When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan it famously eschewed most modern technology, including television and music players.
But in the latest sign of the hardline movement's rapprochement with at least some bits of the modern world, the Taliban has embraced microblogging.
Its Twitter feed, @alemarahweb, pumps out several messages each day, keeping 224 followers up to date with often highly exaggerated reports of strikes against the “infidel forces” and the “Karzai puppet regime”.
Most messages by the increasingly media-savvy movement are in Pashtu, with links to news stories on the elaborate and multilingual website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban's shadow government likes to style itself.
On Thursday the feed broke into English for the first time, with a tweet about an attack on the police in Farah province. “Enemy attacked in Khak-e-Safid, 6 dead,” read the message.
There is not much lively banter between the “emirate” and its Twitter followers, save for a cheerful “ asalam alekum ” sent last week to the Kavkaz Centre, a militant news site covering jihad in the Caucasus.
Presumably operating on the grounds that it is best to know one's enemies — 140 characters at a time — the first feed the Taliban signed to follow was that of @Afghantim, who describes himself as a U.S. Air Force logistics officer working as a combat advisor to the Afghan Army. The Taliban is also following @AfghanHeroesUK, a charity supporting British troops in Afghanistan. Many of the story links are broken as the Taliban's official website, regularly evicted from servers or shut down by authorities, is constantly on the move.
The Taliban's embrace of social media is just one part of an impressive public relations capability that runs rings around the efforts of NATO to communicate with Afghans. The movement puts out a constant stream of information through text messages and email. Edited video clips of fights against coalition forces, “martyrdom operations” and Taliban songs are circulated through Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. mportant statements by the movement are often translated into several different languages, including flawless English, with two spokesmen usually on hand to give quotes to journalists.
In the immediate aftermath of the spectacular escape by underground tunnel of almost 500 Taliban prisoners from Kandahar's main prison last month, a spokesman put reporters in touch with former inmates.
The Taliban's press operation is often far faster to publish news than coalition forces. NATO officials say the alliance is slowed down by the need to make information as accurate as possible.
That the barrage of press releases (and tweets) does not always result in news stories is a source of irritation to the Taliban's press team.
Last December a lengthy e-mail from the Taliban's “cultural commission” complained about the “global colonialist junta under the leadership of America is trying its utmost to maintain its monopoly over the media”.
“Not even 10% of the written material sent to you appears in your media,” it said. — © GuardianNewspapers Limited, 2011
