USA: Holbrooke calls for countering Taliban propaganda

Updated: Friday, September 18, 2009

Washington, 18 September (WashingtonTV)—Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said yesterday in Washington that Taliban propaganda must be countered with Western media broadcasts.

"There is the question of extremist propaganda, and this needs to be dealt with head on. We can't concede the battle to the Taliban," Holbrooke said.

He was speaking at an event marking the launch of a new 6-hour Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty [RFE/RL] Azadi radio program for Pashto speakers, in the dialect of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

The US Congress recently appropriated $10.9 million to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees RFE/RL operations, to enhance and expand broadcasts to the Pashtun populations of Pakistan's border regions.

In a volatile area where little independent news and information is available, this new initiative will feature a wide range of news, politics, and cultural programs specifically geared to Pashto speakers on both sides of the border. Programs will be distributed via shortwave, FM, and the Internet.

In August the New York Times quoted Holbrooke as saying that the Taliban have unrestricted, and unchallenged access to the radio, which is still the primary means of communication in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, and therefore a vital method of communication between the United States and people of that region.

"Concurrent with the insurgency is an information war. We are losing that war," Holbrooke told the New York Times.

Referring to the topic of yesterday's event which featured a panel discussion entitled: "Fighting Hate Radio Along the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border", Holbrooke said: "And there is the extremist radio, these mobile FM transmitters on the backs of motorcycles and pickup trucks broadcasting this stuff. And some of it is really bad," Holbrooke said in his speech, adding that in the Swat valley in Pakistan, militant radio broadcasts read the names of the people that the Taliban plan to behead.

"This is obviously where RFE and RL come in. We need to explain in open American supported radio stations and other media why we're in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Why we are there as friends and not as invaders or occupiers," said Holbrooke.

In an interview with WashingtonTV, one of the panelists, RFE/RL Afghanistan director Akbar Ayazi, said that their radio program is the most popular in Afghanistan, and is regarded as a credible source of information.

The Obama administration is considering proposals to give $150 million a year to a new unit being established in the State Department tasked to counter militant propaganda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the New York Times reported on 16 August.

Sources: Washington correspondent in Washington, New York Times

via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia