Afghan Government Threatens Press to Report Good News Or Else – Hey, It Worked for Bush in the US!

Kabul, Afghanistan --The war against the Taliban has gone badly these last months, but Afghanistan's national intelligence agency has devised a secret plan to reverse the tide of bad news.

In a coordinated action this week, the intelligence operatives drove up to TV stations and newspapers in muscular SUVs and dropped off an unsigned letter ordering journalists to report more favorable news about the government.

In particular, the letter said, they should avoid "materials which deteriorate people's morale and cause disappointment to them."

The country’s warlords are not to be criticized or called "warlords" -- a common term in Afghanistan for the more powerful among them, the letter specified. And Afghans called back by Karzai from exile abroad to take posts in the government are not to be called "westernized."

The men from the National Security Directorate would not give their names, and to better ensure secrecy, the letter instructed journalists that "publishing or copying this document is unauthorized."

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