Mon, September 25, 2023
Humanitarian aid sent by China to Afghanistan is distributed in Kabul
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield
KABUL (Reuters) -The Taliban are creating a large-scale camera surveillance network for Afghan cities that could involve repurposing a plan crafted by the Americans before their 2021 pullout, an interior ministry spokesman told Reuters, as authorities seek to supplement thousands of cameras already across the capital, Kabul.
The Taliban administration — which has publicly said it is focused on restoring security and clamping down on Islamic State, which has claimed many major attacks in Afghan cities — has also consulted with Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei about potential cooperation, the spokesman said.
Preventing attacks by international militant groups - including prominent organisations such as Islamic State - is at the heart of the interaction between the Taliban and many foreign nations, including the U.S. and China, according to readouts from those meetings. But some analysts question the cash-strapped regime's ability to fund the program, and rights groups have expressed concern that any resources will be used to crackdown on protesters.
Details of how the Taliban intend to expand and manage mass surveillance, including obtaining the U.S. plan, have not been previously reported.
The mass camera rollout, which will involve a focus on "important points" in Kabul and elsewhere, is part of a new security strategy that will take four years to be fully implemented, Ministry of Interior spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told Reuters.
"At the present we are working on a Kabul security map, which is (being completed) by security experts and (is taking) lots of time," he said. "We already have two maps, one which was made by U.S.A for the previous government and second by Turkey."
He did not detail when the Turkish plan was made.
A U.S State Department spokesperson said Washington was not "partnering" with the Taliban and has "made clear to the Taliban that it is their responsibility to ensure that they give no safe haven to terrorists."
A Turkish government spokesperson didn't return a request for comment.
Qani said the Taliban had a "simple chat" about the potential network with Huawei in August, but no contracts or firm plans had been reached.
Bloomberg News reported in August that Huawei had reached "verbal agreement" with the Taliban about a contract to install a surveillance system, citing a person familiar with the discussions.
Huawei told Reuters in September that "no plan was discussed" during the meeting.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she was not aware of specific discussions but added: "China has always supported the peace and reconstruction process in Afghanistan and supported Chinese enterprises to carry out relevant practical cooperation."
ELECTRICITY CUTS, RIGHTS CONCERNS
There are over 62,000 cameras in Kabul and other cities that are monitored from a central control room, according to the Taliban. The last major update to Kabul's camera system occurred in 2008, according to the former government, which relied heavily on Western-led international forces for security.
When NATO-led international forces were gradually withdrawing in January 2021, then-vice president Amrullah Saleh said his government would roll out a huge upgrade of Kabul's camera surveillance system. He told reporters the $100 million plan was backed by the NATO coalition.
"The arrangement we had planned in early 2021 was different," Saleh told Reuters in September, adding that the "infrastructure" for the 2021 plan had been destroyed.
It was not clear if the plan Saleh referenced was similar to the ones that the Taliban say they have obtained, nor if the administration would modify them.
Jonathan Schroden, an expert on Afghanistan with the Center for Naval Analyses, said a surveillance system would be "useful for the Taliban as it seeks to prevent groups like the Islamic State ... from attacking Taliban members or government positions in Kabul."
The Taliban already closely monitor urban centres with security force vehicles and regular checkpoints.
Rights advocates and opponents of the regime are concerned enhanced surveillance might target civil society members and protesters.
Though the Taliban rarely confirm arrests, the Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 64 journalists have been detained since the takeover. Protests against restrictions on women in Kabul have been broken up forcefully by security forces, according to protesters, videos and Reuters witnesses.
Implementing a mass surveillance system "under the guise of 'national security' sets a template for the Taliban to continue its draconian policies that violate fundamental rights," said Matt Mahmoudi from Amnesty International.
The Taliban strongly denies that an upgraded surveillance system would breach the rights of Afghans. Qani said the system was comparable with what other major cities utilize and that it would be operated in line with Islamic Sharia law, which prevents recording in private spaces.
The plan faces practical challenges, security analysts say.
Intermittent daily power cuts in Afghanistan mean cameras connected to the central grid are unlikely to provide consistent feeds. Only 40% of Afghans have access to electricity, according to the state-owned power provider.
The Taliban also have to find funding after a massive economic contraction and the withdrawal of much aid following their takeover.
The administration said in 2022 that it has an annual budget of over $2 billion, of which defence spending is the largest component, according to the Taliban army chief.
MILITANCY RISKS
The discussion with Huawei occurred several months after China met with Pakistan and the Taliban's acting foreign minister, after which the parties stressed cooperation on counter-terrorism. Tackling militancy is also a key aspect of the 2020 troop-withdrawal deal the United States struck with the Taliban.
China has publicly declared its concern over the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an armed separatist organisation in its western Xinjiang region. Security officials and U.N. reports say ETIM likely has a small number of fighters in Afghanistan. ETIM couldn't be reached for comment.
The Islamic State has also threatened foreigners in Afghanistan. Its fighters attacked a hotel popular with Chinese businesspeople last year, which left several Chinese citizens wounded. A Russian diplomat was also killed in one of its attacks.
The Taliban denies that militancy threatens their rule and say Afghan soil will not be used to launch attacks elsewhere. They have publicly announced raids on Islamic State cells in Kabul.
"Since early 2023, Taliban raids in Afghanistan have removed at least eight key (Islamic State in Afghanistan) leaders, some responsible for external plotting," said U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West at a Sept. 12 public seminar.
A July U.N. monitoring report said there were up to 6,000 Islamic State fighters and their family members in Afghanistan. Analysts say urban surveillance will not fully address their presence.
The Afghan "home base" locations of Islamic State fighters are in the eastern mountainous areas, said Schroden. "So while cameras in the cities may help prevent attacks ... they're unlikely to contribute much to their ultimate defeat."
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington, David Kirton in Shenzhen, Liz Lee in Beijing, and Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Katerina Ang)
The Threat of a Forgotten American ‘Map’ Unearthed by the Taliban
Shannon Vavra
Mon, September 25, 2023
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
The Taliban has reportedly obtained a years-old security plan created by the U.S. that could help launch a sweeping new surveillance system in Afghanistan, raising concerns among experts that the system could be used for nefarious purposes.
The plan, which is based on a map the United States apparently created before withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2021, was originally intended for the previous government. Now, the Taliban regime is considering using it as a basis for a project meant to root out terrorist threats, Ministry of Interior spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told Reuters.
“At the present we are working on a Kabul security map, which is [being completed] by security experts and [is taking] lots of time,” he said. “We already have two maps, one which was made by U.S.A for the previous government and second by Turkey.”
The United States has claimed it is not working with the Taliban on the surveillance program, which will take at least four years to roll out, according to Qani. It’s not clear how the Taliban obtained the alleged surveillance maps from either the United States or Turkey.
The alleged national security plan has already raised concerns among human rights activist who fear that the Taliban could use the system to go after domestic critics, rather than target terrorists.
The Taliban Is Back, and the World’s Jihadis Are Coming
It’s a near certainty that the Taliban will leverage any surveillance to target women, critics, and former government officials to further their repressive rule, said Nathan Sales, a former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism.
“We know what the Taliban is likely to do with any surveillance capabilities, because we know what they've been doing with their existing capabilities—and what they've been doing is ruthlessly suppressing former government officials who partnered with the U.S., ruthlessly suppressing women and girls for the ‘crime’ of trying to get an education or work outside the household,” Sales told The Daily Beast. “If they have surveillance capabilities or other technologically-enabled capabilities, you can bet that they're going to use those tools to further entrench their rule.”
The Taliban is reportedly getting Beijing in on the initiative too: According to Bloomberg, Chinese Telecommunications company Huawei has reached a “verbal agreement” to support the camera surveillance plan after talks with regime officials.
The Biden administration has admitted that U.S. assets had been left behind in the aftermath of the chaotic and hastily coordinated withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
According to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, “nearly all night vision, surveillance, communications, and biometric equipment that was provided to the ANDSF were left behind.” It was not clear if this surveillance equipment included maps.
Taliban Mock Hasty U.S. Withdrawal: ‘Losers Never Look Back’
The Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan Karen Decker did not immediately return a request for comment. The State Department referred comment to the Department of Defense.
Sales warned that “it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Taliban would seek to use for its own benefit equipment or capabilities that the United States had provided to the previous government and left behind in the rush for the exits.”
“This is actually one of the reasons why when you do a retrograde you want to do it in an orderly way to make sure that nothing that's sensitive—information or material—gets left behind to be used by your adversaries,” he added.
Downward Spiral
It’s also possible, though less likely, that the United States is leaning on the Taliban to try to knock out terrorism in Afghanistan in a more coordinated way—a move Sales cautioned would be a misstep.
“This could mean that the U.S. and the Taliban are cooperating in some way for the achievement of security goals,” Sales said. “That strikes me as a road that we should be very, very cautious about starting to walk down. The Taliban’s interests are not our interests. The United States does not want to see the Taliban succeed in its misgovernance of the long-suffering people of Afghanistan.”
That said, there is a serious threat of resurgent terrorism in the region following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command warned lawmakers in a briefing in March that the ISIS branch in Afghanistan, ISIS-K, was six months away from being able to “do an external operation against U.S. or Western interests abroad... with little to no warning.”
Afghanistan has grown into a hub for coordinating terrorist plots against embassies, churches, and business centers since the withdrawal, according to leaked U.S. intelligence, The Washington Post reported. And while al Qaeda is “unlikely” to resurge in Afghanistan, U.S. assessments indicate that the broader terrorist threats in Afghanistan remain.
United Nations officials have grown concerned about a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan in recent months as well. Vladimir Voronkov, the Under-Secretary-General of the Office of Counter-Terrorism, said just last month that the operational capabilities of ISIS-K were reportedly increasing, leading the group to “becoming more sophisticated in its attacks.”
“The situation in Afghanistan is growing increasingly complex, with fears of weapons and ammunition falling in the hands of terrorists now materializing,” Voronkov said.
ISIS-K has already attacked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Afghanistan on multiple occasions this year. According to a recent U.S. intelligence community assessment, the terrorist group still has hopes to launch attacks against the west.
“ISIS–Khorasan almost certainly retains the intent to conduct operations in the West and will continue efforts to attack outside Afghanistan,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s annual worldwide threat assessment states.
Still, some experts argue that the terrorism threat may be nothing more than a convenient cover for the Taliban.
“Implementing such a vast architecture of mass surveillance under the guise of ‘national security’ sets a template for the Taliban to continue its draconian policies that violate fundamental rights of people in Afghanistan—especially women in public spaces,” Matt Mahmoudi, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Advisor on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, said.
No comments:
Post a Comment