before the Taliban were in power.

Darya is wildly popular -- so much so that he thinks he’d be a target.

But two weeks ago, he came home anyway and sang his most famous song at a hilltop hotel in Kabul.

Freelance journalist Olivier Puech was there to hear him and to talk to him.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

The Current: Part 3

Kabul After the Taliban

Abdul Sabur is squatting on the floor, using a very rudimentary contraption to wind bright yellow twine onto a spool.

He’s a kite maker, working out of a one-room shop with metal shutters for doors that opens onto a crowded sidewalk -- and an open sewer.

Rows and rows of bright-coloured spools line the walls and kites of every size and hue lean against them.

In fact if you look at the hands of kids or adults flying kites here, you can see cuts from the glass string.

Abdul shows me a damaged picture frame from the day the Taliban came in and smashed up his shop. The business has been in the family for more than 40 years, but for the Taliban’s five year reign he had NO business.

The words spill out of Dari now .. and he points to another frame, this one stuffed with photos of smiling kids and kites, and he remembers the joy and relief at opening his shop again.

Reza, the photographer who we heard from earlier, has his own memories of the day the Taliban was routed from Kabul. To hear him tell it, all the cultural contraband was just waiting to come out in the open again.

Taliban Resurgence

Of course, the Taliban may not be in power, but they are still around -- in a few specific parts of the country.

There’s been a re-emergence of Taliban fighters carrying out guerrilla attacks against the foreign presence here, and there have been several isolated battles with US troops.

An organization called the International Crisis Group is tracking the conflict in the countryside.

Vikram Parekh works with them, and he regularly travels parts of Afghanistan where support for the Taliban remains strong.

He says this activity is not unrelated to the way the reconstruction efforts are unfolding.

Canadian Soldiers

So we have Vikram Parekh’s analysis of the trouble in the countryside, and the ongoing debate over whether Nato-led troops should move beyond Kabul is escalating.

In the midst of it all, we have two-thousand Canadian troops positioned on the edge of
Kabul on daily patrols.

As you know they are at Camp Julien – and, by the way, if you’re wondering where that name came from: Private George Patrick Julien was decorated for his role in a Korean War battle fifty years ago. The camp is named after him.

There are no pitched battles for Canadian soldiers at this time, but this is an unpredictable place.

I was on the base yesterday to get a sense of what soldiers are thinking. In this next conversation, you’re going to hear three of them.

Corporal Diane Russell, a truck driver; Master Corporal Ross Lewis, a weapons commander; and Sapper David Smellie, who is a sapper (a de-miner).

Harmonium Player

We’ve been talking about music a lot today. Imagine how musicians in this country felt when the right to play was taken away from them … when instrument-makers couldn’t use their craft, and when music students weren’t allowed to learn.

We ran across an interesting man named Alhaj Basheer Ulfat who sings and plays the harmonium and is grateful to be performing again.

Afghanistan And the Olympics

Now we know about the Taliban banning music, movies, women’s voices on the radio, and kite flying. That was outrageous enough.

But they also banned wrestling, because the outfits were too revealing -- you could see a man’s skin below his elbows and knees

And its not like the wrestlers had anywhere to compete, since Afghanistan was banned from the Olympics in 1999 -- that would be well after the Taliban put out its draconian edicts against women, one of which was no female athletes.

But Afghanistan has now been welcomed back into the Olympic circle, so we thought we’d go visit a wrestler-in-training. His name is Ikram Mo-deen. But before we hear from him, our translator, Hamid Doolah, wanted us to know the significance of where Ikram trains.

Bidding Farewell

So there you have it: wrestling outfits are no longer considered obscene, and another sport has come back to life.

And of course, the sport of sports, flying a kite … its such a simple thing.

Every day, when I look up in the sky here … I see kites. First one ... and then another …
... Soaring higher ...
... Carried by the breeze …
... Over buildings bombed-out and never repaired ...
... Over mud-coloured houses ... built into the mud-coloured hills …
... Even over manicured gardens hidden from the streets.

In some ways, Afghanistan is like the kites that flutter above Kabul ...
... Fragile ... and yet finally able to soar …
... Free ... yet tethered by political strings that, like the strings of the kite, can sometimes be cut.

This is the end of The Current’s special coverage of Afghanistan, but we will revisit the issues facing this country throughout the year.

What you’ve heard over the last four days is thanks to the relentless energies of Producer Arif Noorani; Bruce Edwards is our technical producer; Hamid Doolah was there to translate. Thanks for listening.

Listen to The Current: Part 3