FAS

OSC Views Taliban Propaganda Video

12.17.09 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

A Taliban video distributed last month documented the purported seizure of an abandoned U.S. military base by Taliban forces in a remote province of Afghanistan.  The 7-minute video was analyzed in a recent report (pdf) from the DNI Open Source Center.

The video “glorifies the Taliban victory by highlighting the group’s triumphant entry into the ‘captured base,’ the symbolic burning of an American flag, and the [local Taliban governor] touring the area.”  A copy of the OSC report, obtained by Secrecy News, may be found here.

The OSC report was discussed by Bill Gertz of the Washington Times in his Inside the Ring column today (the second item).  Other aspects of the video were previously reported in Wired’s Danger Room and Al-Jazeera.

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