http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/alq061117
Al-Qaeda report focuses on 'Crusaders' in Afghanistan makes specific threat against Canada The Netherlands figures prominently in a report from the al-Qaeda terrorist network which has appeared on a number of radical Islamic websites in recent weeks and in a printed version which has been distributed in Afghanistan. The 66-page document devotes great attention to Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the three countries supplying the vast majority of the NATO troops currently deployed in Afghanistan. While it would normally come as a major surprise to find the former Dutch government party, the small D66 progressive democrats, and its former leader Boris Dittrich given such attention in an al-Qaeda publication, perhaps it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise at all. Earlier this year, al-Qaeda made it known that it would be shifting its attention from Iraq to Afghanistan. Consequently, the terrorist network appears to have been closely following what is and has been going on in that country. The organisation's latest publication - entitled 'An Analytical Study of the Crusader Forces Occupying Afghanistan' - covers the months of June and July this year. The document deals in detail with the political decision-taking process - hence the reference to the Dutch D66 political party - and public opinion in the countries which currently supply the majority of the troops for NATO's ISAF mission in Afghanistan. Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom get individual treatment in the report, while other countries such as the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain are dealt with as a group. The Netherlands The SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) Institute in Washington DC has translated and distributed the al-Qaeda report. Adam Raisman, a SITE analyst, had the following to say about the report's contents regarding the Netherlands: "It talks more about what has been happening with US pressure to add Dutch troops to the NATO [force]. They talk about economic pressure, they talk about disputes in the Dutch government, they mention Boris Dittrich, the leader of the Dutch democratic liberal party D66, and his resigning following the vote in favour of dispatching forces to Afghanistan." The home front The al-Qaeda report - which has also appeared in the the publication entitled "The Vanguards of Kharasan" (Kharasan being an old name for Afghanistan) - doesn't deal specifically with the military operations of the aforementioned countries, but concentrates more on the political and social aspects on the 'home fronts' in these nations. Adam Raisman characterises this aspect of the report as a typical example of al-Qaeda's psychological warfare: "When it talks about Holland, about the Canadians and about the Australians, it talks about the public pressures within that country and reasons for its participation." Threat to Canada It comes as no major surprise that al-Qaeda is extremely negative about the presence of western 'Crusaders' and, in general terms, threatens them with hell and damnation. What is remarkable is that only one of the western nations the report mentions is actually threatened with major terrorist attacks if it fails to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan: "That one was focused on Canada - that, despite increasing opposition by the public, Canada still decided to deploy troops to Afghanistan." Mullah DadullahAdam Raisman also says that one of the Taliban's better-known military leaders, Mullah Dadullah (pictured) from the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, claims that his movement has learned lessons from Iraq: "One of the Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah, says that they have learned from the Iraqi experience; that as Afghanistan used to be the training ground for Mujahedin to go to Iraq, it is now the reverse: they are picking up the tactics that they use in Iraq - like suicide bombings - and applying those to Afghanistan, which is something different than what was happening before." Professionalism There are also clear signs that the propaganda effort in Afghanistan by al-Qaeda and the Taliban is growing more professional. This used to take the form of the occasional written statement or extremely amateurish video material, but that's no longer the case. Mr Raisman says that in recent weeks the Taliban have even started to issue daily news bulletins: "One month ago, the Taliban would issue bi-weekly or bi-monthly lists of all the attacks they had executed within the provinces of Afghanistan. In the past two weeks, however, they've been doing it daily, which shows that they've either picked up how the Iraqi insurgency groups issued their communications and videos [...] they either picked that up or they have developed better communication apparatus". A recent - and technically speaking, well made - video prominently features the aforementioned Mullah Dadullah, with images of him handing out entrances passes to paradise to suicide commandos and attending firing practice. However, he doesn't appear in the horrific footage of captured Afghans, branded as traitors, being beheaded. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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