[cr-india] Taleban Radio

[George Lessard]

Afghanistan
Finding Taleban Radio Up to US, Pakistani, Afghan Intelligence - Afghan paper
April 26, 2005

Text of editorial in English entitled: "The Taleban are reactivating 
Radio Shari'ah" by Afghan newspaper The Kabul Times on 26 April

The Taleban have warned that they are reactivating Radio Shari'ah to 
foul mouth the Afghan government and the coalition forces in 
Afghanistan.

The presidential spokesman, Jawid Ludin, has told newsmen that the 
government is not worried by this because all the people have 
suffered under the Taleban regime in one way or another during the 
six years of their reign of terror and they would not be beguiled by 
their baseless propaganda.

On the other hand, the US-led commander of coalition forces, Gen 
[David] Barno, has declared that his troops would put out of action 
the Taleban radio transmitter wherever it may be.

And the Taleban have retorted that they have more than one 
transmitter and would start broadcasting, weather-permitting.

This repartee gives rise to a number of questions:

1. The venue where broadcasting would take place from.

2. The type of equipment they would be using.

3. The professional training of their radio engineers.

4. Their source of funding.

As to the venue where they would broadcast from, there is no doubt 
that the coalition will locate it with the help of advanced 
eavesdropping devices.

It can be also easily know out the Taleban transmitter by bombing. 
[Sentence as received] But it should be ascertained what type of 
equipment they intend to use, where they have obtained them from and 
at what price.

No radio station can be run without the help and cooperation of 
professional engineers. The Taleban, being a bunch of mullahs, are 
completely ignorant about engineering and those who are engineers 
will never voluntarily turn into Taleban unless they are insane.

Now where have they got their engineers from and who pays them? Since 
the US has frozen the Al-Qa'idah and other dubious accounts in 
various banks, who is financing the Taleban to run a radio station 
even from a derelict building?

These are the issues to be dealt with by the CIA, the ISI [Pakistan's 
Intern-Intelligence Service] and the Afghan intelligence.

The ISI must be in the know because it has been dealing with the 
Taleban since their inception. If they claim that the Taleban have 
been carrying out their clandestine operations from Wazirestan on the 
border with Afghanistan where Pakistan does not enjoy much influence, 
this may be true to some extent but surely the ISI has some informers 
to find answers to the above questions. There is no need to deploy 
further troops in the area for this purpose.

President Musharraf has time and again declared his resolve to fight 
terrorism of which both Pakistan and Afghanistan are suffering while 
the Al-Qa'idah and its stooges, the Taleban, are the fountainhead of 
terrorism in the entire Middle East including Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

And the ISI is expected to fall into line and find out, with the help 
of the CIA, the needful answers to the above questions and leave the 
rest to its Afghan and American colleagues.

Source: The Kabul Times, Kabul, in English 26 Apr 05
(BBC Monitoring)

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Afghanistan
Taleban Radio Restarts Broadcasting in Afghanistan
April 18, 2005

Excerpt from report by Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Peshawar, 18 April: The Taleban say that Radio Shariat Zhagh [Voice 
of Shari'ah] has resumed broadcasting recently. The Taleban spokesman 
Mofti Latifollah Hakimi told the Afghan Islamic Press this afternoon: 
"After a six-month break, Radio Shari'ah Zhagh broadcast for one hour 
this morning from 0600 to 0700 local time in Dari and Pashto 
languages."

Hakimi added: "It will also broadcast for one hour this evening from 
1800 to 1900 local time and the bulletin will carry the message of 
Amir al-Momenin Mullah Omar." Giving details about this radio 
station, Hakimi said: "The Taleban own three radio stations. One is 
now reopened and the others will start functioning soon." He said the 
radio could be heard at FM 100.8 and 100.9 and also at AM and SW 
waves.

Hakimi also elaborated on the objectives of the source and explained: 
"Foreign radios claim independence and freedom, but they are not 
actually free. Therefore, we established this radio station, through 
which we could report to people on the realities and facts in all the 
cities and villages of the country and introduce them the goals and 
objectives of the Islamic Movement of Taleban."

In reply to a question how they managed to set up these radio 
stations, Hakimi said: "We imported the equipment from abroad and 
Afghan engineers here set up the stations."

In response to another question, he replied: "Shari'ah Zhagh 
broadcast from an unidentified location within Afghanistan and the 
other three radio stations will hopefully begin broadcasting in the 
foreseeable future."

It is worth mentioning that Radio Afghanistan, based in Kabul, was 
renamed as Shari'ah Zhagh under the Taleban rule. [Passage omitted on 
radio broadcast under the Taleban regime]

Source: Afghan Islamic Press news agency, Peshawar, in Pashto 1115 
gmt 18 Apr 05 (via BBCM via DXLD 5-066)

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Afghanistan
Taliban Launch Clandestine Radio Station in Afghanistan
April 18, 2005

Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas launched a clandestine radio station 
today, broadcasting anti-government commentaries and Islamic hymns 
from a mobile transmitter. Called "Shariat Shagh", or Voice of 
Shariat, after the station the Taliban ran while in power, the 
broadcast can be heard in five southern provinces, including the 
former regime's old power base of Kandahar.

"We launched the broadcast today through a mobile facility," said 
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi. "It goes on the air between six 
and seven o'clock in the mornings and same time in the evenings," he 
said by telephone from an undisclosed location. Hakimi said the 
Taliban, fighting an insurgency in the south and east of the country 
since they were driven from power in late 2001, needed their own 
voice because the world's media were pro-American. Many Afghans 
listen to the BBC and Voice of America which broadcast in the 
country's two main languages, Pashto and Dari. In addition to 
government-run radio, numerous small, private stations have sprung 
up, many funded by aid donors.

As well as Islamic hymns and anti-government commentaries, the 
Taliban station also criticised US and other foreign troops operating 
in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted.Asked what the Taliban 
would do if US forces detected and destroyed their transmitter, 
Hakimi said they would set up another.
(<http://medianetwork.blogspot.com>http://medianetwork.blogspot.com 
via B.Trutenau-LTU Mar 18, 2005 in DXplorer-ML)

RE: Clandestine in Afghanistan - SW?

Seemingly so. A later report from the Afghan Islamic Press news 
agency via BBC Monitoring quotes Hakimi as saying "The Taleban own 
three radio stations. One is now reopened and the others will start 
functioning soon." He said the radio could be heard at FM 100.8 and 
100.9 and also at AM and SW waves."
(A.Sennit-HOL Apr 18, 2005 in DXLD-ML)


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Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to:

CLANDESTINE RADIO WATCH 181
April 30, 2005

CRW is the biweekly online magazine for ClandestineRadio.com, the 
Web's only portal on clandestine broadcasting and subversive media.

<http://www.ClandestineRadio.com>http://www.ClandestineRadio.com

The full online issue can be read at:
<http://www.ClandestineRadio.com/crw/crw.php?id=241>http://www.ClandestineRadio.com/crw/crw.php?id=241

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