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Thread: Deep in Taliban country

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    Default Mullah ‘Umar has given the “green signal” for deadly attacks

    Sorry, there is no real reliable source for this and I don’t have link. That’s why I am posting this in full…

    Mullah ‘Umar has given the “green signal” for deadly attacks
    27th February 2007
    Written by: Saljooq Ali
    (Ummat News Article – Translated from Urdu to English)


    For some people the Taliban leader, Mulla Umar, is a special being and for some people he is a suspicious being; nevertheless, all the Talibs hold a special place for him in their hearts. Their love for him is visible through their actions and their speech. According to the latest news from Afghanistan, Taliban’s will and spirit to fight against President Karzai and the NATO army has increased by two folds because they have received a written message and an audiotape from their leader Mulla Umar. In that message Mulla Umar has ordered them to fight against the Christian armies (i.e. NATO) so strongly that an example of such strength may never be found in history. The foreign reporters from MSNBC report that Taliban leader, Mulla Umar, who was hiding until now, has reached an important spot some where, and he has written a message to his field commanders telling them to start the fight against the NATO army with new deadly tactics....
    Last edited by Jedburgh; 04-03-2007 at 08:09 PM. Reason: There's always a link. Please don't post lengthy articles in their entirety.

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    Default Taliban Learns Tactics, Propaganda from al Qaeda

    30 May Washington Times - Taliban Learns Tactics, Propaganda from al Qaeda by Philip Smucker.

    The Taliban has merged its propaganda and field operations with those of the global al Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden, say senior Afghan officials and the group's former leaders.

    Afghan security officials say the association has enabled the Taliban to develop from a xenophobic, home-grown Islamist movement into a more outward looking force that is helping to advance al Qaeda's global interests.

    While there is no evidence the movement that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in 2001 has abandoned any of the fanaticism that led it to ban singing, shaving and schooling for girls, the group appears to have fed off the larger global jihad to hone previously nonexistent media skills as well as new fighting tactics...

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    Default Hunt for 'traitors' splits Taliban

    Good intel work + Taliban paranoia = COIN success in Afghanistan?

    Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hit by a wave of defections and betrayals that has resulted in a witch-hunt within the militant movement.


    The news has boosted morale among commanders of the Nato operation in Afghanistan, which includes more than 6,000 British soldiers. The British contingent has struggled to contain the insurgency in the country's southern provinces over the past 18 months. Last week saw renewed violence with a series of suicide bombings.

    However, two of the Taliban's most senior commanders have now been killed after being betrayed by close associates. Up to a dozen middle-ranking commanders have died in airstrikes or other operations by Afghan, Nato or Pakistani forces based on precise details of their movements received from informers. Few details have been publicly released, but senior military sources speak of 'major hits' that they wish they could talk about openly.

    The successes may be the result of the more sophisticated strategy now employed by coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, say observers. 'There have been desultory efforts over several years to penetrate the Taliban and to play off the various factions within the militancy and along the frontier against each other, but now that has become the keystone of the intelligence effort,' said one Pakistan-based source. 'That's paying off ...'
    Additional details.

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    Default Taliban Shifts Tactics, NATO Says

    31 May USA Today - Taliban Shifts Tactics, NATO Says by Jim Michaels.

    The Taliban is increasingly turning to deadly roadside bombs and suicide attacks in its fight against NATO forces in Afghanistan, allied commanders say.

    Taliban leaders have adjusted tactics in response to successful NATO ground and air offensives, they say.

    "They're making choices because they realize on the security operations they can't compete" with NATO and a separate U.S.-led coalition force, said Army Gen. John Craddock, commander of NATO forces, on a visit here this week. Those offensives have made the Taliban reluctant to engage allied forces in conventional battles.

    Attacks using homemade bombs called improvised explosive devices (IEDs) will become even more frequent and deadly, said Lt. Col. Ray Lane, an Irish officer who leads NATO's anti-IED efforts. "We'll see an increase in the technology."...

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    Default Gates Cautious About Gains in Afghanistan

    4 June NY Times - Gates Cautious About Gains in Afghanistan by Mark Mazzetti.

    Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived here in the Afghan capital on Sunday, expressing guarded optimism about the progress of the military campaign against a resurgent Taliban.

    Evidence is mounting that Taliban fighters are using sophisticated new weaponry, possibly smuggled into the country from Iran. The Taliban have also stepped up the number of suicide attacks aimed at destabilizing Afghanistan’s still fragile government.

    Still, American officials say they believe that NATO forces have inflicted significant losses on the Taliban and add that the pace of combat operations and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan — while slow — remains steady...

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    Default Pakistan's Taliban Fight Each Other

    2 July Christian Science Monitor - Pakistan's Taliban Fight Each Other by Behroz Khan and David Montero.

    It's not only the Pakistani military and the occasional US Predator drone that has Pakistan-based Taliban looking over their shoulders these days. As a sharp internal rift emerges over attacks on civilians, some are now turning their guns on each other.

    Last month, Qari Hussain Ahmad, a militant leader, launched a series of violent attacks throughout Pakistan's tribal belt that left many innocent civilians dead. On June 1, in retaliation, reigning Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud captured 17 of Mr. Ahmad's men and threatened to kill them.

    The incident highlights how the Taliban's ideological frontiers have changed as Pakistani militants have regrouped and realigned their allegiances, leading to internecine violence throughout the tribal belt.

    The Taliban's central leadership in Pakistan is weakening, experts say, and some factions have proven themselves all too willing to dispense with the ancient Pashtun codes of mercy and restraint – the kind that saw guests, women, and children as off-limits in war.

    Even Mullah Omar, the spiritual founder of the original Taliban movement, lamented this ruthless shift in a letter to field commanders last December, imploring them to do more to avoid civilian deaths...

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    Default Taliban going for specific countries for politics

    http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hti.../20070704.aspx
    Canadian Sunset
    July 4, 2007: The Taliban strategy of killing certain foreign troops, for the purpose of changing political opinion back home, has made enough progress to encourage the terrorists. Since 2002, 60 Canadian troops have been killed in Afghanistan. But the United States, with about ten times as many troops in the country during that period, has only lost 337. That means Canada has a casualty rate about 80 percent higher than the U.S. Most of the Canadian losses have occurred during offensive operations, when the Taliban were being sought out and attacked. But the Taliban have openly talked about aiming their suicide bomber and roadside bomb attacks at Canadians, in order to persuade more Canadian voters to demand that Canadian troops be pulled out of Afghanistan. It's having some effect, as the Canadian prime minister recently agreed that there would have to be a consensus in Canada over whether to keep troops in Afghanistan beyond 2009. An added problem for Canadian politicians is the reluctance of so many other NATO nations to allow their troops to engage in combat. Nations like Germany will only allow their troops to operate in parts of Afghanistan that are largely free of Taliban violence. This has been difficult to justify to Canadian voters. The Taliban know this, and try to make the most of it.

    ----
    Canada lost 6 good people today.
    This will get a lot worse when the Vandoos get there

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    Default Taliban Have Internet Too...

    Welcome to the technology age where your foe has access to "up-to-the-minute" news from your home country via the worldwide web. They realize as any good student of irregular/guerilla warfare does that popular support or lack there of is instrumental in your strategy against a western foe. Al-Qaeda's #2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is no slouch in his guerilla studies and has long promulgated the specific targeting of Americans and other westerners such as Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwi's....he knows all too well that public support at home (whether in U.S., Canada, or U.K.) for an unpopular war will cause a change in political course over time. He also plays this in reverse and uses the killing of civilians as a launchpad for further criticism of allied actions in Afghanistan. This will most suredly cause Karazai to try and place further restrictions on our operations to defeat the Taliban threat in the southern provinces.

    In Department of Defense circles there is a lot of talk about Information Operations or IO, and for the life of me I can't understand how we as westerners are losing this fight. If there is one thing we love and that is our media outlets, especially television. I think it is shameful that our government does such a poor job a garnering its citizens' support for these wars. I understand not being able to reach an audience in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but for the life of me I can't understand how we fail here at home!?!?

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    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Hi PT,

    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic Thinker View Post
    In Department of Defense circles there is a lot of talk about Information Operations or IO, and for the life of me I can't understand how we as westerners are losing this fight. If there is one thing we love and that is our media outlets, especially television. I think it is shameful that our government does such a poor job a garnering its citizens' support for these wars. I understand not being able to reach an audience in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but for the life of me I can't understand how we fail here at home!?!?
    Probably too much to go into here but, in the really short form, let's just say that a democratic system with highly polarized politics is very amenable to media manipulation. The real problem is that while Afghanistan was a fairly well supported operation, it has been overshadowed by the vey unpopular Iraq war.

    FL - let's hear it for the Vandoos!!!! I am waiting to see if any of them take the "company R&R actions" that they did in WW II <evil grin>.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

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    The allowance given to understanding the enemy is conditioned with the denial of the right to hate the enemy. There is no celebration over the demise of our foes yet they measure the sale of beheading and torture videos by the tonnage. Maybe it really boils down to monotheism V polytheism and while we placate the Gods of Law and Economics and Perception and Politics and Policy and Opinion Polls and Political correctness, they slip quietly away unscathed across borders and into population dense no-kill zones.

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    let's hear it for the Vandoos!!!! I am waiting to see if any of them take the "company R&R actions" that they did in WW II
    The Vandoos will do great! I have no doubt in my head that they will do their duty and make our country proud.

    The allowance given to understanding the enemy is conditioned with the denial of the right to hate the enemy. There is no celebration over the demise of our foes yet they measure the sale of beheading and torture videos by the tonnage. Maybe it really boils down to monotheism V polytheism and while we placate the Gods of Law and Economics and Perception and Politics and Policy and Opinion Polls and Political correctness, they slip quietly away unscathed across borders and into population dense no-kill zones.
    I think we can still hate the enemy.
    We just cant hate the entire population anymore.
    The feelings America had for say the Japanese will never be repeated.

    for the life of me I can't understand how we as westerners are losing this fight. If there is one thing we love and that is our media outlets, especially television. I think it is shameful that our government does such a poor job a garnering its citizens' support for these wars. I understand not being able to reach an audience in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but for the life of me I can't understand how we fail here at home!?!?
    I agree we have the moral highground.
    I am just not sure what else we could be doing.
    I think the problem is not only with our governments poor explanations but also with the structure and nature of the media.
    The media is so diverse these days (google news anyone), they always want a story, and people have access to so much different media.
    Hard to have unity anymore.

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    Council Member sgmgrumpy's Avatar
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    Default Deep in Taliban country

    Deep in Taliban country
    A reporter embeds with the Taliban to see the brutal evidence of war in Greshk. From IWPR.


    I had come to Hassan Khan Kalay with the Taliban. It was the only way of getting there, as this village near Hyderabad in the Greshk district is under their control, and journalists cannot go there without their permission.
    The negotiations took about a week. First we called Qari Yusuf, the Taliban spokesman, and he passed us on to others, who referred us in turn to the local commanders.

    Finally we got the go-ahead. But our Taliban contact told us on the phone to be very careful about what we filmed and who we talked to in Hyderabad.

    "If they don't like what you are doing, you won't live," he said simply.

    According to our driver, we were in a place called Gaamash. We could see large numbers of American military vehicles on the desert floor – tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps – all of them destroyed, burnt out. There were also oil tanker trucks marooned in the desert.
    Meanwhile, our escort, Mullah Khaled, was eager to tell of his exploits.

    "When a convoy of British troops was passing this way, I set off a remote-controlled mine," he said. "Three NATO soldiers were killed. The others removed the dead bodies, then put a mine in the vehicle and blew it up."

    Khaled said that at one point he had been captured by the British and later released.

    "I told them I was just a traveller," he laughed. "Thank God I threw my walkie-talkie away before they got me."
    Well we better add that name to "The List"

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    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    According to our driver, we were in a place called Gaamash. We could see large numbers of American military vehicles on the desert floor – tanks, armoured personnel carriers and jeeps – all of them destroyed, burnt out. There were also oil tanker trucks marooned in the desert.

    It seemed that every few steps there was another shattered vehicle.
    Obviously another well-rounded reporter who cannot distinguish between US and what I would guess is decades old Soviet stuff.

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