Taliban Internet recruiting through the eyes of a detainee

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — The young Taliban detainee, shackled at the wrists, with his head covered with a black canvas bag, was chillingly clear about his life's mission: "The Taliban have only one objective: to continue killing the Americans."

The tools this particular terrorist had adopted to accomplish that goal were not suicide bombs or sniper rifles, but laptop computers and other high-tech equipment. The purpose of his Taliban cell was to reach potential recruits online over the Internet.

In interviews spread over several hours, I was given a rare glimpse into the mind of this youthful insurgent.

As the sessions were occurring, back in the United States people were reading accounts of Jihad Jane and Jihad Jamie, American women who had allegedly been indoctrinated to attack their birth country through the Internet.

What I was hearing in the spare interview room would shed light on how the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan reached potential recruits around the world.

"We video our fights with American forces and keep records of our martyrs," he said when I asked him about the laptops and video equipment found by police. "We want to get the message out to the world so they will see what is being done to us."

He added, "We see the Internet, media reports about what is going on here. We see that it is lies, what the Americans and the British portray. We use our means to get the message out, the truthful message about what is happening here, and our war."

Pakistani counterterrorism officials said in meetings last week that al Qaeda and the Taliban factions "have been recruiting more technologically savvy persons that can get their message out on the Internet."

The officials, who spoke on condition that they not be named, said, "We are working closely with our counterparts throughout the world to try to break down these networks."

A chance to interview a man described by Pakistani authorities as a "high value target" was an unprecedented opportunity, granted after much wrangling with Pakistani officials. The 20-year-old detainee was still under questioning by Pakistani authorities, so I agreed to withhold his name. The stakes of this war for Pakistan were illustrated earlier in the day by a suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in the city that claimed four lives.

The young man said he came from Kunar province, a rugged and violent area in northeastern Afghanistan. He said he had been a logistics supplier for the Taliban for the past year and he crossed the border into Pakistan to visit his sister in the border region of Chitral, a mountainous area of Pakistan believed to be a safe haven for al Qaeda leaders.

Pakistani police captured him with a truckload of laptop computers, video cameras, jihad training videos and semiautomatic weapons.

When I asked him how and why he joined the Taliban, he said it was in retaliation for damage done to his family by U.S. forces.

"I offered my services to the Taliban when the Americans destroyed my father's business," he said, adding that one of his brothers is still fighting with the Afghan Taliban.

He would not say to whom he was delivering the supplies.

A gas lamp on the wall dimly lit the large room, which consisted of a bed used by a security guard and three chairs. The prisoner, who sat on his knees, clasped his shackled hands, twisting his fingers together as he spoke.

"Foreign forces have captured our territory in Afghanistan," he said. "And it is our duty to fight against them. We want our message to reach the world."

A Pakistani counterterrorism official said the Taliban and al Qaeda are stepping up efforts at online recruiting. "This is not endemic to Pakistan. They are feeling pressure and are now using the Internet even more to get their message across. It is their new tool in the war and a way to gain new recruits worldwide."

In an earlier interview that day with North Western Frontier Province's Inspector General Malik Naveed Khan, whose men captured the young fighter, he said that these groups are "waging war against the world, not only with weapons but through the Internet and other media."

As the interview with the Taliban detainee came to an end, I asked him if he ever regretted joining the Taliban.

"No, he said. "We will continue to fight until the Americans leave our country."

scarter@washingtonexaminer.com