Which Enemy Would That Be?
"It was hacked again by enemies and foreign intelligence services. The enemy tries to push its propaganda. The enemy is worried by what gets published in our webpage. It's confusing for them, so they try to react." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahi
It's an interesting world we live in. Not only do adversaries meet one another on the battlefield, plant IEDs to blast the unwary into oblivion, encourage dupes to wear suicide vests and blow up their opponents, acquire opium riches to fund operations, prey on schoolgirls for their breach of Muslim etiquette in attempting to have an education, but they also mount propaganda efforts on the Internet.
Government security and defence arms like the military and the national police in Afghanistan are being trained by Western forces in modern warfare to enable them to mount operations to meet the attacks of the Taliban and frustrate them in their efforts. They are learning how to mount patrols efficiently and usefully, how to detect and disarm attackers, how to protect their population independent of the help of foreigners.
And they are also, it would appear, learning how to make use of new technology in other ways. Such as interfering with the El Emara Taliban website, replacing the usual insurgent messages of victory over adversity with images and messages of their own, effectively counter-acting the propaganda, replacing it with evidence of Taliban vicious brutality.
Examples of photographs of women being shot in the head or hanged by Taliban executioners. Another showing two women in full-coverage burkas being beaten. "Violence is wrong in all its forms, especially the encouragement by the Taliban of cowardly betrayal and the senseless murder of innocent civilians", claims an Afghan Pajhwok News clip, in English.
"The Afghan Security Forces are accountable to Allah and the Afghan people, and seek to restore peace as the foreigners leave the land", said the message further. A deplorable state of affairs, according to the Taliban who admitted their website was hacked, then repaired, then breached again and put out of commission for a considerable length of time.
Anti-government and anti-NATO messages have been used by the Taliban to distribute their propaganda through mobile phone networks and Twitter, while claiming successes leading to the departure of foreign combat troops. A network of spokesmen distribute messages, including the use of their own mobile radio broadcast service.
Twitter claims of the destruction of NATO armoured vehicles, the deaths of western or Afghan security forces by the Taliban has led NATO to recognize the need to counter these claims with messages of their own, conveyed by those who will gain by them the most, the Afghan Security Forces.
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, Security, Technology, Terrorism, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, April 28, 2012
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