DoD Strategic Communication Plan for Afghanistan

[Jedburgh]

Mountain Runner, 30 Sep 07: Department of Defense Strategic Communication Plan for Afghanistan

.....Desired End State: The Afghan people and people in Allied and partner countries recognize and support the efforts of the Afghan government, the U.S., its Allies and partners in stabilizing and reconstructing Afghanistan. The Afghan people strongly support their government and reject insurgency, terrorism, and the narcotics trade.

Achieving desired effects. on audience perceptions are critical to achieving the end state. For supported goals, see Annex A. For desired effects, see "Desired Effects" column ofthe Execution Matrix in Annex B....

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 24 Jul 08: Taliban Propaganda: Winning the War of Words?

....The Taliban seeks to create the illusion of inevitability and invincibility, while trying to defend the legitimacy of its actions. It has succeeded in conveying an impression of coherence and momentum far greater than reality, both within Afghanistan, among a population that is weary of war, and outside, with those in Western capitals also weary of commitments to a far distant conflict. The insurgents cannot win on the battlefield, but they do not have to. All they need to do is wear out their opponents – and influencing perceptions at home and abroad are a vital component of this strategy. The Afghan and other governments engaged in the Afghanistan endeavour have failed to communicate robustly and honestly with their populations in a way that would help build and sustain popular will for a long-term endeavour. The Taliban has proved adept at fuelling existing grievances, suspicions and perceptions in its attempt to drive a wedge between the Afghan people and the Karzai government and its international supporters. Kabul has not managed in a firm and coherent way to undermine the Taliban’s legitimacy through consistently highlighting its violent tactics and links to criminal groups. Instead, it has too often simply sought to crack down on the local media, which, admittedly, in its fledgling state and in the absence of other narratives, has often portrayed the conflict naively.

Both Kabul and its international supporters need to respond in a timely, coordinated manner if they are to effectively counter Taliban allegations. They must also focus, far more than is presently done, on the human costs of insurgent violence. The members of the multilateral coalition must also realise the importance of communicating exactly what is at stake in Afghanistan to their domestic constituents. This should not be so difficult; 11 September 2001 demonstrates the importance of ensuring that Afghanistan does not once again become a failed state that hosts extremists.....

[milnews.ca]

Mods, if this isn't the best place, please feel free to shift.

One of the things I've included as part of maintaining my "news aggregator" page on RC-S in AFG is Taliban statements. By the end of November, I pulled together the Canadian references in Taliban statements I could find, and developed this:
http://milnewstbay.pbwiki.com/f/TPW-CAN-NOV2008.pdf
(24kB .pdf)

If this is of use to anyone, feel free to use/share - if it sucks, please let me know why, and what else I should be thinking of/doing in monitoring and/or summarizing such statements to make it a more useful product.

Thanks, in advance, for your help!

[Ron Humphrey]

In getting inside their thought process it might be nice if you were to copy and paste the actual statements, otherwise some of us might not be entirely keen on web surfing those particular sites and all the associated niceties that accompany that

[milnews.ca]

In getting inside their thought process it might be nice if you were to copy and paste the actual statements, otherwise some of us might not be entirely keen on web surfing those particular sites and all the associated niceties that accompany that

Can quite easily include as an annex (CAVEAT: in a lot of cases, it's Google English translations, so some of them leave something to be desired - still, one gets a general sense) - good one, thanks!

[milnews.ca]

http://tonyprudori.pbwiki.com/f/TPW-CAN-OCT2008.pdf

Again, all feedback, good, bad or ugly, welcome.

[Ron Humphrey]

http://tonyprudori.pbwiki.com/f/TPW-CAN-OCT2008.pdf

Again, all feedback, good, bad or ugly, welcome.

Thanks for the effort.

[milnews.ca]

Much appreciated - all others, feel free to jump in as well.

[milnews.ca]

Afghans Sick of TV Horrors
Grisly public information films aimed at deterring people from joining the insurgency draw complaints from viewers across the country.
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 8 Jan 09
Article link

Graphic footage of shattered body parts, bloodstained clothing and other horrors of war are regular fodder for television viewers across Afghanistan.

TV channels include footage of the latest carnage as part of their nightly news bulletins, but there’s growing controversy over whether gruesome imagery should be used in public information films aimed at deterring Afghans from joining the insurgency.

The films, aired by TV stations across the country, have been issued by government departments – but the ministry of information, which claims it has not been consulted about them, has been expressing concern over their content.

It has asked the ministries producing the broadcasts to discuss them with its staff before they’re distributed to the stations – and warned the latter that they will ban the films that are currently being shown unless they are toned down....

....But Zemarai Bashari, spokesman for the ministry of interior, one of the government departments producing the films, says the footage has been deliberately chosen to discourage anti-government activity and bolster support for the work of the security agencies – although he did concede that the scenes were troubling.

However, he insisted that the broadcasts were necessary to show people the consequences of extremist acts....

....some in the medical profession are backing the ministry of information’s call for government departments to exercise greater care over their use of distressing imagery in public information films.

They’ve expressed concern over the psychological effect such footage might have on a population that has endured more than two decades of war....

[Bob's World]

This is not an endstate:

".....Desired End State: The Afghan people and people in Allied and partner countries recognize and support the efforts of the Afghan government, the U.S., its Allies and partners in stabilizing and reconstructing Afghanistan. The Afghan people strongly support their government and reject insurgency, terrorism, and the narcotics trade."
This is a statement expressing our desire for others to support our current scheme of engagement in Afghanistan.

Hopefully any true endstate will be just about the Nation of Afghanistan, its populace and its governance, something more like:

"Endstate: A Sovereign Afghanistan with a functioning, self-determined government."

In otherwords, any Afghan "Endstate" that includes the United States and our allies, is not an end, it is a middle. Similarly, any endstate that descrides conditions that the US wishes to exist, but are not similarly desired by the populace and government of Afghanistan is certainly imporper, and most likely infeasible. I would send this effort back to the drawing board.

[milnews.ca]

...highlighting Canadian references now ready for downloading:
http://milnewstbay.pbwiki.com/f/TPW-CAN-FEB2009.pdf

As always, good, bad or ugly feedback always welcome.

[milnews.ca]

...why there would be such a difference in content between the English and Arabic statements by the Taliban highlighting the same (alleged) event? More details here - happy to hear the range of theories. Mine, literally off the top of my head:

1) Misunderstanding between writer & translator.
2) Different versions written in isolation using same fact base given to different writers.
3) Poor command of English on part of translator = mixing up Brits & Americans.
4) A typo on one or the other version.

[Ron Humphrey]

...why there would be such a difference in content between the English and Arabic statements by the Taliban highlighting the same (alleged) event? More details here - happy to hear the range of theories. Mine, literally off the top of my head:

1) Misunderstanding between writer & translator.
2) Different versions written in isolation using same fact base given to different writers.
3) Poor command of English on part of translator = mixing up Brits & Americans.
4) A typo on one or the other version.

5) When you making stuff up anyway details really are that important
6) It might reflect the greater personal angst by either one of the authors or translators against their personal favorite target

What one might be able to infer is that the incident and its reporting where adhoc reactionary and thus didn't allow for proper prep time.
Gotta get it to print

Then again theres always
7) your guess is as good as mine

[Ken White]

Rule of thumbs (2) in the ME / South Asia:

If numbers are reported, subtract or add as appropriate 50-80% to the numbers given to adjust for accuracy. The number will virtually always be modified to make either the reporter or you look good. Use the lower number if you know the individual reporting and think he likes you, the higher number if you do not know him or her.

What is said in English will rarely much resemble the harsher language and more flowery rhetoric used in Arabic / Dari / Farsi / Pushtu / Tajik / Turkmen.


Oh, and (9) -- Nothing in the ME / SA area is as it seems.

[milnews.ca]

5) What one might be able to infer is that the incident and its reporting where adhoc reactionary and thus didn't allow for proper prep time. Gotta get it to print

How unlike the mainstream media?

What is said in English will rarely much resemble the harsher language and more flowery rhetoric used in Arabic / Dari / Farsi / Pushtu / Tajik / Turkmen.

Two points along these lines....

1) Someone WAY smarter than me pointed this out early on in my work: if you look at the official English postings, they feel very cookie cutter. A couple of recent examples:

Today morning 11-03-2009 at approximately 10:06 am , Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with remote controlled landmines blew up 1 vehicle of puppet army near Lashkargah city capital of Helmand province, the landmine destroyed the vehicle and a comander and 4 terrorists in it were killed. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi

Today afternoon 11-03-2009 at approximately 5:36pm local time, Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with remote controlled landmine blew up a tank of British invaders army in Khak Kash area of Sangin district of Helmand province, the landmine destroyed the tank and killed all the invader terrorists in it . Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

Thursday midnight 12-03-2009 at approximately 12 pm local time, Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan attack puppet army post in Pai Nawa of Tarenkot capital of Uruzgan province, in the attack Mujahideen captured the post, killed four puppet terrorists and a stock of weapons were Mujahideen's booty. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

This suggests the Taliban are using a template into which they plug in date, time, location, nationality, etc. This actually makes sense if you want to quickly disseminate info in a language you may not be strong in - get someone who knows to develop a template, then teach someone where different words go.

2) Not only do you lose flowery language, but a fair bit of detail is excluded in the official English translations. For example, compare the official English version here (or here, a .pdf scan loaded to my own page in case you don't want to click to a jihadist site from where you're reading this):

Last night 27-02-2009, 4 police of puppet administrator surrender to Mujahideen in center of Sangin district of Helmand province, also different kinds of weapons were Mujahideen's booty. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

to the Google English translation (yeah, I know the caveats, but I'm comfortable of getting at least a rough feel using Google Translation) of the Arabic version:

4, join the police to the mujahideen in Sngen
Qari Muhammad Yussuf (Ahmadi) - 28/2/2009
Join the night of Thursday, four policemen were in the client management in the province of Helmand Sngen state of the ranks of the Islamic Emirate, Mujahideen Khalq, a result of a previous association with the heavy and light weapons. The transfer of these soldiers with the following weapons to the Mujahideen: (1) RPG (3) of the Kalashnikov machine guns, (1) gun-type 82 mg m, and a large quantity of small arms bullets. Soldiers acceded to the ranks of the mujahideen who were working security at a point near the headquarters of the province, and after joining the Mujahideen transferred to a safe area. Has given them the safety of themselves and their money by the regulations prepared by the Mujahideen in this regard.

If I could find a web-based free translation page for Persian, it would be interesting to see how different, if at all, those versions are from the Arabic versions.

Finally, an indication that whoever is providing English language translation services may be thinking phonetically (.pdf of original on my site):

Puppet intelligence service official killed in Kandahar
Today morning 02-03-2009 at approximately 8 am local time, Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in gorilla attack killed puppet intelligence service official in 5th number of Kandahar city , in the attack the official was the small brother of comando chief of Kandahar province. Reported by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi

[milnews.ca]

First I've seen of the Taliban posting a table of stats in English (don't know Arabic, Farsi or Pashto, so I can't tell if they've done this elsewhere).

For April 2009 across Afghanistan, the Taliban alleges:

* 5 villages and 2 Taliban vehicles destroyed
* 12 Taliban dead
* 58 Taliban wounded
* 533 foreign troops killed
* 952 Afghan troops killed
* 73 foreign troops wounded
* 170 Afghan troops wounded
* 3 foreign helicopters destroyed
* 53 civilian casualties
* 10 “martyrdom operations”
* 339 "operations"*

* - not clear whether this includes martyrdom operations or not

A .pdf of the table, with breakdown by category and province, is available here at non-terrorist web page. A bit more analysis here.

[milnews.ca]

For those mass-distribution electronic night letters, I guess.

From the Xinhua news agency:

Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and international troops based in Afghanistan have established their propaganda mouthpiece in the southern Ghazni province, locals said Sunday. The FM transistor, according to locals, airs program from 07:00p.m. until 09:00 p.m. local time and often broadcasts Taliban anti-government activities in local language of Pashtu. "This radio called itself "Da Shariat Ghag Radio" or Radio voice of Sharia (Islamic Laws) have been airing programs on Taliban anti-government activities over the past three days," a resident of Qarabagh district Noor Mohammad told Xinhua .... Meantime, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told media from an undisclosed location via telephone claimed that militants have established four radios in the country.

[milnews.ca]

... from Pajhwok News:

.... A spokesman for the FM radio says the station has been set up in the mountainous area of Shahi Kot, lying south of Gardez, capital of the southeastern Paktia province.

But FM broadcasts cannot be heard clearly over such a long distance. The station airs religious programmes, poetry praising Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), pro-Taliban songs and commentaries on daily occurrences.

( .... )

Speaking on behalf of the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid told Pajhwok Afghan News the radio station was the most effective communication tool for the fighters.

He claimed the guerrillas were in control of enough territory in Ghazni, where they could freely run the FM radio, which could be listened to in a 50-kilometre radius from the provincial capital.

In order to convey their message to the masses, Mujahid added, Taliban had set up similar radio stations in Paktia, Paktika, Kunar and Nuristan provinces....

.pdf version of story here in case link not working

[milnews.ca]

...in a Globe & Mail article quoting folks claiming to be Taliban commanders:

“He said his fighters never intended to follow through on threats outlined in “night letters” – leaflets warning death and dismemberment to would-be voters.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....
The Globe piece has also been picked up by at least one pro-jihadi blogs like this one.

[milnews.ca]

HIGHLIGHTS

• Taliban statements monitored during August 2009 claimed responsibility for at least 33 Canadian deaths. Canada announced the death of 2 soldiers during this period.
• Eight ( 8 ) Taliban announcements were monitored mentioning Canadian personnel or casualties in August 2009, compared to an average of 8.1 such reports per month since October 2008.
• Since October 2008, the Taliban have claimed 12.9 Canadian casualties for every one officially announced by the Government of Canada (387 alleged by Taliban vs. 30 reported by Canada).

Available in .pdf format here

Feedback (good, bad or ugly) greatly appreciated.