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FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000345 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA AND PA/PR/FPCW 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPAO KDEM TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: MILITARY SUPPLY ROUTES AND BASE QUESTIONS SPARK 
MEDIA WILDFIRES 
 
DUSHANBE 00000345  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified - Not for Internet 
Distribution. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Summary: The February negotiations with governments in 
Central Asia over supply routes for coalition military 
operations in Afghanistan put Western media on hair trigger 
alert, so much so that otherwise responsible, fact-checking 
organizations repackaged stories from erroneous Reuters and 
Interfax wire reports.  A "post mortem" of incidents in Dushanbe 
shows how keen interest in a topic, combined with incompetent 
reporting from a single source, can ignite a media fire 
impossible to extinguish in the age of instant and global 
communication.  End summary. 
 
Fateful Coincidence: Northern Distribution Network and Manas 
 
3) (SBU) In early December the local stringer for Reuters asked 
the embassy press office about NATO plans to find new supply 
routes after attacks on truck convoys closed the eastern 
Afghanistan supply route from Pakistan.  Post referred the 
reporter to comments made December 10 by Admiral Mullen, 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  By December 22, State 
had issued basic Northern Distribution Network (NDN) points 
which are still valid:  we are not seeking any new military 
bases in Central Asia; we want diverse supply routes for 
non-lethal cargo to support reconstruction and military efforts 
in Afghanistan; in search of diverse options, we had started 
reviewing commercial transit routes before the December attacks 
on convoys.  Coincident with the spike of interest in NDN, on 
December 18 an anonymous source within the Kyrgyz Government 
told Agence-France Presse (AFP) that the Kyrgyz were preparing 
papers to close the base at Manas. 
 
Let The Games Begin 
 
¶4. (SBU) Fast forward through the New Year lull to Centcom 
Commander General Petraeus' January 17 meeting with President 
Rahmon.  At a briefing with local reporters afterward, Petraeus 
mentioned that he would send a team within the next couple of 
weeks to discuss details of transporting commercial goods across 
Tajikistan to coalition forces in Afghanistan.  When asked about 
closing the base at Manas, Petraeus said "we certainly have no 
plans to change anything."  Post's Web site had English and 
Russian transcripts of his briefing online by opening of 
business Monday, and a few scattered reports in the government 
wire services accurately covered his brief comments. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Imagine our surprise at the January 21 headline on a 
local newswire story, "One More Bridge to Unite Tajikistan and 
Afghanistan."  Foreign Minister Hamrahon Zarifi that day had 
announced at a press conference that the United States would 
build a bridge in Tajikistan's Farkhor District, in addition to 
the Nizhniy-Pyanj Bridge completed in August 2007.  When asked 
the week before by President Rahmon about a second bridge, 
General Petraeus had said he "would like to help," but the U.S. 
side needed to see the current bridge utilized to its full 
potential. (Note: Currently, about 200 vehicles cross the 
Nizhniy Pyanj Bridge daily, but it has a capacity of 1,000 per 
day. End note.) In response to queries that followed and to 
avoid an outright contradiction of the foreign minister's 
comment, the press office issued a statement that "while the 
embassy did not rule out the possibility of a second bridge, the 
United States did want to see the current bridge utilized to its 
full potential." 
 
The Rush to be First - With Old News 
 
¶7. (SBU) After the Ambassador's February 6 meeting with 
President Rahmon about the upcoming visit by U.S. Transportation 
Command to discuss transport routes, she found a phalanx of 
local reporters waiting for her in the lobby of the presidential 
administration.  She relayed the highlights, that the president 
had once again expressed Tajikistan's readiness to support the 
transit of commercial goods to Afghanistan through Tajikistan 
via truck or railroad and that a TransCom delegation would take 
up the issue during their visit in the near future.  In response 
to a question about future military cooperation, the Ambassador 
listed joint training, conferences, and infrastructure 
development. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Before the Ambassador was back at the embassy, the 
press office phones lit up with calls from Japanese NHK TV, AFP 
Moscow, ABC Islamabad, and CNN London, all wanting to confirm 
information on the Russian Interfax wire, the Russian Kommersant 
Web site, Reuters, and BBC TV quoting the Ambassador that 
"?ajikistan was ready to provide an air corridor for cargo to 
Afghanistan."  Russkoye Radio was broadcasting that Tajikistan 
had offered the United States a military base in Tajikistan to 
 
DUSHANBE 00000345  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
replace Manas.  The press office went into manic counterspin, 
issuing corrections in English, Russian, and Tajik, and calling 
bureau chiefs to correct misinformation - no bases, no new 
agreements about overflights (we have had permission for 
overflights since 2001), and the "readiness" of Tajikistan to 
allow overland transit of non-lethal cargo. 
 
¶9. (SBU) The local Reuters stringer who had asked about NDN back 
in December started the blaze with a misleading story that 
"Tajikistan has agreed to offer its airspace for transport of 
non-military NATO supplies to Afghanistan to help Washington 
boost its transit lines in the region" because the imminent 
closure of the airbase in Kyrgyzstan, had left the United States 
"scrambling to find alternative supply routes for NATO forces in 
landlocked Afghanistan." 
 
¶10. (U) The Tajik media, which are careful to stay in sync with 
the government, reported the facts correctly, citing sources 
within the presidential administration.  Being in sync with 
their government, they mentioned the "necessity" of building 
another bridge across the Pyanj River "taking into consideration 
the needs of the international peacekeeping contingent in 
delivery of non-military goods to Afghanistan through the 
Central Asian region." 
 
The Rush to be First - With Wrong News 
 
¶11. (SBU) To downplay anticipation that an "agreement" might 
result from Transcom Commander Rear Admiral Harnitchek's 
February 20 working level meetings with Government of Tajikistan 
officials, the press office issued a statement to media that 
Harnitchek would consult with relevant ministries on next steps 
in transporting commercial goods across Tajikistan to coalition 
forces in Afghanistan.  We also asked the MFA not to invite 
media, but, there they were, staked out again, waiting for 
Harnitchek and the Ambassador after their meeting with Foreign 
Minister Zarifi.  Harnitchek noted the productive meeting with 
the foreign minister on commercial shipments of non-lethal goods 
via highway and railroad across Tajikistan to Afghanistan, and 
said "we have not reached any agreements" but hoped to move 
forward in the near future. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Within an hour Interfax was out in front with a report 
that an agreement had been reached, and the calls started coming 
in from international bureau chiefs in Istanbul, London, Moscow, 
and Islamabad.  The press office thanked everyone for calling 
first and filing second, issued another statement of the facts, 
then started tracking the source of the basing information. 
Tajik TV reporters had Harnitchek on tape stating that no 
agreement had been signed.  Interfax has no reporter in 
Tajikistan, so the author of its stories is unknown.  Other 
Tajik reporters told emboff the Reuters stringer contributed to 
Interfax, but emboff has no way of confirming this. 
 
Black PR or Incompetence? 
 
¶13. (SBU) Comment:  These incidents show what can happen when 
discipline breaks down in the competition to be first to report 
a hot topic.  The Reuters report on "a new air corridor" filed 
by Reuters' Tajik stringer was picked up without verifications 
by BBC TV, AFP, and the Associated Press; they apparently took 
for granted that Reuters had done the hard work of corroborating 
facts.  The Reuters reporter may have cracked under pressure 
chasing the hot topic of the day to satisfy a highly competitive 
international news wire.  More troubling is how he got the facts 
so wrong, when the Ambassador clearly stated, and other Tajik 
journalists understood, that the issue was land routes.  The 
unprovable allegation that he wrote Interfax reports with the 
same wrong information raises the possibility of deliberate 
"black PR" to sow confusion about routes that support U.S. and 
coalition operations in Afghanistan.  The story on Russkoye 
Radio about "bases in Tajikistan" that broke at the same 
supports this possibility. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Comment continued.  Believing it better for 
journalists to get the facts right than allow speculation to 
fill the vacuum, the Ambassador actively engages the media, in 
interviews with Tajik radio, TV, and newspapers; off-the-record 
briefings with Western correspondents; at public ceremonial 
events; and, the ever popular stake-outs.  The value of this 
engagement was borne out by the impact of her March 5 interview 
in the local "Sobytia" ("Events") newspaper, a straight Q&A on 
Tajikistan's 2010 parliamentary elections, the increase of 
troops in Afghanistan, supply routes, and an affirmation that 
the United States plans no new bases in Central Asia.  Excerpts 
and references appeared in the Central Asian News portal, AFP, 
AP, Reuters, and the Iranian news agency, PressTV.  For the time 
being, she may have satisfied the demand for NDN news, since we 
 
DUSHANBE 00000345  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
have had no more queries, even though the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs provided the formal agreement two weeks ago.  End 
Comment. 
JACOBSON