Taliban Narratives

TALIBAN NARRATIVES THOMAS H. JOHNSON with Matthew DuPee and Wali Shaaker Taliban Narratives The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict A A Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Copyright © Thomas H. Johnson, Matthew DuPee and Wali Shaaker 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Thomas H. Johnson, Matthew DuPee and Wali Shaaker. Taliban Narratives: The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict. ISBN: 9780190840600 Printed in India on acid-free paper I would like to dedicate this book to Lt. Col. John Darin (JD) Loftis, a student, friend, and outstanding military officer who was murdered while helping the people of Afghanistan whom he loved and respected dearly. I also dedicate this book to Ryan and Courtney, whose love and inspiration maintain me. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix List of Figures and Tables xv Foreword Ambassador Peter Tomsen xvii Preface xxv 1. Introduction 1 2. An Overview of Taliban and Other Afghan Insurgent Stories and an Assessment of their Master Narratives 15 3. Target Audiences of Afghan Narratives and Stories 35 4. Taliban and Afghan Insurgent Magazines, Circulars, and Newsletters 43 5. The aliban’sT Use of Shabnamah (Night Letters) 53 6. The aliban’sT Use of the Internet, Social Media Video, Radio Stations, and Graffiti 85 7. The fghans’A and Taliban’s Use of Poetry and Taranas 107 8. TheL ayeha, the Taliban Code of Conduct 171 9. Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) Propaganda Activities 195 10. The nitedU States’ Afghan Information and PSYOP Campaign and a Comparison with the Taliban’s Campaign 217 11. Conclusions 265 Appendix A: How Afghans Identify the Types of Taliban 285 Appendix B: Summary of Taliban Night Letters, 2008–10 289 Appendix C: HIG Official Peace Proposal and Translation 293 Notes 299 Bibliography 345 Index 365 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was initially conceived at the US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)’s Program for Culture and Conflict Studies (CCS), which I direct. The research associates and assistants on the program played an indispensable role in the conceptualization of data and notions concerning many of the analyses presented in this book. I would like first to thank Matthew DuPee. I came across Matt’s tremendous self-taught knowledge of Afghanistan by reading his articles published on the influential blog, theLong War Journal. I found his articles full of data and knowledge concerning Afghanistan that appeared in no other media outlet. It was very evident that he had valuable Afghan con- tacts and used them extremely effectively. I was so impressed with his scholarship and his writing that I eventually contacted and offered him a research position at CCS and a stipend to enter the MA program in National Security Affairs at NPS. He proved to be an outstanding student, graduating with highest honors, as well as being a tremendous colleague and researcher. His self-initiative, smarts, and outstanding analytic and writing capabilities proved invaluable. He co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journal articles with me and made invaluable contributions to nearly every chapter presented in this book. He now serves as an important Department of Defense Afghan analyst. The country is fortunate to have his services. I would also like to thank Wali Ahmed Shaaker, an important and well- known Afghan-American poet who was initially hired as a translator for the CCS. I quickly learned that his intellectual tool chest relative to Afghanistan was vast. He basically taught me the essence of Afghan poetry and its many variants, as well as important Afghan poets that we needed to consider in assessing the role of poetry in Afghan IO. Wali’s research was critical for those sections of this book that deal with Afghan and Taliban poetry. His transla- ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tions of Taliban materials, especially poetry, proved extremely important and are presented in this book. In addition, his support of my field research in Afghanistan proved extremely valuable. Other CCS members also played critical roles in the research presented here. I would like to thank especially Ahmad Waheed and Amina Kator- Mumbarez. Ahmad, a Kandahari Afghan, now a US citizen, who initially came to study in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, helped to bring Afghan nuance to almost all of the analyses presented in this book. He served as a CCS Research Associate for over five years, and his contributions to the research presented here were numerous. Like the other CCS members sug- gested above, his self-initiative and dedication was infectious. Like Matt DuPee, Ahmad served as my co-author for peer-reviewed journal articles on a variety on subjects relevant to Taliban information operations. He translated most of the Pashto materials assessed in this book, including the hundreds of shabnamah whose summaries are presented in Appendix B (available online at www.hurstpublishers.com/book/taliban-narratives). Amina Kator- Mumbarez, another Afghan-American, was hired shortly after her graduation from the University of California in Berkeley where she organized important conferences and workshops on Afghanistan. Amina served the CCS as an invaluable colleague, proving to be a very gifted writer and researcher. She, like the other dedicated CCS colleagues, played a critical role in assessments of Taliban IO materials, data collection, analysis, and review. Keely M. Fahoum, a former NPS student, also played a significant role in educating me concerning the early US IO and PSYOP campaigns in Afghanistan. She had a wealth of knowledge concerning early OEF IO and PSYOP, some of which is reflected in this book. Elizabeth (Betsy) Hulme, an outstanding student intern from the University of North Carolina, made valuable contributions during the final push of finishing the book. Finally, I would like to thank Matthew Dearing, one of the first CCS research assistants, for supporting some of the early research relevant to this book. Very importantly, most of these CCS scholars proved also to be tremendous friends and colleagues and played significant roles in the production of this book on their own time. This book also benefited from conversations with NPS’s Center of Excellence for Information Dominance. I would like to thank especially Professors Hy Rothstein and John Arquilla. I was told that John once stated that the war in Afghanistan would eventually become a “battle of poetry,” and I believe the reasoning underlying this statement is quite prophetic and extremely relevant to the major thesis of this book. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Chris Mason, Harold Ingram, Graeme Smith, and Larry Goodson also helped to frame my ideas on many subjects presented here. This group of Afghan scholars regularly communicate with each other and me via emails discussing a variety of important Afghan subjects and personalities. They are also all valued friends. Chris Mason played an especially important role in my understanding of Afghan messaging and narratives, as well as the naiveté of US messaging and information operations. I would also like to thank all my students at NPS that I have had the oppor- tunity to interact with over the years. Many of these students have had multi- ple deployments to Afghanistan, and their experiences taught me valuable lessons concerning Afghanistan. In addition, many of my students had unique and real world experience with information operations conducted by both the US and the Taliban that proved important to developing my knowledge and ideas concerning Afghan IO. The research presented would not have been possible without the data I gathered from numerous individuals interviewed over the course of my research. Such individuals included (please note that position and ranks, where known, reflect those at the time of the interview): Joanna Nathan (Senior Analyst, International Crisis Group), Joe Auger (Local Stability Initiatives Team Leader, DAI), Col. Woodsworth (Canadian PRT), Maj. Perey (Canadian PRT), Karen Swails (USAID officer), Sharif Noorzai, Dr Jouri, Whit Mason (Regional Justice Coordinator, UNAMA), Sarah Chayes, Louis Palu (freelance photographer and journalist), Abdul Bari (tribal elder from Maiwand, Ishaqzai Pashtun), Mohammadullah Barakzai (tribal elder from Panjwayi), Nimat Arghandabi

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