September 2008 - Posts
By Richard Engel, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent
KARACHI, Pakistan – In the back of a jeep driving through Karachi, a sign on the wall of the city’s famous "Village Restaurant" caught my eye. It was just a little piece of frayed white paper plastered next to the restaurant’s much bigger logo, tempting customers to "Experience the Exotic of Traditional Dining."
But the printed sign expressed an increasingly urgent plea in this teeming port city, once Pakistan’s capital: "Save your city from Talibanization," it said in English.
But could the Taliban really be taking over Karachi? Karachi is Pakistan’s biggest city, far from the lawless tribal hinterland along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Out there, Taliban and al-Qaida militants have carved out an independent state. In the mountains, militants have their own courts and even issue licenses to local business. Last week in the tribal area, the Taliban publicly executed a group accused of murders. In another village square, they flogged several butchers for allegedly selling the meat of sick animals. That is Taliban justice.
U.S. military and intelligence officials consider that border area to be the world’s biggest, most dangerous safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and nearly all of their deputies have been based, and may still be based, in this often impassible mountain terrain.
But I was in Karachi, a giant city on the Indian Ocean. If Karachi is being ‘Talibanized,’ Pakistan is in real trouble, and so is everyone else.
CONTINUED >>
By NBC News' Karim Hilmi
BAGHDAD – A few weeks ago, Arab satellite channels were airing live coverage of the Democratic Party convention. At a cafe in my Baghdad neighborhood, the TV was tuned into the goings-on in Denver.
The cafe was full, as it is usually is after working hours. But hardly a head was pointed in the direction of the TV as the Democratic Party raised its collective voice to welcome Barack Obama. Most just kept playing dominos, backgammon, cards and drinking tea and Pepsi.
That’s despite the fact that Obama has some Islamic roots – his father was raised a Muslim and the presidential candidate spent four or five years in predominantly Muslim Indonesia as a child – and that he and his Republican opponent, John McCain, have divergent opinions on their handling of Iraq’s future.
Why? Busy lives – and a weary fatalism born of 25 years of Saddam Hussein and five-and-a-half years of American occupation.
CONTINUED >>
Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – Last week, three books about Barack Obama were published in China – to little fanfare.
Despite being prominently displayed inside one of Beijing’s larger bookstores, the books – two were his own and the third was a collection of his speeches and writings – attracted little interest the day we visited.
The shop clerk said sales were "healthy" for a new release, but "The No. 1 Bodyguard in China," a biography of a former Chinese security guard, sitting next to "The Audacity of Hope," drew more curiosity. No books by John McCain were available; apparently his writings have yet to be translated into Chinese.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| Books about Barack Obama were just translated into Chinese. |
"At the average person’s level in China, I’ve just found [the U.S. presidential election] to be less interesting than any other thing – the Olympics, the earthquake, other things going on in China that are of huge historical importance to China itself," observed James Fallows, who’s been based here for two years writing for The Atlantic Monthly.
Apart from the events he mentioned, there were also the winter storms that paralyzed half the country; the Tibet riots; torch relay protests; violence in Xinjiang; and now the melamine-tainted milk scandal. No surprise then that most Chinese have been focusing on domestic events.
But, as usual when it comes to China, it’s never that simple. As we talked to people about the American election, we found varying levels of interest and curiosity.
CONTINUED >>
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – As if having 1.3 billion people on the planet weren’t enough, China has sent three men into space.
In the country’s most ambitious space mission yet, the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft launched on Thursday from China’s Jiuquan space center in the remote northwestern province of Gansu. It was manned by the three astronauts – or "taikonauts," as they’re called here – one of whom will attempt the country’s first spacewalk ever. It would make China only the third country to attempt it, after the U.S. and Russia.
 |
| Getty Images |
| People watch the live broadcast of the launch of Shenzhou 7 spacecraft in the Cultural Square on Sept. 25 in Changchun, Jilin Province, China. |
It’s also the second stage of a three-step space development strategy, following up on missions that put taikonauts into orbit in 2003 and 2005. The Chinese hope Shenzhou 7’s spacewalk will help set the stage for building a space laboratory and, later, a space station.
But that’s not all. Many Chinese officials – including Ouyang Ziyuan, the country’s chief scientist for lunar exploration – reckon that now that they can send humans into space, it’s time for them to push on with exploring the moon and eventually perhaps even Mars.
A long-term view
Launching humans into space has ranked high among the dreams China as a nation has aspired to achieve – right up there with hosting an Olympics, building nuclear weapons, and mastering the Yangtze River. And so far, it looks like it’s on track.
CONTINUED >>
By NBC News' Don Snyder
WARSAW, Poland – Elzbieta Ficowska leaned forward to place red roses on a new grave in Warsaw’s Powawazki Cemetery. The 66-year-old woman also lit two votive candles.
They were in memory of Irena Sendler, the person to whom she owes her very existence.
 |
| NBC News/ Krzysztof Galica |
| Elzbieta Ficowska places flowers on the grave of Irena Sendler at a cemetary in Warsaw, Poland. |
Sendler, a Roman Catholic social worker, risked her life and survived torture to help save thousands of Jews after the 1939 German invasion of Poland. Sendler, who died earlier this year at the age of 98, led a group of 30 volunteers, the majority of them women, who managed to smuggle 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and gave them false identities.
'A truly heroic act'
Ficowska was spirited out of the ghetto in a wooden carpenter’s box when she was just six months old. Hidden on a truck beneath a pile of bricks – arranged to allow air to reach her – she had been drugged to prevent her from crying. With her in the box was a silver spoon engraved with her name and date of birth, probably put there by the mother she never knew.
"It was a truly heroic act for my mother to give away her baby with no guarantee it would survive," Ficowska said. "That was the painful decision my mother made." She did so because thousands of Jews were being sent each day to the gas chambers at Treblinka and other death camps in occupied Poland.
CONTINUED >>
By Jennifer Carlile, msnbc.com reporter
SLUPSK, POLAND – For the citizens of the Polish city of Slupsk, the American election is personal.
Like the rest of Poland, the northern city has borne the scars of Europe’s many wars and invasions. Now Slupsk is preparing for another potential conflict – as proposed host to a controversial U.S. missile site, one that has drawn the fury of Russia.
Slupsk, which had to be rebuilt after World War II, is central to a U.S.-led NATO expansion around and into the former Soviet Union, which is ratcheting up the tension between Moscow and Washington.
"The people of Slupsk are more interested than ever in the U.S. election," Mayor Maciej Kobylinski said.
The mayor backs the missile site, envisioning new highways, a small civilian airport, a water park and an Olympic-size swimming pool "not only for Polish citizens, but for the Americans that will come," he said.
He’s dusting off the welcome mat for an estimated 1,000 U.S. military personnel, but the warmth toward the installation isn’t unanimous – and opinions are divided over which U.S. presidential candidate will be best for Poland.
CONTINUED >>
By NBC News photojournalist Mike Simon
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – "Be careful, Mike! These things usually come in pairs."
The words of my sound recordist, Bobby Lapp, ring as loudly as any memory of the attack.
There was no doubt what had just happened. A huge truck bomb had ripped apart the Marriott Hotel in downtown Islamabad. The shock wave started as a low rumble, then quickly blew through us, tearing apart every window pane and door jamb in our location nearby.
But once it passed, it was strangely quiet. No sirens. No wails of pain or children crying.
I know now that quiet is the sound of a country going into shock.
CONTINUED >>
By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer
MOSCOW – "I’m against that one – the aggressive one – I'm for Obama," said Valentina Savina, a lottery ticket seller on the Old Arbat, Moscow’s busy central pedestrian thoroughfare.
"[I’m] against McCain," she added when asked what her views were on the U.S. presidential candidates. "He's against Russia."
Alexander Maleshov, a cab driver in Moscow, agreed. "As far as I know, the Republicans are strongly against us," he said.
Savina and Maleshov are not alone in their views of McCain and the GOP, according to a recent poll of Russians conducted at the beginning of September by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The survey found that 27 percent of respondents would choose Sen. Barack Obama if they could vote in the U.S. elections, as opposed to just 6 percent choosing Sen. John McCain.
CONTINUED >>
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent
MWANZA, Tanzania – None of the shopkeepers had change for a dollar, and I marveled, not for the first time, at how the gap between rich and poor plays out in real life.
I wanted to buy a tiny bag of peanuts while waiting for a ferry to cross a pretty bay on Lake Victoria in Tanzania.
Nagona, the woman selling the peanuts, didn't have change; so she went from stall to stall, waving the 1,000 Tanzanian shilling note, which is actually worth about 88 cents. But nobody could break it. This vendor had 60 cents worth of money, that one had 80 cents, but nobody had the resources to break the 1,000 shilling note.
And all the while they smiled and laughed and joked with each other. I asked how business was and they said good. They sold peanuts, small cartons of milk, warm, sweet, fizzy drinks, dry biscuits labeled "energy bars" and, of course, cigarettes.
One cigarette at a time, that is.
 |
| NBC News |
| A passenger on the ferry we eventually caught to go across Lake Victoria in Tanzania. |
The waiting ferry passengers milled around, joking at the man who had a baby chicken inside a tiny cage made of twigs, which he had tied to his bicycle seat. The cage was so small the chick's neck was bent. When an old man's bicycle fell to the ground, scattering his load of pineapples and nuts, everybody laughed as if this was the funniest thing, and he joined in the gaiety, and then everybody helped him pick up his load.
One little boy was carrying boiled eggs in a tin container. You could dip the peeled eggs in some salt he carried. Two boys were checking an egg, tapping it, shaking it and listening, as if they were experts assessing the finest goods.
CONTINUED >>
One of the big attractions at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics is wheelchair rugby. NBC News’ Adrienne Mong meets the U.S. team and discusses how the sport is breaking down stereotypes and gaining new fans.
By Cheryll Simpson, NBC News Foreign Editor
BAGHDAD – Disembarking from the plane at Baghdad International Airport I was hit by a wall of heat and humidity, a complete contrast from the wet and cold fall day I had left behind in London less than 24 hours before.
This being my first Iraq assignment, I usually work as a foreign news editor in our NBC News London bureau, my eyes and ears where cued up the minute I arrived to take in the full Baghdad scene.
The airport was full of Western contractors and security types all looking a little battle weary. The absence of many Iraqi’s, and any other women, was glaring.
After passing through immigration, I was met by our local Iraqi office manager and encountered my first taste of daily Baghdad life – the power went out and we stood there hopelessly in the dark waiting for the baggage belt to spring to life. No light, no luggage.
CONTINUED >>
By NBC News’ Shahid Qazi and Carol Grisanti
BABAKOT, Pakistan – In a tangle of bushes and trees outside a remote village in southwest Pakistan, six close male relatives of three teenage girls dug a 4-foot wide by 6-foot deep ditch, on a sweltering night in mid-July, and allegedly buried the girls alive.
The girls' crime: they dared to defy the will of their fathers and the customs of their tribe and choose their own husbands. The mother of one of the girls and the aunt of another were shot and killed while begging for the girls’ lives, according to local media reports.
 |
| NBC News |
| A busy street in the village of Babakot, Pakistan. |
The incident has touched off widespread condemnation from human rights groups, but also a sturdy defense from local officials. "This action was carried out according to tribal traditions," said Israrullah Zehri, a senator representing Balochistan in the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament in the capital Islamabad. "These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them," he said.
We visited the scene and interviewed locals to try and learn more about this gruesome crime.
CONTINUED >>
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – Two weeks after the end of the Summer Olympics, the residents of Beijing have yet to wake up to their much-anticipated sports hangover.
In fact, if the vast crowds an NBC News crew and I witnessed on the Olympic Green this week are any indication, they are still lapping up the sports on offer at the 2008 Paralympic Games.
The Beijing Paralympics, which began last weekend, feature 4,000 of the world’s toughest top athletes with disabilities from 148 countries competing in 20 sports – as varied as wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball and blind soccer – until Sept. 17.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| Paralympians say they're getting a warm welcome in Beijing. |
But as crowd-pleasing as some of these sports can be, we were still taken aback by the long lines of ticket-holders thronging the main southern entrance to the Olympic Green.
After all, China has not been known for its tolerance of disabled people. In a country with 83 million disabled (about the size of Germany’s population), it’s rare to see any of them in public.
Traditional attitudes perceive people with disabilities as cursed, making them social outcasts; an old Chinese phrase termed them "useless cripple" (can fei). In May, an official guide for Olympic volunteers was recalled after it was discovered it contained descriptions of disabled people as "stubborn and controlling."
Until recently, public access and facilities for the disabled in major cities have been practically nonexistent, and state support for the disabled in the form of health care or jobs has been very limited.
CONTINUED >>
By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
BAGHDAD – President Bush announced plans on Tuesday to pull 8,000 more combat and support troops out of Iraq by next February, but not all Iraqis are happy about the security situation here.
At Baghdad International Airport a handful of returning Iraqis, who were recently denied residence in Sweden, blamed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for their disappointment. "He visited Sweden and painted too rosy a picture of conditions here in Baghdad. So Sweden is no longer accepting Iraqi applications for asylum, and we were sent back here," said one of the Iraqis at the airport who had been turned away.
To be fair, involuntary repatriation may not be the fate it once was. Baghdad's security has definitely improved. When I was traveling down the road from the airport to the center of the city recently there were fewer checkpoints than during my last visit in June. And the high-speed security convoys escorting important visitors now appear to have blended into the traffic streams. Dozens of shops abandoned by fearful merchants have been reopened and there is a noticeable absence of armed police patrols in the streets.
CONTINUED >>
By NBC News' Fakhar ur Rehman and Carol Grisanti
Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and now the leader of her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), is set to win a five-year term as president of Pakistan on Saturday.
 |
| Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images |
| Asif Ali Zardari at a press conference in Karachi. |
The two other candidates from rival parties have been unable to seriously challenge him because the PPP enjoys a comfortable majority of seats in the national assembly and in three of the four provincial assemblies – these groups will choose, by secret ballot, a successor to President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned from office last month.
The election comes as Pakistan is reeling from an economy in chaos, crippling power outages, an Islamic insurgency moving out of the lawless border areas into the cities, and public outcry over Musharraf’s sacking of judges who opposed him.
CONTINUED >>
By Iqbal Sapand, NBC Producer in Kabul
"I thought American forces were in Afghanistan for our security," said Attiqullah, his voice trembling. "I could never have imagined that they would bomb my wedding party. They killed my entire family. I will never forgive them."
I sat with Attiqullah, who gives his age as around 15, near the graves where his family members are buried. He described what happened the day of July 6, 2008 -- his wedding day -- when his bride, two of his brothers and a sister, along with 45 relatives, were killed by a U.S. air strike on the remote village of Oghaza, in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan.
 |
| Attiqullah / NBC News |
| Attiqullah points out the bomb site |
Attiqullah’s father had sent the entire family to the bride’s house the night before the wedding ceremony, as per Afghan custom. "The women were playing musical instruments and everyone was singing and dancing," Attiqullah said. "Then, according to our tradition, the entire groom’s family must escort the bride from her house to meet the groom. Early the next morning everyone set out on the way to my house, walking in a kind of procession through a mountain pass. And then, the unimaginable happened."
CONTINUED >>
