Re: Fighting for bin Laden
Frontline changed the line up and Title for tonight after the news of Bin Laden. This was called "Fighting For Al Qaeda" and was going to be followed by "Educating Sergeant Pantzke". I will tune in.
<span style="font-weight: bold">From my email from Frontline on Sunday.</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">If someone connected to Al Qaeda invited you to hike five days into the mountains of Afghanistan, through the snow, with nothing but your camera -- and then offered you a chance to live among a band of militants for two weeks -- what would you say?
Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi said yes. And this Tuesday night you can watch the remarkable story he brought back.
In Fighting For Al Qaeda, the first of two new stories airing this week on FRONTLINE, Quraishi -- who reported last year's award-winning Behind Taliban Lines -- journeys deep into the Hindu Kush, where he encounters Afghan Arabs and foreign militants who say they fight for Osama Bin Laden. They also say they’re planning a major new offensive against U.S. and NATO forces.
How many Al Qaeda fighters are there in Afghanistan? The U.S. military says no more than a hundred. But the militants claim thousands, and Quraishi himself sees enough, he says, to know their presence is growing.
Quraishi’s trip also raises questions about Al Qaeda’s relationship with the Taliban and Iran’s role in arming the militants. And, following the story, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith sits down with Al Qaeda expert Peter Bergen to talk about it.
Later in the hour, FRONTLINE continues its investigation into the booming business of for-profit colleges. This time, in Educating Sergeant Pantzke, we examine how for-profit universities are aggressively recruiting Afghanistan and Iraq veterans with promises they may not be able to keep.
We hope you’ll tune in Tuesday night. On our website, you can watch both reports again, read an essay by Peter Bergen further analyzing the film, and learn more about why much of the U.S. government's $9.5 billion in veterans' education money is going to the for-profit college sector.
Ken Dornstein
Senior Editor</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Today's email.</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">The killing of bin Laden put the spotlight on a story that FRONTLINE has been investigating for six months—a stepped-up secret war inside Pakistan targeting unprecedented numbers of al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Tonight, in this FRONTLINE special report, correspondents Martin Smith and Stephen Grey reveal new details about the United States’ increasingly go-it-alone kill campaign in Pakistan. They also find more evidence of the covert support the militants receive from the Pakistani military and its powerful intelligence service, the ISI.
Also in this hour: Afghan journalist Najibullah Qureishi takes a rare journey to meet the men who say they fight in the name of bin Laden. Are these local bands of militants the future of al Qaeda? </span>
