"Modernized" Taliban

CAIRO — Appointing judges and officials in some areas, presenting letters of introduction to local leaders, and operating websites and around-the-clock propaganda apparatus, a new Taliban is emerging in Afghanistan.

"This is not the Taliban of Emirate times. It is a new, updated generation," Waheed Mojda, a former foreign ministry aide under the Taliban Islamic Emirate, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, told the Washington Post on Saturday, September 20.

"They are more educated, and they don't punish people for having CDs or cassettes."

Today's Taliban has a much greater degree of formal organization.

Unlike the old movement, whose ministries were run by barefoot mullahs who gave orders on scrapped paper, the new Taliban now appoints defense and finance councils for each area of governance.

It also appoints officials in controlled areas and confers swift justice for crimes and disputes.

The new Taliban also presents letters of introduction to local leaders.

According to the Post, an Afghan journalist cited a visit by a man to a radio station in Logar province, south of Kabul, and politely introduced himself to the manager as the new Taliban provincial spokesman.

Savvy

The new Taliban is also growing more technologically capable with high-tech tools and powerful online machine.

In the past, Taliban was composed of largely illiterate fighters and members who shunned modern technology as un-Islamic.

But now, the movement operates websites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage.

"We are definitely not winning the information war, and we have to reverse that," said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the chief spokesman for NATO forces.

Taliban's media power is much evident in civilian casualties inflicted by US and NATO attacks.

The movement quickly broadcasts death tolls of the attacks while foreign military officers may take days to respond.

Last month, more than 90 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in air strikes by US-led foreign forces in western Afghanistan.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch said that the number of Afghan civilians killed in attacks by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan have nearly tripled over the past year.

"The old Taliban wanted to bring Shari`ah, security and unity to Afghanistan. The new Taliban has much broader goals -- to drive foreign forces out of the country and the Muslim world," said Mojda.

Source: IOL.

Realsomeone: it just sounds funny to me :)