Maziar Bahari: Iranian guards were "masters of psychological torture."

On Sunday's GPS, Fareed Zakaria spoke with Maziar Bahari, the Newsweek reporter who was detained in Iran after the election protests and spent 118 days in jail there. It was an incredible interview and a stark reminder that the dangers journalists face are not just from guns and bombs.

CNN has not posted the full interview on its own, but the podcast of the entire program is available and the Bahari interview is the first segment. Apparently his Iranian interrogators told him that Fareed is a CIA agent and also used a clip from The Daily Show as "evidence" that Bahari was meeting with spies while in Iran.

GPS 11/22/09

As Afghans Resist Taliban, U.S. Spurs Rise of Militias

Dexter Filkins writes about the rise of the militias in Afghanistan and the the American hope that they will encourage a demoralized Afghan population to take a stake in the war against the Taliban.

"The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban insurgents. Already there are hundreds of Afghans who are acting on their own against the Taliban, officials say."

You can read the full article here.

"Why can't we share the truth about war?"

There is a wonderful, moving Op-Ed piece on CNN.com that asks why the mainstream media is not sharing more of the soldiers' stories, both while in the battle zone and after returning home. It was written by a man who has written/directed a movie about the men and women who perform the notifications to families of those killed in battle, and it raises important issues. After describing a visit to a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Hospital, he says:

In room after room, our delegation encounters stories of war that are just not a part of the national conversation. I keep thinking: Whatever happened to the telling of these stories in America? Do we need a Washington lobbyist to push the soldier's-story agenda?

Individual tales make up the reality of war; anecdote by anecdote, they become the truth of combat. But in the U.S. mainstream media, they have too little presence. How did we get to a place where sharing a soldier's narrative or reading soldiers' names on television or meeting their coffins when they are brought back to their country becomes a political or disloyal act? Why can't we share the truth about war?

Definitely worth a read. The article is here.

New Jihadi Code

Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank have a documentary coming up on International on November 15th titled The Jihadi Code. There are a couple long articles and a clip available on CNN.com: New jihad code threatens al Qaeda

The code itself is very interesting, and since it was developed by former hard-core terrorists, maybe it will get some traction.

Part of the code reads: "Jihad has ethics and morals because it is for God. That means it is forbidden to kill women, children, elderly people, priests, messengers, traders and the like. Betrayal is prohibited and it is vital to keep promises and treat prisoners of war in a good way. Standing by those ethics is what distinguishes Muslims' jihad from the wars of other nations."

Not exactly a standard that al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are upholding...

Same Booms, Different Terrain

Dexter Filkins gives an intelligent comparison and picture of the war in Iraq versus the war in Afghanistan, in a post for the "At War" blog.