Posts Tagged ‘Taliban’

Taliban Tweets

Posted: May 12, 2011 in Foreign Policy, International, Internet, National Security, Terrorism
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Good find from the Guardian:

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they eschewed most modern technology, including television and music players.

But in the latest sign of the hardline movement’s rapprochement with at least some areas of the modern world, the Taliban have embraced microblogging.

Their Twitter feed, @alemarahweb, pumps out several messages each day, keeping 224 followers up to date with often highly exaggerated reports of strikes against the “infidel forces” and the “Karzai puppet regime”.

Most messages by the increasingly media-savvy movement are in Pashtu, with links to news stories on the elaborate and multilingual website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban’s shadow government likes to style itself.

On Thursday, the feed broke into English for the first time, with a tweet about an attack on police in Farah province. “Enemy attacked in Khak-e-Safid, 6 dead,” read the message.

There is not much lively banter between the “emirate” and its Twitter followers, save for a cheerful “asalam alekum” sent last week to the Kavkaz Centre, a militant news site covering jihad in the Caucasus.

Don’t be surprised if military and intelligence officials are now trying to figure out how to get them to use foursquare…

Advertisement

Pakistan Telegraphing Its Punches

Posted: May 11, 2011 in Foreign Policy, International, National Security, Terrorism
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

After being kept in the dark about the Bin Laden operation until after it was over, Pakistani government officials have complained that they should have been involved or informed. The ISI – Pakistan’s intelligence agency – has been especially embarrassed by this entire episode, considering that they should have known Bin Laden was living in hiding on their soil for at least five years.

Then again, if this is the ISI’s idea of operational security and secrecy regarding a high-value target, the administration won’t have too much difficulty justifying its decision to keep Islamabad out of the loop:

Pakistan’s military intelligence organisation has confirmed that the leader of the Taliban group is hiding in the west of Pakistan’s Quetta city, reports say.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official has said the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) will step up a huge operation to detain or kill the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister during his visit to China said the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan could end up helpful to Afghan peace process.

After the death of Osama Bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad, the country’s military intelligence agency has been planning to detain or kill the Taliban leader.

Some reports suggest the ISI has already launched a hunt-down operation in Quetta city of Pakistan.

Regardless of accuracy, imagine if this story had been about Bin Laden rather than Omar. U.S. government officials would be howling about it for weeks.