Posted on 10/12/2001 9:47:27 PM PDT by tomball
Saturday October 13, 2001
The Guardian
The Taliban are to open their doors to the western media for the first time today in a propaganda initiative that is an alarming prospect for the US and British governments, which have been taken aback by the scale of the backlash within Muslim countries over the last few days.
TV crews and reporters are to be taken to a ruined village where about 200 civilians are alleged to have been killed by a rogue US missile.
Footage of civilian casualties shown round the world, especially in Muslim countries, is the most potent weapon left in the Taliban armoury after almost a week of bombing by US and British forces. The US and Britain fear that the sight of dead Muslims could be the catalyst for more serious and more widespread rioting.
In a rerun of the rows over casualty figures during the Kosovo and Iraq bombings, Clare Short, the international development secretary, last night disputed the Taliban figures. "It's not true," she said. "We've all seen reports of damage, but clearly there's propaganda and claims of casualties that are not true."
She added: "There's a danger that [reports of civilian casualties] will be believed in the wider Muslim world."
Her department last night welcomed the Taliban's invitation to western television crews as an opportunity to provide independent verification.
The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been slow until now to exploit the propaganda value of allowing western broadcasters to show the aftermath of bombing.
But yesterday he abruptly overturned a month-long ban on western journalists and two convoys of TV crews and agency reporters, including CNN, are to visit Karam, near Jalalabad.
"We are still digging bodies out of the rubble," said Zadra Azam, the Taliban's deputy governor of Nangarhar province, which includes Karam.
The Taliban propaganda initiative comes at a bad juncture for the US and British governments, which are still trying to absorb the blow delivered by Osama bin Laden's videotaped interview last Sunday.
Conscious of the extent to which they are in danger of losing the propaganda battle, a renewed political and diplomatic effort will be made next week by the US and British governments to try to woo Muslim opinion.
Before the attack began on Sunday, a British government source predicted that it was not beyond the realms of possibility that the Taliban would move bodies to a bomb site from elsewhere for propaganda purposes.
It was not clear last night why Karam would have been targeted by American military planners, though it is near the town of Darunta, where Osama bin Laden used to operate a complex of training camps, including one called Abu Khabab that focused on preparing chemicals, poisons and toxins.
Some sources have suggested that Karam is the site of a former mojahedin training camp, which was used in the 1980s by Afghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet Union but was abandoned in 1992. Since then, the camp has been occupied by 60 to 70 poor landless families. They appear to be have been the victims of Wednesday night's strike.
Taliban officials will escort the TV correspondents through the Khyber Pass to the border at Torkham. They will then be taken to Karam before being driven back to Pakistan in the evening.
The Afghan Islamic Press agency, a news agency close to the Taliban, last night claimed that at least 160 bodies had been recovered. The Taliban and neighbouring villagers were digging them out. "Most of them were children and women," it said. More than 1,000 livestock were also killed.
The Taliban said yesterday that during Thursday night's raids another 10 people died and several homes were destroyed in Argandab, near the Taliban's southern headquarters in Kandahar. More homes were destroyed in Karaga, north of Kabul, they added
1) 5000+ dead at WTC, 200+ at the Pentagon shouldn't warrant a reponse to protect our borders (a constitutional duty, btw)
2) War produces civilian casulaties
3) The US doesn't intentionally target civilians, unlike terrorists
4) Terrorists cannot be negotiated with-- they are delusional fanatics
5) The Taliban are one of the most heinous, vile regimes that exist on the planet, routinely killing and oppressing its people well beyond tyranny
Frankly, I'm sick of "casualties". One Reuters report yesterday mentioned that, "Afghans cannot sleep for all the bombing". Pity them, indeed.
Just show some RAWA clips of women being beaten for walking too loudly, or killed for leaving their homes. Just show some video of fantatic muslims destroying their own streets, cars, and buildings in Pakistan like a troop of monkeys rabid with the smell of meat in their nostrils. Just show those towers being toppled again. That'll suffice to keep American anger curdled for war against terrorists.
I know I'll never forget.
Our leaders appear to have no idea about how to fight back. Bin Laden has about an hour and a half propaganda piece showing dead Muslim children, Muslim women being beaten by Israelis, and American servicemen hitting Muslims. It shows children "starving" and dying of disease in Iraq. We do nothing - except censor the reality of what happended in NYC, the Pentagon, and on the aircraft which were purposefully destroyed.
We should have a documentary showing dead civilians all over the world. We should show Saddam's palaces which cost $billions being built, while Iraqi children died. We should show the faces of the people burning to death in the WTC buildings. We should show the innocent civilians jumping to their deaths from a thousand feet above the ground. We should show the handcuffed, severed hands which landed on top of a building near the WTC. We should show dead Israeli children. We should say that Muslims are unwilling to make a stand against those who purposefully attack innocent civilians. We should do something - other than sit on our hands and watch the world go to hell.
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