This Week In National Press Club History: Karzai packs 'em in at Newsmaker

February 27, 2003: Afghan President Hamid Karzai appears before an overflow crowd at a National Press Club afternoon Newsmaker.

The Club had hosted Karzai a year before at a luncheon, where he announced his support of the United States position on Afghan detainees at Guantanamo.“They are war criminals, not prisoners of war,” Karzi said. He noted that he had warned the international community that internal problems in Afghanistan would have international consequences. “The incident of 9/11” proved his prediction correct, he said.

The Club’s Newsmaker program began around 1973 as informal gatherings to hear influential speakers not newsworthy enough to draw a luncheon audience. Since then, as shorter, faster, more flexible formats have become better suited to the schedules of reporters and high-powered speakers, Newsmaker events have become increasingly important elements in the Club’s professional programming.

Since 1992, the Newsmaker program has hosted 140 heads of state or government, including Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestine National Authority. In 1996 actor Sean Connery drew more than 300 people when he spoke in favor of an independent Scotland. A few days later he sent a Scottish flag to be included in the Club lobby’s display of international flags.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s hundred-year history with lobby displays, events, panel discussions and an oral history project, which now includes over a hundred interviews.

For more information on the Committee’s activities or to join it, contact Gilbert Klein, chairman, at [email protected].

For more information about the National Press Club’s distinguished history, visit the Club's website.