[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 37 (Monday, March 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1413-H1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FREEDOM OF THE PRESS CRACKDOWN IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, for 8-plus years, we've been told that 
the military campaign in Afghanistan is about promoting freedom and 
democratic values, which is why the latest news out of Afghanistan is 
so disappointing and ironic. The Karzai government, which has proven 
itself corrupt and ineffective in so many ways, is imposing 
restrictions on media's freedom to cover suicide attacks. Of course the 
government insists, quite condescendingly, that this policy is simply 
about keeping journalists safe. It reminds me of when you were a kid 
and your parents told you they were enforcing some new rule or 
discipline because it was ``for your own good.'' Of course, you thought 
that they were doing it to serve their own interests, not yours. But in 
all seriousness, Madam Speaker, that's what's going on here.
  This is censorship, plain and simple, designed to shield all of us 
from fully understanding the horrors and abject failures of this war. 
Sometimes, Madam Speaker, propaganda takes the form of active 
misinformation, but sometimes, as in this case, the propaganda is in 
what they don't tell you. Just as the previous Bush administration 
didn't want the coffins of dead U.S. soldiers photographed, the Afghan 
Government doesn't want its people or

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the world to know that the insurgency remains alive and well. They 
don't want us to know about the violence. They don't want us to know 
about the bloodshed because they don't want us to know that this troop 
surge is not working, that it is emboldening rather than crushing 
Taliban militants.
  And here is the richest irony of all. The Taliban, one of the 
cruelest and most repressive regimes Afghanistan or the world has ever 
known, has put out a statement tweaking the Afghan Government for an 
action against the recognized principles of freedom of speech. You know 
you've run afoul of civil liberties when you've gotten a rise out of 
the Taliban, which banned everything from the Internet to kite flying 
to painted fingernails.
  Madam Speaker, democracy depends on the ability of citizens to make 
sound decisions based on open access to information. When we crack down 
on freedom of the press, we undermine the very foundation of democracy 
and everything we're fighting for in this war. This episode is just one 
more reason why we need to bring an end to the conflict and adopt an 
entirely new national security approach.
  A smart security strategy would replace the military surge with a 
civilian surge. It would defeat terrorism by providing aid and 
promoting human rights instead of sending troops. And smart security 
would also have a strong democracy-building component to help 
principles like freedom of speech and the press to take root in the 
troubled regions of the world.
  We cannot passively accept this decision by the Karzai government to 
impose a gag order on the media. I urge Secretary of State Clinton and 
Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke to raise this issue at the highest 
levels. At a time when Americans are sacrificing so very much, when 
they're being asked to send their sons and daughters to risk their 
lives halfway around the world, we owe them nothing less than the 
unvarnished truth about this war. Now is the moment for more 
information, not less; the bad news as well as the good news.

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