| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Afghanistan | ||
| Britain's latest weapon against the Taliban? 'Video diaries' filmed by mobile phone | ||
| 2008-10-10 | ||
| The latest weapon against the Taliban has been revealed - and it's not a new type of gun, bomb or hi-tech missile system ... It's the humble mobile phone. The Government is mooting using mobiles in a bizarre bid to beat the militants in a battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans. The scheme has been dreamed up after the Taliban circulated anti-Western films on Afghanistan's six million mobiles and the internet, seizing a virtual monopoly on propaganda in the war-torn country. The films include footage of the bodies of Afghans killed in an August raid by U.S. forces. Video from a mobile showed rows of corpses, including at least 11 children - seemingly refuting Pentagon claims that only seven civilians died. Now, under an attempt to undermine the powerful Taliban propaganda, ordinary Afghans would be equipped with mobiles so they could film their own 'video diaries'. The end result would be 100 short films for screening at a film festival next year. It is not clear how a film festival - a concept that evokes cocktail parties and Hollywood glamour on the Riviera - might achieve a propaganda victory. Nor is it known whether any measures are being considered to stop the freebie mobile phones from being used to produce yet more pro-Taliban footage. Nevertheless, the Foreign Office is said to think the uncosted plan, devised by outside consultants, 'has merit'. It's not the first time that hi-tech phones have been used in the Afghan war. Taliban fighters have adopted Skype internet-based phones - which are heavily encrypted, unlike normal mobiles - to communicate in secret between cells strung across the country, it was revealed last month.
| ||
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 bet the coverage areas suck |
| Posted by: chris 2008-10-10 20:50 |
| #1 activate the GPS feature so when (not if) the bad guys get them, there are targeting coordinates. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-10-10 14:13 |