Leonie Industries Under Fire for Afghan Contract and Not Paying Taxes

Leonie Industries has been awarded a lucrative contract to conduct Information Operations in Afghanistan - to the tune of $20 million. However, the two principal owners owe $4 million in federal taxes. Two senators are interested in whether the defense department has tried to recoup the federal taxes.  Read more in "Two senators target government contractors with back taxes", USA Today, March 8, 2012.

Radio In A Box - RIAB Essential Tool in Information Operations Fight in Afghanistan

The Radio in a Box or RIAB has proved to be one of the most useful tools the U.S. has deployed thus far in the counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan. These RIABs are run by Afghans, are low-cost, and very sustainable to operate in harsh and remote areas. In addition, the Radio In A Box provides a method for ISAF and the Afghan government to get a positive message out to the Afghan population. Read more about the RIABs in the link below:

http://www.afghanwarnews.info/IO/RIAB.htm

Military's Public Relations Struggle in Afghanistan

The U.S. military continues to provide positive reports about the war in Afghanistan.  However it is hard for the media to verify these reports.  Read more on this topic in "The PR challenge in Afghanistan", The Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 2012.

Analysis of Afghan Reaction to Koran Burnings

The Institute for the Study of War has published an analysis of the Afghan reaction to the inadvertent burning of the Korans that took place in February 2012. The report can be found online. See "The Afghan Response to the 2012 Koran Burning Incident" published on March 2, 2012 by Paraag Shukla and Isaac Hock.

Leonie Industries - Information Operations Contract Firm - Under Investigation

The top contractor in Afghanistan, Leonie Industries, that provides information operations services to the U.S. military is under investigation for tax evasion. Reportedly the firm has not paid $4 million in federal taxes despite being awarded Army contracts that may surpass $130 million.  Read more in "Pentagon urged to investigate information operations", Federal Times, March 2, 2012.  It is a common view that the U.S. military has been really ineffective in the information operations arena both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Afghan Anger Over the Quran Burnings - an Explanation

Stephen M. Walt in a piece published by Foreign Policy (March 1, 2012) provides an explanation of why the Afghan demonstrations and riots over the Quran burnings are taking place. He asks us to look at the situation through Afghan eyes - where you would see troops of a foreign power occupying your country for over ten years. Read his article "What the Quran burnings tell us".

PSYOP Used against Visiting Officials? Military Says No

The military command in Afghanistan says it is investigating claims that LTG Caldwell used psychological operations personnel (Lt.Col. Michael Holmes) to prepare briefings for visiting lawmakers.  However, initial reports indicate that this investigation that will not reveal much.  The United States Army Special Operations Command says that the primary officer asked to prepare the briefs did not receive any training in this PSYOP from the United States Army JFK Special Warfare Center. There are other reports that indicate he received training in PSYOP at other military locations; but probably as part of a Information Operations course. It does appear that the officer is an "Information Operations Officer" or FA30.  The story was first broke by Michael Hastings writing for The Rolling Stone magazine.  See "Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on US Senators" - February 23, 2011.

Several news media outlets are commenting on the story.  The general consensus appears to be that the article was a hatchet job.  Others have indicated that the article contained a number of inaccuracies - one being the confusion between Psychological Operations and Information Operations.  Then again - was it inappropriate to use an IO team to research info on visiting CODELs?  Hmmmmmm.

 "Army: Gen. Caldwell's Accuser Had No Psy-Ops Training", The Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2011.

"Army manipulated visiting VIPs in Afghanistan", Afghanistan Crossroads, February 24, 2011.

Afghan Poll Shows Mixed Results in US Efforts in Afghanistan

A new poll recently conducted by major news services (The Washington Post, ABC News, BBC, and ARD) has mixed results. 

"More Afghans are pessimistic about the direction, less confident in the ability of the United States and its allies to provide security and more willing to negotiate with the Taliban than they were a year ago, according to a new poll conducted in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces."

Surprisingly the poll results are positive in Kandahar and Helmand province where most of the coalition efforts are focused and most of the heavy fighting is occurring.  Read more in "Afghan poll shows falling confidence in U.S. efforts to secure country", The Washington Post, December 6, 2010.

Latest Poll Results Prompt Calls for Quitting Afghanistan (International Council of Security and Development)

A recent poll conducted by the International Council on Security and Development (ICSD) has prompted some to call for an early withdrawal from Afghanistan.  It is obvious from the poll results that we are losing the information operations (or do we now call it "strategic communications"?) battle.  Read a recent columnist's opinion of this poll and what we should do in "It's braver to quit Afghanistan now", The Guardian, November 21, 2010.

The following is the text from the website of the ICSD which provides some background information on the poll conducted in October 2010. 

"In October 2010 the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) interviewed 1500 Afghan men in southern and northern Afghanistan. In Helmand and Kandahar, 1000 men were interviewed. In Panjshir and Parwan, 500 men were interviewed.

The two clusters of provinces chosen by ICOS reflect very different ethnic and political situations. Panjshir and Parwan are dominated by ethnic Tajiks, and were the stronghold of the anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud during the civil war of the 1990s. They are now usually regarded as amongst the more peaceful areas of Afghanistan. Helmand and Kandahar, which are heavily Pashtun, were the homeland of the Taliban movement, and today are at the centre of the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Kandahar and Helmand, along with Kunar province in the north-east, see 60% of the insurgent attacks across Afghanistan, according to NATO-ISAF. Therefore the ICOS research in these southern provinces provides a unique insight into the most relevant cohort of the Afghan population, in the most relevant areas of the country.

The questions assessed a range of subjects including interviewees’ perceptions of NATO-ISAF and the wider international community, their attitudes towards the Taliban, and their opinions on international development efforts in their community. This ICOS field research offers a unique insight on the attitudes of the Afghan people on these issues."

The poll results can be downloaded from the ICSD at the link below:

http://www.icosgroup.net/modules/reports/afghanistan_transition_missing_variables

Poll Results: Afghans Still Wary of Foreign Troops

A poll conducted by Canadian researcher Norine MacDonald has revealed some interesting information.  Only 8% of those Afghans polled realize that 9/11 is the reason that the United States invaded Afghanistan.  Many do not understand what we are trying to accomplish in Afghanistan and view us as foreign invaders occupying their country.  Read more on this topic in "How to win over the Afghans", The Washington Post, November 21, 2010.

"The Trust Deficit" - Afghan Perceptions of the Coalition Forces

A new report has been published by the Open Society Foundations entitled "The Trust Deficit: The Impact of Local Perceptions on Policy in Afghanistan" (October 7, 2010).  It is posted on the Soros.org website at the link below (an Adobe Acrobat PDF file).  The document, based on interviews and research, has highlighted the fact that we (the coalition) are NOT executing our "information operations" campaign very well; and as a result, we seem to be losing the fight for Afghan public support.  In addition to a faulty Information Operations (IO) campaign (or are we calling it "strategic communications" now?) we are conducting operations and activities that alienate the Afghan population (airstrikes that kill civilians, night raids on innocent families, support of corrupt Afghan officials, detention policies, etc.).  After defining the problem the report then goes on to make several recommendations on how to improve the situation.

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/mena/articles_publications/publications/policy-afghanistan-20101007/perceptions-20101007.pdf

Information Operations in Afghanistan

The Taliban is way out in front of the coalition forces in the use of information operations.  Considering our technological advantages in this area and the humongous amounts of money we are pouring into this country one wonders why this is so.  It does appear that the coalition forces are trying to do something about this.  Read a recent news article on this topic that describes some of the radio programming Radio Free Europe has done and the distribution of small radios that has taken place.  See "US-funded station distributes thousands of radios to counter Taliban propaganda", Fox News, September 17, 2010.