If Doug were actually curious about why the fixer who had worked for Christian Parenti was killed, he could ask Parenti or find out about it on the Net. The fixer Ajmal Naqshbandi was killed because Hamid Karzai's "Afghan government," being pressured by Washington not to bargain with terrorists any more, refused to release more Taliban prisoners (see the NPR story about it at the bottom, which took me only a second to find) after the release of an Italian journalist taken hostage with Naqshbandi.
Ayub Nuri speaks of the risks that fixers run in Iraq, "for $100 a day, about 25 times what . . . [he] could make as a teacher":
Though fixers run as many and often more risks than
Western reporters, we haven't had the same protections.
There have been no insurance plans to cover us, no
guidelines on what we should wear or when it is O.K. for
us to travel for a story. As Iraqi natives, we have been
expected to use our judgment about these things. Even
large American newspapers like The Times can't
guarantee that they will be able to help fixers if they
become targets. And while American news organizations
have often supported fixers' applications for visas to the
United States, the U.S. government does not see itself as
having a special obligation to them. ("At War, at Home,
at Risk," 29 July 2007, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/magazine/29iraqi-t.html>)
American tears for the Iraqis and Afghans who worked for the empire and then are left behind are by and large crocodile tears. Few Americans lose sleep over them.
My advice to foreigners who consider working for any part of the US-led multinational empire, including its media: if you have to do it at all, _which I strongly advise against_, make it Denmark.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6908792.stm> Last Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007, 15:19 GMT 16:19 UK Denmark ends secret Iraq airlift
Denmark has completed the evacuation of some 200 Iraqis who it feared faced danger for their association with Danish troops in southern Iraq.
A final group of 80 Iraqis has arrived in Denmark, joining 120 already there.
The airlift of the Iraqis, including translators for Danish troops, had so far been kept secret for security reasons, a Danish official said.
Denmark is expected to withdraw its group of 480 troops from Basra in southern Iraq next month.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The US and UK have been reluctant to take in large numbers of Iraqi refugees.
The British government said on Friday that it was committed to looking after its troops' Iraqi aides, estimated to number about 700, but asylum applications would be considered on an individual basis.
The US has taken fewer than 1,000 Iraqi refugees although it has pledged to take in about 7,000 more from this year.
Among European countries, the greatest number of Iraqi refugees have gone to Sweden, which does not have any troops in Iraq.
Millions of Iraqis have either been displaced internally or fled to neighbouring nations since the US-led invasion.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9585247> Interviews Murdered Afghan Interpreter and Journalist Missed
Weekend Edition Saturday, April 14, 2007 · Last weekend, Afghan interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi was murdered by the Taliban. He, an Italian journalist and their driver had been kidnapped a month ago.
The driver was beheaded shortly after the kidnapping. The Italian journalist was released after the Afghan government released five Taliban prisoners. Naqshbandi was killed after the government refused to release more prisoners.
Christian Parenti, a correspondent for The Nation, had worked with Ajmal Naqshbandi in Afghanistan and speaks with Scott Simon about Naqshbandi's talents as a translator and journalist. -- Yoshie