The Public's Right To Know ... is it Teason?

I see that the Taliban has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide bombing on the military base in Khost City, capital of Afghanistan's Khost province, bordering Pakistan ... killing eight American civilians and one Afghan ... an additional six Americans were wounded ... the victims are thought to include CIA employees though I could find no CIA confirmation. An international coalition force spokesman said that no U.S. or NATO troops were killed in the afternoon explosion ... the worst incident involving Americans since eight Soldiers were killed on a base in eastern Afghanistan on 3 October.

The initial reports were confusing ... a Taliban spokesman has said that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base Wednesday and blew himself up inside the gym. It was not immediately clear how the suicide bomber was able to circumvent security but a Taliban spokesman has said that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base Wednesday and blew himself up inside the gym.

Five Canadians ... four soldiers and Calgary Herald journalist Michelle Lang were also killed Wednesday in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb. Brigadier General Daniel Menard, commander of the coalition forces in Kandahar, said the soldiers were conducting a community security patrol in order to gather information about daily life in the area and how to maintain security. NATO said the four Canadian troops and the reporter died when their armored vehicle hit a bomb while on an afternoon patrol south of Kandahar city. It was the third-deadliest day for Canadians in Afghanistan since the war began. The attack was the second against Canadian forces in a week ... one Canadian soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed 23 December, in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. The latest casualties bring the number of Canadian forces killed in Afghanistan in 2009 to 32 ... in total, there have been 138 Canadian war associated deaths.

Afghan General Jalander Shah Bahnam said an Afghan soldier opened fire this week on a base in Badghis province's Bala Murghab district, killing an American Soldier and wounding two Italians.

Relative to a separate incident, NATO questioned Afghan reports that international troops killed 10 civilians in an attack that prompted Afghan protesters to burn an effigy of President Obama and chant "death" to America. Conflicting accounts of what occurred during the fighting in Kunar's Narang district prompted an emotional outcry over civil deaths, one of the most sensitive issues for international troops fighting the more than eight-year-old war. Several hundred Afghans demonstrated in Kabul and in the eastern city of Jalalabad, where the likeness of Obama, adorned with a small American flag, was burned on a pole held above demonstrators

"the worst incident involving Americans since eight Soldiers were killed on a base in eastern Afghanistan on 3 October" ... it's hard to think of this as being a war.

News is news and I suppose this was worthy of being reported ... that is, newsworthy ... maybe, maybe not. What made it blogworthy was this line from the report ... "All the U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media"

Well, maybe not ... but there was a time when it would have been!