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He may have lived in a country which banned all forms of modern technology including the TV, internet & mobile phones but the former ambassador of Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said “I am addicted” as he tapped away on new iPhone marvelling at the 3G speed, built-in GPS and ability to check his bank account balance online. The recent phase of the technological and internet revolution referred to as Web 2.0 has not been overlooked by terror networks. In a bid to help them recruit, plan attacks, gain funding, propagate their message, training and logistical support the Taliban have been employing a sophisticated arsenal of technology that is common to most of us in the western world. Can this be viewed as a cause for concern or could it be a progressive step in the Taliban becoming increasingly moderate?

How they are using this technology

David Kilcullen, the most established author on issues concerning guerrilla warfare and insurgency, summarises the military operation in Afghanistan in a nutshell in the above diagram. In the “Theater of Operations”, the Taliban rely on foreign recruits, equipment, funds and sympathy and support in order to mobilize their cause.

Propaganda

The Taliban have realized the strength of technology in furthering their message not only in Afghanistan but on a global scale. This was recognised by the United States Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates who was embarrassed by how the Taliban & Al-Qaeda were more effective at communicating its message on the internet than America, he was quoted as saying “how has one man in a cave managed to out-communicate the world’s greatest communication society?”. The Taliban since the invasion of Afghanistan have been well known to effectively make use of video sharing websites such as YouTube, Dailymotion and Liveleak to distribute their videos showing Taliban attacks on NATO forces. James Appathurai, spokesman for NATO stated “they deploy with videographers, we don’t. They have DVDs out in an hour, we don’t”. This provides for a powerful propaganda machine as according to Gates they are able to spread their propaganda with “speed, agility and cultural relevance”. In addition to recording attacks on NATO forces, they are also able to capitalize on mistakes made during military operations such as civilian casualties during airstrikes and violation of local traditions for example house searches, the biggest insult in Pashtun culture (the ethnic majority in Afghanistan), providing a perfect atmosphere for Taliban propaganda to take root.

So what is the new technology used behind this? Video recordings of such violations are the main tools by which they spread their message and glorify their achievements. During 2001, the Taliban would send their recordings whether VHS or DVD to media channels such as Al-Jazeera and at the same time produce DVD’s to be sold in the Pakistani markets. However, with the increasing availability of internet in Afghanistan & Pakistan, they have cut the middle man by directly communicating their videos to the world. As such, the Taliban set up a website, Al Emarah or The Emirate, (which goes by various domains due to attempts to block it) where they distribute pamphlets, magazines, videos & audios. They have also expanded into Web 2.0 with their “Voice of Jihad” website which allows readers to share posts via Twitter, Facebook & Digg

However, more recently, the Taliban recently launched “Istiqal Media”, an official YouTube channel showing videos of car bombings and gun battles set to music however YouTube censors moved in quickly to remove much of the channel’s content. There are a number of reasons why the Taliban moved to YouTube, the main reason was the potential to reel in a vast, viral audience but secondly, it allowed access to a free, highly-reliable video broadcast service which is important as they previously had trouble with RMVB, AVI & MPEG files overloading their web servers and exhausting their bandwidth.

Additionally, another source of propaganda has come from text messages and ringtones.  This is probably the most powerful propaganda weapon the Taliban have at hand since Afghanistan today has more than 8 million mobile phone users, that is 1 in 4. Even those who can barely afford to eat now carry mobile phones. USA Today reported how the Taliban using sophisticated media networks were undermining support for the Afghan government by sending threats via SMS and spreading their views via songs available as ringtones. Some of the ringtones include “Let me go to Jihad” and “Death is a gift”, including lyrics such as “I will not kiss the hand of Laura Bush”. These text messages and ringtones are being forwarded between one another barrel rolling the propaganda.

So overall, with the addition of websites, YouTube channels and text messages as well as support from traditional forms of propaganda (radio, TV, nightletters & DVDs) the Taliban have compiled a complete multimedia propaganda package. People can now access the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” website and read through Taliban news in Arabic, English, Urdu, Pashto & Farsi, receive SMS updates and watch video footage of attacks immediately after they happen, stream Radio Shariat (the Taliban’s old FM radio station) online and share Taliban news in Digg, Twitter & Reddit.

The NATO forces, on their mission to win hearts & minds are still using traditional forms of media to communicate to the population which is why the Taliban has been so effective in its propaganda. They have embarked on a lighter touch to win allies, a response to the Americans campaign to win Afghan hearts and minds. The Taliban are able to release statements a lot quicker and efficiently than NATO. As Bruce Riedel, advisor to President Barack Obama states, a propaganda war requires a very quick time cycle which the NATO is losing at because they “look for all the facts before they comment” whereas the Taliban using the SMS, videos, e-mails to journalists and radio broadcasts are able to quickly shape the narrative about attacks. This change in tactic to adopt new technologies and engage in propaganda means the Taliban perhaps are preparing for a long-term fight thus requiring the sympathy and support of the people.

Recruitment

The tactics used for propaganda correlate with those used to recruit, as propaganda is an essential tool for recruiting more fighters. Undoubtedly, the US Armed Forces, NATO & the UN recognize a marked increase in the fighting force of the Taliban between 2002 and 2006 which Giustozzi, an international relations professor at LSE, believes is a conservative estimate. Much of this early recruitment in 2002 was done through traditional means – madrassas, tribal system recruitment in Pakistan, clergy recruitment, returning Mujahideen & training camps. This would provide the Taliban with a significant number of recruits however the Taliban recognized the problems with this system as they had to get many recruits across the border which was risky and expensive. Since then however, there has been a shift in the way the Taliban have been recruiting since 2002.

Did technology play any role in post-2002 Taliban recruitment? Hosting martyrs’ speeches, stories, successful attacks and civilian casualties caused by the “enemy” on sites such as YouTube are one of the main ways they can appeal to disgruntled, disenfranchised & poverty stricken youth of Afghanistan. This is done through footage of intense battle scenes, flash logos, banners and songs. They have even released video footage of a graduation ceremony for a new class of suicide bombers which is again part of their recruitment propaganda, recording the students’ motivations and highlighting students who have come from western countries, as a method of appealing to those who might sympathize with the Taliban cause to come forward.

The Taliban also benefit hugely from sympathizers in the west who set up websites which promote their material, one such site was Azzam.com, a London-based publisher which produced manuals such as “How Can I Train Myself for Jihad”. These websites provide the gateway for potential sympathizers to join the ranks of terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda but sometimes also the Taliban. The BBC has reported variously on finding British nationals fighting alongside the Taliban. Peter Jones in his recent documentary “Generation Jihad” described how recruiters were setting up websites such as Azzam to pool together recruiters and sympathizers in an online community, a sort of Jihadi milkround. Those who are then willing or brainwashed into joining the cause are usually trained by the recruiters in Pakistan to fight the “infidels”. Essentially, without the use of modern technology such as the Internet, it would have been impossible for the Taliban to brainwash and recruit fighters from areas such as the Mill Towns of West Yorkshire. A classic example of this was when a young Virginia man was “headhunted” by a Taliban recruiter based in Pakistan from a comment he posted on a YouTube video. This case illustrates how technology, especially the internet has made the world much more accessible for the Taliban and how they have moved from a traditional form of recruitment to a complex recruitment system not too different from those employed by Western graduate recruiters.

Logistical Support

We have been inundated with reports since 2002 of the Taliban deploying IEDs (improvised explosive device) to counter NATO forces. Road side bombs, physical ambushes, suicide bombers and targeted assassinations are one of the many traditional forms of guerilla warfare employed by the Taliban.

However, recently the Taliban have been using more complex technology to support their operations. It was reported by the Daily Mail that the Taliban were using Internet phones, specifically Skype, to communicate with cells across the country. The reason for this was that it is “devilishly hard to crack”  because unlike traditional mobile calls, internet voice calls are broken into millions of pieces of data before being sent down the line therefore it is virtually impossible for intelligence agencies to intercept calls. The Taliban have been able to capitalize on the increasing ease of accessibility to Internet in Afghanistan to help them avoid detection from American & British forces. Recently, GCHQ (British Government Communications Headquarters) have been placing pressure on Skype to log all web activity but so far Skype has refused to comment on the issue.

Similarly, the Taliban were able to intercept live video feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using commercially available technology such as SkyGrabber. This method, also popular with Iraqi insurgents, allows the militants to intercept and record television feeds from drones which has two affects, it means they can evade being seen by the drones and they can also locate the position of NATO forces, a very serious potential breach of security placing them at a serious risk of ambush.

A widely publicized story of how the Taliban were using the Internet in their logistical operations appeared in 2009. The Washington Times reported on how the Taliban used US uniforms and infrared patches to get close to US and allied forces on the battlefield and at bases. These infrared patches were designed to protect foreign forces from being targeted by friendly fire during battles, especially during night combat. The Government Accountability Office said that the Taliban had managed to seize a huge amount of the patches mainly over the internet, where it can be purchased for as little as $10 each. The buying and selling of such items is perfectly legal within the U.S. Thus these stories reaffirm the reports that the Taliban movement is growing more technologically capable, moving from road side bombs to using high-tech intelligence tools and powerful online software.

Funding

There is little evidence to show that the Taliban use the Internet to receive funding however sites set up by sympathisers such as “Taliban Online” contained information on how to make financial donations to the Afghan militia, however it is no longer operational. However, more recently it was uncovered that the Taliban were using PayPal to receive donations. The “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” website was open to “collect contributions to the Emirate” which allowed for users to donate through Paypal at the bottom of the page.

What is the response by the allied forces?

The U.S. military as part of their “hearts and minds” initiative have launched a Facebook page, a YouTube site and feeds on twitter to communicate to a wider audience rather than newspapers as they have previously done in Afghanistan. This is proving to be rather effective as recently news relating to combat injuries were posted on Twitter hours before announcing it in a formal press statement. This is to counter the false claims made by the Taliban about how many U.S. soldiers its killed or how many civilians might have died in an airstrike. For the first time, astonishingly, the U.S. army has caught up with information technology systems employed by the Taliban, at the start of the invasion, the Taliban were far more efficient at reaching people by word of mouth, then through radio, newspapers and TV and finally though mobile phones & the internet. Although the U.S. army has had to play catch up in all three stages, it is finally at a stage where it can compete with the Taliban.

Final thoughts…

The Taliban have successfully entered the modern information technology era. They have been able to make use of household technology in remarkably innovative ways. The debate rages on, one side states that we should censor them all together from websites such as YouTube who use the logic that it can glorify terrorism and attract sympathisers to their cause. The other side of the debate is based on the fact that we should censor wisely, encouraging open and intellectual participation with the which Taliban may be more productive than simply gagging them as part of their appeal to Western sympathisers is because of the censors placed on them.

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