Wikileak of the day.
Interesting leaked cable, and another example of something that would never have seen the light of day without Wikileaks:
WikiLeaks: DynCorp pimps young Afghan boys for Bacha Bazi
Basic summary: US contractor in Afghanistan was using taxpayer money to have "bacha bazi" parties for the police (male child crossdressing prostitutes, even the Taliban and Sharia law banned these parties).
To be fair, the State Dept was apparently unhappy with this, but not enough to stop it or cut their funding. However, the State Dept DID make sure the story did not hit the US press.. which shows how easily the Washington Post is to buy off.. and how badly the media in the US is doing at reporting things. Apparently they carefully reworded 'crossdressing child prostitutes who are auctioned off for anal sex' as "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party". This is why having access to raw information is so important... look how badly it can be twisted when the journalist wants to. While technically correct, from an American morals perspective there is a HUGE difference between the two.
And of course, the cables mentioned that this warping was done because accurate reporting on the contractors would 'endanger lives'.
Keep in mind, this is the same US contractor who was caught retaliating against a whistle-blower a number of years back who reported them for running a child sex slave ring (girls as young as 12) in eastern Europe.
WikiLeaks: DynCorp pimps young Afghan boys for Bacha Bazi
Basic summary: US contractor in Afghanistan was using taxpayer money to have "bacha bazi" parties for the police (male child crossdressing prostitutes, even the Taliban and Sharia law banned these parties).
To be fair, the State Dept was apparently unhappy with this, but not enough to stop it or cut their funding. However, the State Dept DID make sure the story did not hit the US press.. which shows how easily the Washington Post is to buy off.. and how badly the media in the US is doing at reporting things. Apparently they carefully reworded 'crossdressing child prostitutes who are auctioned off for anal sex' as "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party". This is why having access to raw information is so important... look how badly it can be twisted when the journalist wants to. While technically correct, from an American morals perspective there is a HUGE difference between the two.
And of course, the cables mentioned that this warping was done because accurate reporting on the contractors would 'endanger lives'.
Keep in mind, this is the same US contractor who was caught retaliating against a whistle-blower a number of years back who reported them for running a child sex slave ring (girls as young as 12) in eastern Europe.