Taliban waging effective propaganda war

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- The Taliban has stepped up use of visual arts on the Internet and television in a campaign to win the Afghan propaganda war, officials say.

In its war of minds against NATO, the Taliban has made hay with often misleading images paraded across the computer screen, pointing to alleged military successes under a banner proclaiming "Voice of Jihad" and a ticker tape entitled "Hot News."

This is the Web site of the Taliban, who have banned TV and the Internet, yet since 2006 have been harnessing that same despised technology in an escalating campaign of propaganda, The Times of London reported Thursday.

NATO appears to have no effective answer to counter the propaganda campaign, observers say.

"Information is everything. This is a war of perception played out in the minds of the Afghan people," says Rear Admiral Greg Smith, a leading communications expert in the U.S. Navy.

As well as internet sites, the Taliban produces magazines, dozens of DVDs of attacks and hundreds of different song cassettes, mournful chants promoting Taliban heroes and martyrs.