the_taliban_shuffle_-_kim_barker

distinction hardly mattered. In a typical jackbooted abuse of power,
Sabit sent police to surround the TV station and arrest various
employees. At least two Tolo workers were beaten up. For Sabit, that
was not a smart move, considering that Tolo had some very inuential
Western friends, not to mention pushy journalists. Tolo reporters then
dug into Sabit’s life, nding out that despite his avowed hatred of
corruption, he had somehow secured a nice plot of land behind a
hospital in Wazir Akbar Khan, one of Kabul’s most exclusive
neighborhoods, through connections to the Kabul city government.
Other journalists interviewed brothel and restaurant owners claiming
they were asked for kickbacks. Some said the most signicant change
under Sabit was an increase in bribe amounts.
Sabit was his own worst enemy. He had earlier given a TV interview
where he had called one of the top religious men in the country a
“donkey pussy,” a common epithet in Afghanistan. Tolo started playing
the clip of Sabit saying “donkey pussy” incessantly—inserting it into the
satirical TV show Danger Bell. Weeks later, Sabit picked a ght with a
Northern Alliance warlord, one described by an Afghan in a 2003
Human Rights Watch report as a “maniac” and “dangerous.” On the way
to a spot where Afghans picnicked on Friday afternoons, Sabit jumped
out of his car during a trac jam. He was typically angry and blustery,
yelling at people, telling them where to go. The warlord drove up with
his family, and the two men somehow got into a ght. Sabit was beaten
with rie butts. Although he wasn’t seriously injured, the attack showed
his power, or lack of it. Police were sent out to the Panjshir Valley to
arrest the warlord, but his militia quickly sent them home. Everyone
said they were sorry and moved on.
Despite our falling out, I didn’t relish Sabit’s humiliation. It implied
that Afghanistan was dangerously fragile—not because the Taliban was
so strong but because the government was so weak. Karzai just kept
bending. When anyone challenged him, he folded. And his handling of
various crises indicated that he cared more about the foreigners than the
Afghans, which made him even more unpopular.
One such crisis involved Ajmal Naqshbandi, the poet of a translator
who had helped me when Farouq got married. He was the Afghan
everyone talked about, the example of the lack of justice, of the