Taliban YouTube Channel: Group Creates YouTube Channel To Spread Propaganda (VIDEO)

The enemy in Afghanistan has discovered YouTube.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria briefly reported on the Taliban's foray into new media during his show on Sunday. The group that's fighting to restore radical Sharia law and to retake Afghanistan recently posted two videos to it's YouTube account, Istqlalmedia.

According to Zakaria, one of the videos was a "disturbing clip" that showed "hideous scenes of death and destruction set to music." The clip has since been disabled and removed from the site.

The remaining video is propaganda set to Pashtun-language music.

Zakaria also pointed to the group's English-language propaganda web site and reported that it was hosted by servers in Portland, Oregon. According to a detailed correction submitted by a HuffPost reader, Zakaria was wrong. The Taliban's English-language web site was actually hosted on servers owned by a company based in Houston, Texas, according to the reader.

The Washington Post reported on this phenomenon in April 2009:

Militants' use of U.S. Web hosts has sparked occasional spats between the United States and its allies, as well as endless debates over whether it is better to shut down the web sites when they're discovered or to let them continue to operate. By allowing them to remain online, intelligence analysts can sometimes discover clues about the leadership and structure of terrorist groups, some analysts say.

"Even the Taliban cannot survive without the products of the modern world," noted Zakaria.

Watch:

Comments

[M Alex Ponte Melo]

I'm speechless here...

[lastpost]

"Even the Taliban cannot survive without the products of the modern world,"

We reject every and all these devices as works of the infidel. We condemn them as manifestations of extreme evil. Except the Satellite Phone, Kalashnikov Rifle. Plastic Explosive, Internal Combustion Engine, Container Ship, and Cargo Plane. Other such things we renounce, as manifestly iniquitous. Except the Bank Account, International Electronic Money Transfer, and the Internet. Which truly are contrivances, fit for the use of Allah himself.(BB)

[romchr]

But how are they are beer pong?

[GrrlCanada]

oh.. they are? Great. Now countless trolls can start flame wars on their vids too

[mikeVA]

oh, oh, raise the threat level! whoop, whoop, sirens, the nsa and our intelligence services, i mean, the tribes in afghanistan made a you tube channel.

[hottingers]

Next thing you know the Republican party will learn how to use the Internet.

[planetjeffy]

Talis on YouTube - they're done -
they'll be spending all their time watching rickrolls, kittens, drugged out kids, sexy music videos...

[Tulka2]

It's easy to forget Fareed Zacharia considers himself a conservative. Just having the name Zacharia on t.v. seems edgy and vaguely leftist, but consider how reactionary is this piece of business. How, "scary" he makes it. When your enemy reaches out to tell you his point of view, listen.

[FHTB]

You mean we should have listened to Hitler's point of view?
Sorry, you DESTROY, not LISTEN to insane nihilism like the Taliban's.

[KrautMan]

Yeah, that approach has played out super, hasn't it?

[Tulka2]

Dear FHTB, since you are sending time-travlers back to deal with Hitler....? Please send someone back to buy one of the young Hitler's rather nice little water colors. Think it might make all the difference to history.

But seriously, let's not make Hitlers. Let's "buy the water colors". Too deep?

[pnc]

you can listen and then understand how scary it is (quotes removed b/c rather than somehow hint that it is in fact not scary, I recognize that it is indeed really, really scary). Whether he is conservative or liberal, he makes a good point--it is indeed ironic that they lean on the the very technology that they claim to be against, and that dissonance may contribute to their undoing. Not to mention their interpretation of Islam in extremist terms that are alien to the region and alienating to much of the population. How can you make it sound like this is a partisan issue? I understand the appeal of the Taliban, as Zacharia clearly does too. That doesn't mean we have to accept it uncritically. Compare his analysis to the b.s. of "they hate us for our freedom."

[Tulka2]

Hello, pnc, i tend to be far too glib on this comment board. Your thoughtful note deserves my response. I find Zacharia to be the best, most thoughtful conservative. My comment was really more a sort of startled acknowledgement that the right-wing nut jobs are so far out there that i often forget Zacharia is a true, old-time conservative. While i am not that, i do admire Zacharica and listen to everything he says.

I found it WONDERFUL that the Taliban was using youtube. It means they watch it too. Wonderful!

[mypov123]

Well, it's about time! *sarcasm*

[Playin Possum]

Yea, but until they can rap they are still nowhere...

[hamchunk]

And can you imagine all the recruits they would attract if they showed themselves jumping off the rooftops onto trampolines? And dressed up kittens set to Abba music? We would be up to our eyeballs in Taliban in no time....

[wilsonveteran]

You all really have no understanding except your left wing beliefs. This is a regime that kills women after they are raped. Kills children that do not adhere to their beliefs. This is a war against a very wicked regime. We did not let Hitler talk to the American people During WWII or did we let Khrushchev, Stalin or Mao talk to the American people. Just because we are nice to them they will not be nice to us. They will see it as weakness and do what they can to kill innocent people. Even now they target their own people more than they target Amercian forces. Remember this is where the attacks on us on 9/11 orginated. You all talk about basic human rights. Well what about the human rights of the people the Talaban kill. What about the human rights of the women who they enslave. What about the Human rights of the Children they kill. Wake up Progressives this is a war.

[Hokis329]

Khrushchev is not in the same boat with Stalin. Come on now.

[wilsonveteran]

You could be right Stalin killed millions of his own people Khrushchev only killed tens of thousands.

[Tulka2]

There used to be a vaudeville character called "The Banana Man".

The Banana man was a sad and penniless hobo in a coat. The joke was he would wordlessly reach into his coat and pull out one damn thing after another, from huge bunches of bananas to dining room chairs. I was a kid, don't ask me how he did it.

I think of the Banana man as i read this neo-con list of why we must smush a 17th century Taliban culture into the mud. The women? Oh, come on! We did not go into Afghanistan for the sake of another culture's women. When pigs fly. We went there to catch Al Qaeda and our enemy is now in Pakistan....maybe.

Al Qaeda are criminals, not native family men. We need real intelligence got on the ground and then high-tech swat teams to go get the criminal enterprise, where ever they are hiding. Which, as far as i can tell, is just as likely to be Mexico or Minnesota as it is to be Pakistan.

[wilsonveteran]

How naive are you. The Talaban aided Al Queda in the attack on 9/11. The Talaban are ruthless thugs and will kill thousands of innocent people for their extreme religion. Where is that bleeding heart of a liberal when it comes to the oppression of another people. We are there why not finish the job. If our great President would listen to his Generals the military could do this but instead he hampers them. The General on the ground asked for 40,000 more troops in August so in Oct the President sends 14,000 more. If you want to make Afghanastan stable then let the Military do its job.

[samuelberg]

Tulka2 watches too much "24."

[KIVPossum]

I had forgotten the Banana Man.

Your analogy is good.

We go into Afghanistan to hit Al Qaeda, who move out, so we decide to take on the Taliban, then we decide to create a democracy. Each month there is a new reason we are there.

Just as Iraq - WMD, get rid of a despot, build a democracy.

Let's face it, America is a big war machine. We have a military budget equal to the rest of the world combined. We have to take it our and test drive it occasionally. The drives have been good most of the time, except for the 60s and 70s, and we parked the car in the garage. We take it out again in this century and discover you can not run in 21st century traffic with a 19th century car.

We might have a fine war machine with the best technology available, but our military minds are stuck in the Napoleonic war.

[WilliamTheV]

Except that now the Taliban is no longer in control of a country, they are wandering between Pakistan and Afghanistan, not as a government, but as an extremist group. Since the Taliban is an unconventional enemy, conventional tactics will not be effective in wiping them out. This is not "liberal" ideology, this is fact. Unlike in previous wars, our enemy is not a country or rogue state, it is a extra-national faction of religious zealots. therefore we have to work with the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to eliminate the terrorist cells without harming civilians, if/ when we mistakenly harm civilians we radicalize a previously moderate population and fill them with anti- American sentiment, much like Nixon's bombing of Cambodia played out. Don't blame the liberals, blame reality.

[wilsonveteran]

Once we leave them alone they will take control again. We need to wipe out this threat now. Our Military can do it and yes they have the training and knowledge to fight a counter insurgency such as this. As far as killing civilians the military has spent billions on smart weapons just so they can minimalize the amount of civilian casualties. Unfortunately there are and will always be some civilian casualties but the U.S. kills one tenth of the Civilians the Talaban do

[imworking4me]

Yes, no doubt all the macho right wingers will protect us: just like they did when 9/11 happened on their watch, and like they did when they "found" all those WMD's in Iraq--the country that didn't attack us. Or how about the $1+trillion spent in that same Iraq to establish a Jeffersonian democracy, while for seven years, neglecting the Taliban and Al-Queda in Afganistan so that they could consolidate and resurge.

Oh, please protect us, glorious Repugnants and right-wingers! You've really shown us wimpy progressives how "effective" you are at the National Security game!

[imworking4me]

p.s.: and don't forget to take care of Stalin and Mao--on Halloween, when they rise from there graves!

[wilsonveteran]

The left has done such a good job. Doing away with the missile shield. Sending 14,000 troops when the Generals ask for 40,000. Just before the serge in Iraq the left said the war was lost. But we took control again. If it was up to the left we would just apologize to the world disarm completely and wish no one would attack us again.

[samuelberg]

Clinton sat on Monica's thumbs while Al Qaeda gathered steam and established themselves into the world wide terrorist brand. World Trade Center 93. Embassy Bombings '98. USS Cole 2000. If only Bill would have done his job, our nation would not know a Taliban from a

[frameric]

all right already...we get it...you want to blow them up as soon as possible, preferably yesterday. there is no quick fix dude....this pres thinks before he acts....so just settle down and get you head and your facts strait.

[witchband]

Okay. So our propaganda shuts down their propaganda and we try to out-propaganda their propaganda with our superior propaganda. But if I understand it correctly, the Taliban had a pretty secure and steady working government system before we attacked Afghanistan to punish those Al-Qaida guys from Saudi Arabia. What's missing here?

[fodel]

here's some more propaganda for you: public executions, acid in the face of schoolgirls, women beaten on the streets, blowing up 1000 year old Buddha statues.. oh, and start growing your beard.

[FHTB]

...not to mention the destruction of countless historical and cultural landmarks in the country, the banning of centuries-old native music, the destruction of art, you name it, these animals/cretins did it. There is no defense for the radically wrong ideology of the Taliban, none.

[pnc]

I really hope you read and take to heart what Fodel and FHTB wrote. It is deeply disturbing to me that we have been at war with the Taliban for 8 yrs and you are so ignorant of what they stand for. This was one of the most corrupt, tyrannical, oppressive regime in the history of the world, and that is not hyperbole.

[deepfreezevideo]

Why should the Taliban be allowed access to the internet?
Why should ANYONE in those countries be allowed access to the internet?

[witchband]

WHAT????????????

[YoJymbo]

The Internet is AMERICAN!!!!

SARCASM

[WilliamTheV]

actually British:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

[blutigeroo]

Excuse me but people in "those" countries are human beings just like yourself, what position do Americans have that enables them to deprive them of communication means?
The Taliban have their propaganda and the US government has its propaganda. Essentially, there is no difference between the propaganda made by the Taliban and the US government--both serve to promote violence and hatred.
Should everyone in the US be denied access to the net?

Or we could do as you say and somehow block internet access to all the countries that America does not like for some reason or another. Gee, that's really going to help the American cause and rid the world of Anti-American sentiment.

[jamiso]

While I get your premise (and I could care less about their youtube channel, its funny), it makes no sense.

"The Taliban have their propaganda and the US government has its propaganda."

Ya, and we hates the Taliban, therefor hurting their efforts would be a logical thing to do
This isnt a game or something. Its like you're arguing 'hay, they shoot us, and we shoot them....what right would we have to deny them bullets".

Screw it, the NSF, DoD, and a bunch of other American government institutions created the thing, and the companies in question are American companies....I dont see how they would 'have no right to prevent the taliban from using them'.... anymore than it would be out of our rights to prevent the taliban from using FedEx.

I'm not saying they should... I think it is a million giggles listening to religious nut jobs and making fun of them...so rock on, but drop the angle eye view nonsense, I always thought that thinking was so stupid

[Michael Zentz]

I'm down, but not as extreme. don't hate the people in the countries. They have as much to do with the Taliban as you did with the Bush Administration. Get my point?

[wadenelson1]

Are you kidding?

The Internet was designed to route around exactly the sort of "damage" you're talking about --- someone trying to intentionally disconnect someone else.

[AgentMuu]

Good job Zakaria and Huffpost, let's increase the Taliban's hit count. If they even know what that is.

[FHTB]

Interesting that a group that champions primitivism like the Taliban can engage in modern technologies...something a few centuries beyond the capacity of their reasoning or rationality...BTW...why the music...I thought they characterize it as anti-Islamic, if you can call their brand of religious extremism related in any way to Islam.

[petrosbasileus]

I understand this is a blog, but grammar still matters... "It's"? Really?