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US jamming Taliban radio, websites

* Push takes Obama admin deeper into ‘psychological operations’
* US may provide jamming equipment to Pakistan
* Holbrooke likens Taliban radio to Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The US government is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and websites, senior US officials have told the Wall Street Journal.

American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations that Taliban fighters use to broadcast “threats and decrees”. US personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and websites joining the extremist underground. The websites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence.

Psychological operations: The push takes the administration deeper into “psychological operations”, which try to influence how the US, its allies and enemies are seen, the report said, noting that officials involved with the new programme have said such operations are a necessary part of halting the deterioration of stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Jamming equipment: In Pakistan, Taliban leaders use unlicensed FM stations to recite the names of local Pakistani government officials, police officers and other figures marked for death by the group. Hundreds of people named in the broadcasts have later been killed. “The Taliban aren’t just winning the information war — we’re not even putting up that much of a fight,” said a senior US official in Afghanistan. “We need to make it harder for them to keep telling the population that they’re in control and can strike at any time,” he added. The US may also provide radio-jamming equipment to the Pakistan government, according to US officials familiar with the plans.

Rwanda radio: Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, publicly told reporters there were 150 illegal FM radio stations in Swat Valley, which allowed militants to go “around every night broadcasting the names of people they’re going to behead or they’ve beheaded”. He likened the Taliban radio stations to Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines, a sectarian broadcaster widely believed to have helped fuel the Rwandan genocide.

The new push reflects the influence of General David Petraeus, head of Central Command and a major proponent of using psychological operations to reduce popular support for armed insurgent groups. The Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment, the report added.

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