Lost in translation
LONDON: My colleague John Simpson may have but I was almost incarcerated there.
Having been forced out of bed at midnight UK time - a healthy 5am in Islamabad - we journalists had been promised that we would get to Kabul in time to broadcast the news of the PM's first visit to news-hungry breakfast audiences. Our chopper landed in plenty of time but it was frustratingly close to, though not in reach of, our satellite dish in the Presidential compound.
The only way to get onto the Today programme was my trusty mobile. As I chatted to Ed Stourton I was aware of a growing queue of British and then Afghan officials waving at me and mouthing something about my mobile. I responded by mouthing back "on the radio" and walking in the other direction.
In the process of trying to talk coherently about Pakistan's policy towards Afghanistan and fob off requests to get off the phone eagle-eared listeners may have noticed that I confused my North Waziristan for North Wysteristan (one emailer sarcastically suggested that this may be where the Wysteria originated).
My punishment for ignoring these requests was to be ordered to sit in a car by the Hamid Karsai's security team. Apparently they had wanted to have the mobile sniffed by sniffer dogs. Oddly my explanation for my disobedience had been lost in translation. I thought everyone knew what the Today programme was.
They then decided that since I was incapable of obeying orders I would be banished from moving inside the Palace walls. And it would have stayed that way had it not been for the diplomacy of our man in Kabul. I am eternally grateful.
I'm 
Comments
It's interesting how people can be so focused on the task in hand they shut down any intrusions on the periphery. Politicians are often accused of not being in touch. Your experience is an interesting comment on the upside and downside of attention.
Many things are dictated by authority and popularity, regardless of whether they have any relevance. It’s interesting to see the securities balance of attitude on this, and how the popularity of the 91Èȱ¬ cut no ice in comparison to diplomatic authority.
If the situation and level of intervention had been different, it’s possible you could’ve been shot or left to rot in a jail. Senseless and arbitrary, perhaps, but a chilling touch of more mundane and severe realities many unconnected and unseen people experience.
Robinson of Al-Belmarsh. Who'da thunk it.
Lost in a land time has forgotten,pulling out the mobile i almost said those immortal words"BEAM ME UP SCOTTY" well Nick a reporters lot is not always a happy plot.By the way did you volunteer to take the Afghan trip?
Nick, please try and get some sleep. I'm sure there is some EU directive or other forbidding you to work the hours that you do! Still, sounds like a fascinating job.
Nick,
come on the nhs is literally crumbling around us, as bad as our foreign affairs maybe, this govt has got to fall one way or another for total mismanagement of the nhs.
and the nhs matters much more to the folk in the local pub than the stuff you are concentrating on.
dont just let the govt dominate the agenda, give them some real heat from the terrible terrible stuff going re lack of treatment in the nhs etc should be so easy
Regards
Well Nick it never ends for a poltical correspondent does it- thats not your wife or mother with comment 3 is it- seeing as we seem to be in a compassion for Robinson mood I will reiterate. Please make sure you get enough sleep nick and dont forget to wash behind your ears, we dont want the chief poltitical correspondent anything but swarve and presentable!!!
You have to make the most of these trips Nick like the intrepid Mr Simpsom does he picked up an Elizabethan coin in Kabul market for a few pence if I remember right?.
Nick Thornsby (post 5)- I can promise you that I'm not Nick Robinson's mother, wife, or indeed any other relation!
Nick - you don't mean that there is another country where freedom of the individual is limited!
"My punishment for ignoring these requests was to be ordered to sit in a car by the Hamid Karsai's security team. They then decided that since I was incapable of obeying orders I would be banished from moving inside the Palace walls."
At least we can still use our mobiles here.
Next time, Nick, couldn't you just use the mobile phone with an earpiece? They might just assume you're a mad British journalist talking to yourself ;0)