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by Catherine Solyom
From the comfort of his home in Greenfield Park, Sheldon Harvey has been eavesdropping on the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
He can't understand a word they're saying, but still -- U.S. forces are on shortwave radio, and he's tuned in.
Over the last few days, the U.S. has been broadcasting "Information Radio" in the local Pashto and Dari languages to the Afghan people, from warplanes overhead.
But because the five-hour clandestine program is on shortwave radio as well as AM frequencies, the entire world can hear, Harvey said.
"Attention, please! People of Afghanistan, the United States forces are crossing over your country," said early broadcasts, translated by the British Broadcasting Corp.
"We did not come here to harm you. We just came here to capture Osama bin Laden, Al-Qa'ida and those who support Osama bin Laden. Please, don't take part in any military action, and keep away from roads and bridges. Stay at home. Stay safe, stay indoors."
To make sure Afghans could tune in, the U.S. also airdropped leaflets with the right radio frequency on them. Harvey got the frequency when a news program showed the leaflet on television. He can't understand the program, but said that on top of a man's long monologues it also broadcast upbeat, local music.
Lucky for him and the other 150 members of [Canadian International DX Club,] Canada's National Radio Monitoring Club, many programs around the world, including several in central Asia, are broadcast in English.
Harvey, now president of the club, has been listening to them for more than 30 years from his "playroom" equipped with sophisticated radios, computers and recording devices.
"You kind of feel like a spy sometimes, eavesdropping on everyone," Harvey said. "But I'm basically a news junkie and I don't like being restricted to one side of the story. A shortwave radio allows you to get input from all sides."
Harvey said reports will differ depending on who you listen to.
Take the Palestinian situation. Syrian radio and Israeli radio will have two very different -- and extreme -- versions of the events, Harvey said.
"Then you have to find the middle ground with the BBC or Radio-Canada International. That's where you'll get the real story."
Harvey had high praise for the BBC World Service, broadcast in English to 100 million people a day.
"If there's anything going on under a rock in Nepal, they will have a reporter there within five minutes. And the quality of the journalism is excellent."
Many stations around the world are more about propaganda than journalism, however, Harvey warned. But they still have a lot to offer.
"They are about promoting countries and are wonderful for learning about other cultures, music and travel."
RCI fulfills that role, too, Harvey said. "Who else is going to tell the world about Canada? It's like a travel agent."
But even the propaganda stations can offer insight, if not truth, on political events, Harvey said.
For an interesting perspective on the current conflict in Afghanistan, for example, tune into Voice of the Islamic Republic in Iran, he said.
"They are really caught between a rock and a hard place. They don't want to be isolated completely and they don't want to be connected to bin Laden but they are not too keen on what the U.S. is doing. You definitely get a sense of that."
As for the U.S. army's Information Radio, it comes from a long line of attempts to get the public in an enemy country onside, or lower the morale among enemy troops, starting with the infamous Tokyo Rose, broadcasting to American soldiers for Japan during World War II.
Harvey has recordings of a so-called "Argentine Annie" broadcasting during the Falklands War in 1982.
The Argentine military found themselves an English teacher in Buenos Aires who had a bit of an English accent, and had her broadcast messages to British troops.
(Catherine Solyom's E-mail address is [email protected].)
Editor's note: First published in the Montreal (Quebec, Canada) Gazette, 24 October 2001.
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