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Radio chatter seen pointing to weakened Taliban
The Pakistan Army says that communication intercepts show that the Swat insurgents are on the run. "Hello? Hello? Is anybody listening?" Claiming access to a log of the intercepted messages, The New York Times has reported that they point to low morale among the Taliban. "Oh, woe is us!" The paper said American officials were as frustrated as Pakistani citizens that while the military seemed able to monitor Taliban leaders, including Mullah Fazlullah, it remained unable or unwilling to kill or capture them. Unwilling. If you can monitor them, you can locate them, at least approximately. Depending on the frequency and transmitter strength, you can locate them within a 100-yard square.
They're not serious. They're trying to conserve their "strategic reserve" so they can use it again when they're regained the upper hand. The Taliban chatter in recent weeks has sounded gloomy, according to the log seen by the Times. Amid some inspirational words and rallying cries there were many lost, hungry and isolated voices. A Khazara villager said Taliban leaders gathered locals in the Minara mosque shortly before he and his family fled, demanding a gun, a son, or 50,000 rupees. He said few obliged. "I got a dollar. How about dat?" "Gimme." "Can I have cab fare home?" "All I got is this dollar you gimme." The Taliban are careful not to name locations. Instead they use a system of code names. The military believes that top leaders, including Fazlullah, are still hiding in Swat. A military official said the operation had reduced the coverage area for the FM radio run by Fazlullah to 15 percent of the original. But for some reason they still can't pin it down using RDF. I ain't impressed. According to one transcript, a man calling himself Jawad was heard saying that those who no longer wanted to fight should leave, but not a raise white flag as some people were doing. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-04 |
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