Engaging The AfPak Information War

Helle Dale / August 21, 2009

The State Department is establishing a new unit for countering militant propaganda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an effort to win the war of ideas against Islamist extremists – in other words engaging in strategic communication, reports the New York Times. Special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke will direct the effort within the State Department, which will focus on the use of cell phones, FM radio and video. Local journalists are to be trained at State Department expense (with a proposed budget of $150 million) to attack and denigrate militants and their messages. Holbrooke told Tom Shanker of the New York Times, “Concurrent with the insurgency is an information war. We are losing that war. The Taliban have unrestricted access to radio, which is the main means of communication. We can’t succeed, however you define success, if we cede to people who present themselves as false messengers of a prophet, which is what they do. We need to combat it.” (more…)