Information Operations

Women's Radio Station - Destroyed. The Taliban ransacked the Kaihan Radio Station during its brief stay in Kunduz City during October. The radio station was backed by U.S. and Western funding and produced programs on peace building and understanding the law as well as addressing topics on religious issues, women's rights, and cultural taboos. The very expensive equipment needed to run a radio station was either destroyed and taken by the Taliban - including transmitter, mixer, microphones, televisions, headphones, and computers. Read more in "An Afghan women's radio station becomes a Taliban casualty", The Washington Post, by Sudarsan Raghavan, November 16, 2015.

Article - New Narrative Needed for Afghanistan. Abdullah Ahmadzai, country representative for The Asia Foundation in Afghanistan, is concerned for the future of the young people of his country. He sees the failing economy and deteriorating security situation as a signs of despair for the nations youth. He believes that ". . . Afghans need a clear, credible vision of the future articulated to them; . . ." Read more in "Afghans Need a New Narrative", Thomson Reuters Foundation, November 17, 2015.

Leonie Industries Cut Loose. Leonie Industries lost out in bidding to SOSi International last month for the Pentagon's contract for propaganda. Read more in "Propaganda contractor dumped by U.S. Army", USA Today, November 18, 2015.

Inside the ISIS Media Machine. The efforts by the western nations to counter the ISIS information operations campaign has been overwhelming unsuccessful. Read "Inside the surreal world of the Islamic State's propaganda machine", The Washington Post, November 20, 2015.

ISIS "Going to Darknet". Many of the postings on Facebook, Twitter, and other Internet sites are taken down after discovery. To combat this ISIS is now posting on the "Darknet". Read more in "After Paris, ISIS moves propaganda machine to Darknet", CSOonline, November 15, 2015.

Countering ISIS Propaganda. "The Islamic State (or ISIS) has recruited an estimated 20,000 fighters since 2011." This recruitment is aided significantly by the use of propaganda and social media. Attempts to countermessage ISIS have largely been unsuccessful - due to the "sheer size of the ISIS communications footprint" and limits in size and scope of countermeasures. Read more in an article by Alberto M. Fernandez, Vice President of the Middle East Media Research Institute, entitled Four ways to counter ISIS propaganda more effectively, Brookings.edu, November 16, 2015.

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