N. A. Tsvetkova

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Saint Petersburg State University

Afghanistan Keywords:, information warfare, public diplomacy, USA, Pakistan

In Pakistan, the propaganda of the "Taliban" and "Al-Qaeda" is opposed by the radio stations "Your World" (Radio Aap Ki Dunyaa), "Light" and "Svetoch" , as well as television programs of the radio station "Your World", which appear on one of the central television channels of Pakistan for 30 minutes. on weekends. These programs cover more than 11 million out of 175 million people. Pakistanis ¹.

However, these channels broadcast for several hours, and, according to US experts, this is too little to cope with the mobile radio points of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in problem areas. Such radio stations are located in motor vehicles and conduct their news programs without interruption and without any interference from the Government of Pakistan.²

PAKISTAN: EMPHASIS ON THE" MODERNIZATION " OF MADRASAS

An important channel for spreading positive information about America in Pakistan is the US Embassy. It distributes daily Urdu press releases that respond to the propaganda of terrorist organizations in Pakistan.

There is also a monthly magazine called "News and Views", which tells about America ³. The main areas of propaganda on its pages: repeating the thesis that the United States and Pakistan are strategic partners in the fight against terrorism; positive reviews of Pakistanis who have visited the United States about America's political institutions and political culture; explaining how democracy functions in the United States and some of its features, for example, midterm congressional elections, and It also shows examples of the mutual influence of Pakistani and American cultures, for example, in rock music.

Many pages are devoted to describing such specific US projects in Pakistan as opening new press centers, training journalists and young people, and providing grants to various institutes to teach students and schoolchildren English.

The magazine pays great attention to the emancipation of women. Written in the style of a documentary drama, texts about American women who serve in the military or are elected members of the US Congress, unobtrusively push Pakistani women to take a more active life position. Finally, the content of each issue is completed by the history of the formation of the United States and each state separately.⁴

However, American experts admit that all these projects are poorly able to resist the popularity of Al-Qaeda propaganda among the population of Pakistan.

Compared to Afghanistan, the problem of low literacy and education levels is not so acute here. About 54% of the male population and 45% of the female population are literate. However, Pakistan's education system is dominated by praise of jihad and calls to fight the United States.

To address this problem, Washington initiated a large-scale education reform program in 2006. As in Afghanistan, by the end of 2010, teachers were retrained and attempts were made to implement school reform, including through retraining of officials at the ministerial level. However, Washington admits that the goals of the projects were not achieved, some of the financial resources were stolen, teachers did not teach students according to the standards proposed by the United States, American contractors did not provide textbooks to schools, and the percentage of girls in schools did not increase.⁵

Modernization of religious educational institutions in Pakistan has taken a special place in the educational system reforms. They have become hotbeds of anti-American propaganda and the ideology of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. By the end of 2010, the United States had spent more than $500 million trying to change the system of education in these institutions. However, all these attempts were unsuccessful, as the Federation of Islamic Religious institutions in Pakistan refused to cooperate with official US institutions. Then the Obama administration changed its tactics: instead of the US government, the American International Institute of Religion and Diplomacy became a partner of higher theological schools in Pakistan. Today

Ending. For the beginning, see: Asia and Africa Today, 2013, No. 1.

The Institute works closely with these schools to modernize the curriculum. The introduction of such disciplines as social sciences, human rights research, and critical thinking are identified as the main priorities of the Institute's activities in Pakistan6. About 2 thousand rubles. spiritual mentors were invited to the United States for short-term training to learn about the diversity of religious institutions in the United States7.

Women's emancipation has a place in US public diplomacy programs in Pakistan. Unlike in Afghanistan, where Americans are fighting to improve female literacy, in Pakistan, the US Embassy funds non-governmental organizations that fight for equal rights between women and men. Benazir Bhutto's image has become a symbol of large-scale projects promoting women's emancipation. The United States has opened four centers named after her and is holding street rallies against violence against women. The most active Pakistani women are trained in the United States, where they are taught the skills of creating their own business, party or non-governmental organization. ⁸

WORKING WITH THE ELITE

Pakistan's ruling elite remains a traditional target of Washington's programs. Today, the U.S. government trains members of parliament on issues such as lobbying and passing new laws. The US funds Pakistani organizations that conduct elections, monitor them, etc. ⁹

Another area is the training of the military in the field of anti-terrorist activities and various exchange programs between the US and Pakistani armed forces. As in Afghanistan, there is an annual increase in the number of Pakistani citizens who are involved in US training programs: if in 2003 915 Pakistani citizens participated in US government programs, then in 2009 - 56,062 citizens. Unlike in Afghanistan, where the Americans have focused on training future teachers in the United States, in Pakistan, the main participants in exchange programs are representatives of the army and security service of Pakistan. Training of the Pakistan Army is strategic in nature in the border areas with Afghanistan, where the United States conducts joint training of Pakistani and Afghan security Forces in the field of counterterrorism activities through the US Department of Defense.¹⁰

The scale of programs aimed at teaching young people English in Pakistan is significantly larger than in Afghanistan. About 5 thousand people annually take part in the programs of the US Embassy in five Lincoln centers. Today, Pakistan ranks 1st among countries all over the world in terms of the number of participants in the well-known U program. Fulbright ¹¹.

Such methods of combating the ideology of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are bearing some fruit. Apparently, these programs played a positive role in somewhat reducing the popularity of extremist propaganda in Pakistan: if in 2008 25% of Pakistanis expressed approval of the actions of Al-Qaeda and 27% of the Taliban, then in 2010 such Pakistanis turned out to be 9 and 10%, respectively, respectively ¹².

However, the most pressing issue that currently concerns the US government is the so-called media / jihad on the Internet.

BATTLE ON THE INTERNET

The threat from that part of cyberspace dominated by propagandists of media jihad, the holy war in the media space declared against Western countries, has become very widespread.

Until a few years ago, the US State Department, when inspecting public diplomacy programs, did not mention a word about the propaganda of DT and Al-Qaeda in Syria.

On the Internet ¹³. The situation changed dramatically in 2009, when well-known social networks and the blogosphere of Afghanistan and Pakistan came under the influence of these two extremist organizations. The date of the call to media jihad can be considered as 2010, when the current leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in one of his addresses to the Internet audience, stated the following: "To the Knights of media jihad, I say: Allah will reward you with the best reward for your service to Islam." ¹⁴

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda actively post their messages on social media, collect donations, recruit new members, and distribute electronic versions of magazines. Washington claims that the websites of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, or their surrogates, have been linked to several recent terrorist attacks. They attract Muslim youth to their ranks, posting information about where and how to find terrorist training camps, as well as information about those objects that are subject to destruction. In addition, some websites, as well as printed materials, contain instructions for making bombs at home, etc. ¹⁵

Every day, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda manage to create new websites in English, French, Arabic, Dari, Urdu, Turkish and other languages. For example, in just one day, a page with bin Laden's name on it gathered about a thousand followers on the Facebook¹⁶. After Washington shut down terrorist websites, they began to use social media to wage an ideological war. One of Al-Qaeda's projects ,The Internet Brigades Invasion, is designed to transmit information through social networks. YouTube has also become a platform for popular jihadi propagandists such as the American-born radical Islamic preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was assassinated in 2011, and the Afghan leader Mullah Omar. The form of propaganda is not particularly original: this is either a speech by leaders, or the dissemination of information about the activities of terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the " dry " content is justified from the point of view of the main purpose of information propaganda - intimidation with the help of a visual series and a few verbal theses. In 2010 alone, one al-Awlaki posted about 5 thousand videos on the YouTube portal.There are ¹⁷ videos with English subtitles.

Several extremist magazines in English were widely distributed on social networks. Inspire magazine has become the most popular magazine among Internet users. He explains in an accessible language why the United States is declared a jihad, how to use the ideology of jihad in practice, and also gives detailed information about the methods of secret communication on the web. The second most popular magazine, The Al-Battar Training Camp, covers the military training of Islamists. Finally, the glossy magazine "Majestic Woman" (A1-Shamikha) is published, which, along with information of interest to women, tells about the fate of terrorist families and encourages Muslim women to fight against America.

The most difficult problem in the fight against jihadist propaganda on the Internet is tracking terrorist websites and their providers. Internet service providers or companies that provide hosting ("space") on the Network and the operation of various sites may not even know that they are dealing with terrorist sites. The U.S. Government estimates that in 2010, there were about 10 sites in the United States that were linked to the spread of jihadist ideology. The US government has provided up to 50 providers with information about these types of users. Just a few days later, most companies stopped working with such sites ¹⁸.

Today, The Middle East Media Research Institute is responsible for informing providers about their clients. The Institute studies videos in which the "army of Islam" promotes terrorist attacks against Western countries. However, these actions are-

They are only marginally effective, since US adversaries instantly open websites in other countries after they close them.

A special group of specialists in the US State Department (Digital Outreach Team) also analyzes such sites and discussions that take place in all possible international and national social networks. Specialists of this team take part in discussions by registering on social networks as ordinary participants or moderators of discussions. The group is trying to eliminate disinformation coming to social networks from extremist organizations.

15 departments in the CIA, the US Department of Defense, and the US Agency for International Development also analyze international and national social networks, blogs, and chats, and disseminate positive information about the United States on the Internet.

For example, the CIA created an Open Source Center that monitors foreign Internet versions of newspapers and magazines on a daily basis and forms a response to negative information about the United States. These "responses" are distributed through social networks and bloggers.

In the military, this kind of work is carried out by nine departments, scattered across the branches of the armed forces. Almost every department consists of 10-12 employees, their total number is about 500 people. Finally, the Pentagon created a special department for work in cyberspace (US Cyber Command), responsible for ideological confrontation and the dissemination of pro-American propaganda on the Internet.¹⁹

As a result of the creation of these departments, a large-scale project Operation Earnest Voice was initiated in the summer of 2010. The project aims to stop the spread of Taliban and al-Qaeda propaganda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A special place in this project is given to the creation of a network of "decoy ducks" that create the appearance of a discussion about the United States in blogs in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto, attracting potential terrorists to it and, as a result, revealing the centers of opposition to the United States20.

* * *

In the information and propaganda war with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Washington is at best managing to hold its own. Islamic extremists effectively use radio propaganda, leaflets, madrassas and mosques. And the very presence of American troops in Afghanistan and their operations in Pakistan contribute to the growth of anti-Americanism.

Theoretically, reforming their education systems with massive financial injections would help reduce the popularity of jihadist ideology and the intensity of anti-Americanism in these countries. But, most likely, such projects will suffer the fate of castles built on sand. According to the most conservative estimates, their implementation would take more than 10 years, and Washington already has plenty of its own internal and foreign policy problems. With the withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014, it is possible that a gradual decline in US counter-propaganda activities will begin.

¹ BBC, Facts-sheet, 2010 - http://www.bbg.gov

² Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America: Soft Power and the Free Flow of Information. Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, 111th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 23, 2009. Wash., D. C, GPO, 2009.

³ Website of the US Embassy in Pakistan - http://islam-abad.usembassy.gov/pakistan/khabr_o _nazar.html

^{Khabr-o-Nazar} 4 - http://islamabad.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/k-magazine/kn_nov_dec_2010.pdf

⁵ Combatting Terrorism. Planning and Documentation of U.S. Development Assistance in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas Need to Be Improved, 2010 // Government Accountability Office -http://www.gao.gov>

⁶ For more information, see the website of the American International Institute of Religion and Diplomacy - http://www.icrd.org

⁷ Strategic Public Diplomacy. Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations At a Hearing on "The Future of U.S. Public Diplomacy" by James K. Classman, March 10, 2010 -http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-l 1 lshrg63020/pdf/CHRG-Hlshrg63020.pdf

⁸ Quarterly Progress and Oversight Report on the Civilian Assistance Program in Pakistan, March 31, 2010. Report //US Agency of International Development - http://www.usaid.gov

⁹ http://www.state.gOv/g/drl/rls/afdr/2010/sca/129812.htm

¹⁰ International Exchanges and Training. South Asia. Report of the Interagency Working Group on the U.S. Government-Sponsored International Exchanges and Training (IAWG), 2003 - 2009 // IAWG -http://www.iawg.gov; Ibid., 2007; Ibid., 2008.

¹¹ U.S. Public Diplomacy: Time to Get Back in the Game. A Report to Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate. Washington, US Government Printing Office, 2009; website of the US Embassy in Pakistan - http://islamabad.tisembassy.gov/factshect_ 10123001.html

¹² Strategic Public Diplomacy...

¹³ См., например: Broadcasting Board of Governors Operations in Afghanistan. Report of Inspection. Report, 2006 // Government Accountability Office - http://www.gao.gov

¹⁴ Cit. по: U.S. Strategy for Countering Jihadist Web Sites. Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, 111th Cong., 2nd Sess., September 29, 2010. Wash., D. C, GPO, 2010.

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ why the Taliban Is Winning the Propaganda War // Time, May 03,2009.

^{Stalimky S.} 17 Deleting Online Jihad and the Case of Anwar Al-Awlaki // The Middle East Media Research Institute http://www.memri.org/report/

^{Stalinsky S.} 18 Op. cit.; U.S. Strategy for Countering Jihadist Web Sites...

¹⁹ U.S. Public Diplomacy Actions Needed to Improve Strategic Use and Coordination of Research. GAO Report. 2007; official website of the US Cyber Command - http://www.stratcom.mil

²⁰ US Department of Defense. Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request // Department of Defense - http:// www.controllcr.defense.gov/defbudget/ fy2010/fy2010_SSJ.pdf; Testimony on U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command in Review. General David U.Petraeus, 16 March 2010 // U.S. Central Command. Committee on Armed Services. United States Senate - http:// www. armed-services. senate.gov/e_witnesslist.cfm? id-4425