[T]he U.S. hired a number of public relations companies to put a positive face on the reconstruction effort [in Afghanistan]. One of them is the Washington, D.C.-based Rendon Group, which the report says has “close ties to the Bush Administration.”

The Pentagon has awarded Rendon more than $56 million in contracts [!!!] since September 11, 2001, “as part of a coordinated effort to disseminate positive press about America and its military in the developing world.”

The contracts call for “tracking foreign reporters” and “pushing (and sometimes paying) news outlets worldwide to run articles and segments favorable to United States interests.”

These people are S-H-A-M-E-L-E-S-S - utterly, and irredeemably.

The report says Rendon was also granted a contract in 2004 to train staff at President Karzai’s office in the art of public relations, and “later received another hefty grant of $3.9 million from the Pentagon to develop a counter-narcotics campaign with the Afghan interior ministry -- despite objections from Karzai and the State Department.”

The report charges that the contracting system used by international donors is broken. It says, “USAID gives contracts to American companies (and the World Bank and IMF give contracts to companies from their donor countries) who take huge chunks off the top and hire layers and layers of subcontractors who take their cuts, leaving only enough for sub-par construction.

Quality assurance is minimal; contractors know well they can swoop in, put a new coat of paint on a rickety building, and submit their bill, with rarely a question asked.

The result is collapsing hospitals, clinics, and schools, rutted and dangerous new highways, a “modernized” agricultural system that has actually left some farmers worse off than before, and emboldened militias and warlords who are more able to unleash violence on the people of Afghanistan.”

Bush Co. screws two nations with the same colossal LIE. (Including Iraq, they're screwing three. But. who's counting.)

Afghans, the report says, “are losing their faith in the development experts whose job is to reconstruct and rebuild their country...What the people see is a handful of foreign companies setting priorities for reconstruction that make the companies wealthy, yet are sometimes absurdly contrary to what is necessary.”

Sometimes??? Try INVARIABLY.

Meanwhile, the report says, “the security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, directly threatening ongoing reconstruction. Some of the fighting is simply the result of deep frustration and distrust among Afghans who no longer believe the international community is looking out for their best interests.”

The “deliberate use of warlords and militias in reconstruction efforts has only lent them more credibility and power, further undermining the elected government and fueling a Taliban-led insurgency that continues to gain power.”

The basic infrastructure in the country, the report concludes, “is in shambles; the drug trade is booming. This result should be seen as a major setback to the ‘War on Terror.’ To Afghans, who after decades of war, believed they would finally catch a break, it’s a heartbreak.”

Professor Beau Grosscup of California State University at Chico agrees. He told us, “This report confirms that Afghanistan has been ‘Enron-ized’ by the Bush Administration. As with the demise of Enron, the future of Afghanistan is one in which the ‘get rich quick’ class at the top will escape with their bounty, while the poor . . . will be left to live in the rubble.”

Hey, that sounds like what they're doing here in America. But, it's not as pronounced here (YET) because (1) we speak English, so it's harder to fool US; and (2) the press that prints dollars is located HERE.

If the U.S. media were doing its job, we would know a lot more than we now know about the state of affairs in Afghanistan. But most of American journalism has been so focused on Iraq that it has devoted scant attention to Afghanistan.

That's IF the US media were doing its job. But, it's not.

And it's not because they're too focused on Iraq. It's because they're too busy pushing their own corporate agendas, which includes 'staying the course' in Iraq and Afghanistan and opening a new battlefront with Iran, and to that end the US mainstream media continue to peddle its standard repertoire of infotainment LIES to keep Americans thoroughly distracted.

The MEDIA is the opium of the masses and Americans are terminally addicted.

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thanks, denk.