TBS—TALIBAN NEWS NETWORK

Reuters reports By Jonathon Burch

KABUL (Reuters) - The once media-shy Taliban have gone hi-tech with DVDs, mobile phone messages, ring-tones, emails and a website to publicize their exploits and lambast their Afghan and Western enemies, a think-tank said on Thursday.

The Taliban hanged televisions and music tapes from trees in an effort to stamp out corrupting Western influences during their hardline Islamist rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Their leaders had only one computer, Afghanistan experts say.

But after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the austere movement following the September 11, 2001, attacks, the militants regrouped and relaunched their insurgency in 2005, copying the tactics of roadside and suicide bombs from Iraq.

Now the Taliban have also created a “sophisticated communications apparatus” using the full range of media allowing them to project an “increasingly confident movement”, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report.

With their own website, magazines, DVDs, audio cassettes, pamphlets and mobile phones, the ICG says, the Taliban are able to capitalize on mistakes made by the government and its allies and reveal their own “inflated tales of battlefield exploits”.

THE OLYMPICS AND CHINA

The Oregonian reports:

It’s with a mixture of pride and dread that Chinese officials await the opening of the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Chinese leaders are trying to reduce air pollution by banning 1 million autos; they have dragooned civilians into helping to clear algae-infested waters at a sailing venue; they are limiting the number of visas issued; they are promising to have 100,000 security personnel on “high alert”; they are sending foreign students out of town; they have banned outdoor parties during the games; they have warned visitors not to bring in materials critical of China; they have an internal plan to crack down on the monasteries and other centers of protest in Tibet, according to news reports; they staged a public execution this month of three troublemakers, according to the Washington Post; they have limited journalists’ ability to broadcast or transmit during the games, interrupting television reports even four weeks before the games open on Aug. 8.

And needless to say, nobody visiting China should utter the words “Falun Gong” or “Tiananmen Square massacre.”

China, it seems, wants to host “the perfect Olympics.” But along with constructing some of the world’s most striking new buildings, it also is working overtime to minimize the possibilities for unscripted, off-message unpleasantness. This means no unwelcome banners, no logos of companies that aren’t official sponsors, few spontaneous conversations with typical Chinese citizens, no broadcasts from unapproved places, such as Tiananmen Square. This week, the government bent a little, saying it would permit protests to take place in three city parks, as long as protesters got permits and didn’t raise causes that the Chinese may deem illegal, such as a free Tibet.

These Olympics show what Elizabeth Economy and Adam Segal describe as China’s “top-down” management in a July essay for Foreign Affairs magazine. From the mobilization of resources to the internal etiquette campaigns, the government is elbow-deep in every detail leading up to the Games.

Tehran debates breaking dress code to broadcast women at Olympics

For years, Iranian women have been active in regional and international sports competitions, but religious laws in Iran prevent women from being seen on television without an Islamic hijab. While Iranian women play sports dressed in the traditional hijab, their international competitors do not — and therefore cannot be shown in Iranian broadcasts.

For this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, however, Iranian authorities might allow state television to broadcast the women’s events. Ali Asghar Purmohammadi, who is responsible for broadcasting sports programs for Iran’s state-run television, has said he is pressing Iranian authorities to give special permission to show women competing in the Olympic Games next month. There are three women among the 53 Iranian athletes who will compete in the Beijing Olympics from August 8-24, with one woman each competing in rowing, archery, and tae kwon do. Fatemeh Sepanji, a Tehran-based sports commentator, tells RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that the Iranian media are forced to pretend that women athletes in Iran do not exist.

Additionally, representatives of Iran’s intelligence services follow the women athletes everywhere — including at international competitions — to ensure they don’t violate any Islamic rules. President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s government actually tried to promote greater female participation in sports during the early days of his term. But after facing vocal opposition and fierce criticism from religious leaders, his government gave up on the initiative.(Radio Free Europe)

MORE ON THAT JOHN EDWARDS STORY

FROM Richard B’s ALL SPIN ZONE

Slate Rolls Off the Rails - John Edwards’ “Love Child”?

The National Enquirer has been dogging John Edwards for several months as a result of an anonymous “source” claiming that he has a love child hiding out in California. And outlets such as Slate and National Review are wondering

I’ve been following a John Edwards story for awhile now; it’s a story that appears to be gaining traction in the wingnutosphere (not surprising), but now Slate’s getting into the action? Slate editor Jack Schafer starts the story with:

Q: Why the Press Is Ignoring the Edwards “Love Child” Story?

Lurid, eh? I’m not even going to rehash the claptrap that’s bubbling up in the wingnutosphere. We’ll leave that to Schafer and the wags at National Review. But let me give Mr. Schafer a very quick answer to his question:

A: The legacy media isn’t biting on this story because the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer broke the “story”, which was provided by an “anonymous source”.

Now, let’s do a couple of things. First, a “housekeeping” item. Mr. Shafer’s been involved in a journalistic scandal or two himself. As an editor at Slate, he allowed the publishing of a totally bogus story by one of his writers. When the bogus story was discovered, Mr. Shafer wrote a mea culpa:

“The lesson I learned isn’t to refrain from asking writers for detail but to be skeptical about details that sound too good or that you had to push too hard to get the writer to uncover or that are suspicious simply because any writer worth his salt would have put them in his first draft. All that said, it’s almost impossible for an editor to beat a good liar every time out.” …

And any editor or writer worth his (or her) salt would totally discount any claptrap pushed by the celebrity chasing doodyheads at National Enquirer - but that didn’t stop Mr. Schafer from tittering like a plaid-skirted middle school glee club heather about it, did it?…..

BELGRADE: B92 Statement - B92 cameraman attacked during today’s pro-Karadzic protests

Belgrade, July 24, 2008 – B92 TV cameraman was injured today by demonstrators gathered to protest the arrest of Radovan Karadzic.

Bosko Brankovic is suffering from a fractured leg, doctors at the Belgrade Emergency Center said and he is being hospitalized. The third day of protests, that gathered several hundred people earlier on Thursday, ended at 18:30 CET. The demonstrators, mostly coming from nationalist organizations and helped by the Radicals (SRS), went for a protest walk that included a stop at the Turkish Embassy where firecrackers were thrown, and in front of President Boris Tadiæ’s office, where they shouted insults.

RDP B92 strongly condemns the incident and asks the authorities to identify and punish the perpetrators. Brankovic was attacked when he tried to film the mob assaulting a FoNet photographer, it has emerged. The incident took place near police officers who did not react. The cameraman has suffered a broken leg under and torn ligaments in his knee.

B92 is calling on all professional associations and colleagues to join us in condemnation of this incident.

After all, B92 points out that the freedom of public protest has its legal limitations, clearly stated in the Constitution, so it is not allowed to use this freedom of gathering for the purpose of abuse, bringing into danger journalists’ lives and destroying their equipment.

COMING NEXT WEEK: THE GET YOUR WAR ON COMIC

New York, NY, July 24 – 23/6 (www.236.com), a leading comedic news site, is launching a 10-part animated series based on David Rees’ “Get Your War On” comic strip, which Rees created after 9/11 to offer a wry take on the emerging war on terror. The strip is assembled entirely from 1980’s-style clip art and lampoons contemporary politics with scathing insight. Flat Black Films, the innovative animation company that created the Richard Linklater film “Waking Life” and the recent “Talk to Chuck” campaign of animated advertisements for Charles Schwab, is creating the animation for the series.

The Get Your War On (GYWO) comic strip has drawn a large audience by depicting workers in generic office settings providing acute insights and critiques of U.S. policy post-9/11, from the “liberation” of Iraq to George Bush’s plans to send astronauts to Mars. The sly insights of these “average” Americans struck a chord with people growing increasingly concerned with the administration’s actions in the expanding war on terror. GYWO became a minor phenomenon since it first emerged in part because of the disparity between the stock, white-collar characters and the blistering sarcasm and foul-mouthed words which emanated from them. The 23/6 videos feature Rees’ office workers commenting on current events, including the contentious 2008 election season.

I am off to Boston so have to keep this short. Your comments welcome at dissector@mediachannel.org