Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Afghanistan: The Taliban Release a Copy of Their ‘Code of Conduct’ Rule Book
I found this at Jarret Brachman’s blog, which he got from Al Jazeera English. If you follow the link below, he has some more stuff on these rules. It looks like the Taliban command is trying to get organized, or at least give the impression of getting organized. –Matt
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“From the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [Mullah Omar] Layeha (rulebook) to the Mujahideen.
Rules for mujahideen. Each mujahid is obliged to obey the following rules:
1. A person with responsibility (only commanders) is allowed to give an invitation to those Afghans who are supporting infidels to join the way of the true Islam
2. To those who leave the infidels we will grant security for him and his property. But if he has some personal dispute, or somebody has some claim against him, he has to face our judiciary system.
3. Each mujahideen who is in contact with supporters of the current regime and who invites them to join the true Islam has to inform his commander.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Building Snowmobiles: Turning The Taliban–The Selous Scout Way
“It was simple and direct. He [the terrorist] had the option of being handed over to the police, after which he would be prosecuted for … offenses related to terrorism. If found guilty he would be hanged. He could, however, change sides and work with the security forces against his former comrades. After a short period of intensive contemplation, the capture elected to change sides. He was immediately given back his weapon, but unknown to him, its firing pin had been removed. The fact that he had been given a weapon astonished … him. [I]t was a shrewdly calculated move designed to sow the seeds of trust. A pseudo group always had to make a hard decision … quickly. Could they trust the ex-insurgent or not? The answer to that question…demanded a considerable amount of moral courage on the part of the team. It meant … placing their lives in the hands of a former enemy whom, having turned once, might very well turn again, and kill and betray them.” -Retired Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly, a former commander of the Selous Scouts and author of “Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts,” on capturing and turning the enemy.
This is totally building snowmobiles, because this activity totally goes against our current mindset in the war. I found these two stories, because they both complement each other, regardless of the fact that they were written for two different aspects of the war. The first story is from Strategy Page, and actually talks about turning Taleban who no longer want to fight for the other side. Except the turning strategy is not going far enough in my opinion. We could go further, but it would require some guts and some strong leaders to manage the process. But he who dares, wins… right?
The second story is about the Selous Scouts method for turning enemy combatants, and using them in the war they were fighting. The author was trying to apply the ideas to Iraq in the early days, but to me, it has equal application to what we are doing in Afghanistan. The quote up top is classic. Let me know what you guys think and Pamwe Chete! –Matt
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Foreigners Fighting Foreigners
June 19, 2009
Strategy Page
While the Taliban have been successful with their human shield tactics, they have done so at great cost to the popularity of the Islamic radical group. The Taliban were never noted for their desire to be popular. These guys are on a mission from God, and earthly trifles do not concern them. While the frequent use of human shields has spared the Taliban some casualties, and sometimes made it easier to escape death or capture (mainly because the propaganda value of dead civilians has caused the rules of engagement for foreign troops to become more restrictive), the practice has increased Afghan hostility to the Taliban. This means that the Taliban increasingly find themselves operating in a hostile environment as they move through Afghanistan. This is made worse by the fact that many Taliban units are often half, or more, composed of foreigners. Many of these are Pakistanis, who at least look like Afghans (and only betray themselves when they speak, and reveal a foreign accent). But a growing number of foreigners are Arabs, who are generally disliked throughout Pakistan. This is because many Arabs look down on Afghans, and often do not try to hide this disdain.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Bounties: Pakistan Ups Taliban Chief Reward
I imagine that this is primarily directed at the local population, but it would be interesting to see if the government is willing to look outside of Pakistan for some help in this area? And maybe they have. The reason I say that this is directed locally is that the dollar/rupee figure below is a little low if they are trying to attract foreign interest in getting these folks. –Matt
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Pakistan ups Taliban chief reward
2009/05/29
Pakistan has increased its reward for a Taliban chief in the Swat valley to 50m rupees ($600,000, £372,000).
The figure is more than 10 times the original bounty for radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
Officials acted after Pakistani Taliban leaders warned of more bomb attacks in cities in retaliation for a government offensive in the north-west.
Authorities in Peshawar have banned public gatherings a day after at least 10 people died in two separate attacks.
On Wednesday at least 24 people died in a bomb attack in Lahore which targeted a police station and intelligence agency offices.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Pakistan: Buner Falls Into The Hands of Swat Taliban
This is embarrassing, and not only for the Pakistani government, but also for us. We have thrown billions of dollars at Pakistan during this war, and there is nothing but this crap to show for it. Well, from the looks of it, these guys are intent on taking land and whatever else they can get their hands on, and obviously the state does not have control. That is scary stuff, and especially when the Pakistanis have nuclear weapons laying around. The bottom line is that the Pakistani strategy sucks, and as long as we go along with such rubbish, then that means our strategy sucks. We can do better than this. –Mudeer
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Buner falls into the hands of Swat Taliban
Wednesday, 22 Apr, 2009 | 03:42 AM PST |
BUNER: Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner on Tuesday and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the district.
The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days.
They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.
Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen, who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas.
The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps.