13/09/2013 00:00
TW
0

by MONITOR
STEPHEN Farrell, the UK journalist working for the New York Times in Afghanistan, published a short but vivid account of his capture and rescue from the Taliban yesterday. His report also described how his translator, Sultan, was killed in the confusion as British special forces arrived on a rescue mission. A British soldier was also killed in the shooting.

It seems that almost nothing can happen in Afghanistan without instant recriminations. Gordon Brown has been criticised for authorising the rescue when, according to some reports, Farrell's release was being negotiated with the Taliban; the outcome of hostage-taking in Iraq may have been on the prime minister's mind. Others say the rescue attempt was urgent because the Taliban were about to move Farrell and his translator to a more remote area. Criticism is also being directed at Farrell for failing to take notice of a warning by the military that his independent reporting mission to the area where NATO planes blew up fuel tankers, killing civilians in the process, could be very dangerous.

Farrell obviously believed that the air attack needed explanations beyond those so far offered by NATO HQ. When he got to the area he found that the Taliban was in total control with not a sign of NATO or Afghan forces. This is the kind of thing that a journalist operating alone discovers while those officially embedded with NATO forces are left wondering. There are no easy answers to the questions that an event of this kind raises.