FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 31, 2008

CorpWatch and KPFA Radio Launch "Afghanistan 2008: Seven Years After the Taliban" Multimedia Project Collaboration

(Berkeley, CA - October 31, 2008) Seven years after the U.S. invaded
Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, the country faces an increasingly
uncertain future. Award-winning investigative journalists Pratap
Chatterjee and Nobu Sakamoto, reported from Afghanistan immediately
following the invasion, and now return to the country as part of a
CorpWatch/KPFA Radio collaboration to take stock.

"As the United States moves towards perhaps the most critical
presidential election in decades, this project aims to bring a
spotlight back to both the human cost of war being borne by the Afghan
people, and the gross incompetence that has plagued the reconstruction
effort here – at significant profit to private military companies
like the Louis Berger Group, Dyncorp, and Espial," said CorpWatch
project director Tonya Hennessey.

In 2006, Afghan American journalist Fariba Nawa returned to her native
country to examine the progress of reconstruction, detailed in the
CorpWatch report "Afghanistan, Inc." The findings were tragically
disheartening. In 2008, initial observations and interviews show that
the situation has continued to deteriorate.

"The reconstruction of Afghanistan has definitely not met expectations.
Our research is intended to discover why things have gone wrong and
what happened to the money provided for Afghan development," says
Pratap Chatterjee, KPFA reporter and CorpWatch Managing Editor and
author of "Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation".

In 2007, America's first listener-sponsored radio station KPFA launched
the interactive website Warcomeshome.org, featuring hard-hitting
stories about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as innovative
means of contributing to, and distributing information about, the
impact of the conflict on people in the United States. "Afghanistan
2008: Seven Years After the Taliban," is the newest phase of the
project, the contents of which are now part of the permanent collection
of the U.S. Library of Congress.

"Seven years after the US and its allies invaded, Afghanistan has
become the forgotten occupation," says KPFA interim Program Director
Sasha Lilley. "KPFA's War Comes Home project had previously told the
story of the costs of the occupation for U.S. soldiers. Yet even more
significant are the costs for the Afghan people."

In the spirit of CorpWatch's hard-hitting investigative journalism and
KPFA's tradition of media innovation, Warcomeshome.org allows visitors
to listen to and share stories about the consequences of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, using their own blogs, email lists, and social
networking sites. The website features a blog by Chatterjee, as well as
audio interviews, photos, video, and resources for activists.

To learn more about "The War Comes Home: Seven Years After the Taliban," go to www.Warcomeshome.org

###

Since 1996 CorpWatch has investigated and exposed corporate violations
of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the
world. It works to foster global justice, independent media activism,
and democratic control over corporations. www.corpwatch.org

Founded in 1949, KPFA is the United States ' first listener-sponsored
radio station. Broadcasting on 94.1 FM in Berkeley , CA , and 88.1 FM
on KFCF in Fresno , KPFA's signal reaches one third of the state of
California . KPFA website, kpfa.org, serves thousands of listeners all
over the world. Much of KPFA's programming is local, original and
eclectic, with a mix of news, arts, and music. www.kpfa.org

Press contacts:

Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Managing Editor
Pratap [at] corpwatch.org, Global Mobile: +1-202-580-8393

Tonya Hennessey, CorpWatch Project Director
tonya [at] corpwatch.org, 510 271-8080, 650 273-2475

Sasha Lilley, KPFA interim Program Director
ipd [at] kpfa.org, 510 848-6767 ext 209