Afghanistan Abduction and Rescue

Dr. Dilip Joseph, a US citizen working with a small US NGO called Morning Star Development, was abducted in Kabul last Wednesday afternoon, along with two other staff members. Details are still sketchy, but Joseph was rescued on Sunday by special operations forces. One US Navy SEAL Team 6 (DEVGRU) operator was killed during the mission. There are conflicting reports over who was responsible for the kidnapping (Taliban or a criminal gang), but Joseph was taken to a mountainous area near the Pakistan border. The two local staff members were released 12 hours prior to the rescue mission. Officials stated that while negotiations had been started, no ransom had been paid. Update - Mainstream media news stories are starting to appear with more information, including this one.

Taliban BCC Boo-Boo

For awhile now, the Taliban has been using email, Twitter, and other types of modern media as part of their communications strategy. Last week, one of their spokespersons made a classic boo-boo and sent a press release out with email, CC-ing the entire distribution list instead of using BCC:. Oops. Security implications are obvious. If you're interested, Michael Yon has the complete list of email addresses here.

Haqqani Network Financing

NGO security practitioners serving organizations operating in Afghanistan and/or Pakistan will find the Haqqani Network Financing research report a fascinating and useful read. Released yesterday by the West Point Combating Terrorism Center, the comprehensive report contains sections on kidnapping, extortion and other funding practices. Very timely and relevant in getting a better understanding of how this powerful group currently thinks and operates.

Afghanistan School Poisonings - Mass Hysteria?

If you do work in Afghanistan, you've likely heard stories about large numbers of students at girls' schools that have come down sick. The Taliban has been widely blamed for these incidents, allegedly conducting a poisoning campaign to stop or disrupt girls' education programs. Despite Taliban denials, if poison is indeed being used as a weapon, there are obvious security implications for NGOs with a presence in Afghanistan.

The World Health Organization has been investigating these incidents for the past three years and just released a report that concludes there is no conclusive evidence of poisoning. Instead, researchers are attributing the events to mass hysteria. If the report is correct (and its conclusions seem to be spot on), this is a fascinating case study of how a perceived threat can snowball into something that takes on a life of its own.

Medair Aid Workers Freed

ISAF special operations forces freed Medair aid workers Helen Johnston (British), Moragwa Oirere (Kenyan), and two female Afghan staff members. The group was kidnapped 11 days ago in Badakhshan, northeastern Afghanistan. The ransom was said to be upwards of £6 million. An unconfirmed number of insurgents were killed during the successful raid. No casualties were sustained by the rescuers or abductees.

Afghanistan NATO Kill/Capture Map

The British newspaper The Guardian just published an excellent interactive map showing all publicized NATO kill/capture missions in Afghanistan. The data is taken from ISAF press releases and goes back to September 2009. Each province is shown with the number of insurgents killed and captured and how often missions occurred. The accompanying article has more detail on the data. If you do work in Afghanistan, you already know which areas tend to be more risky than others and the map isn't going to tell you anything new. What is does though, is give you a sense of the scope and range of these missions, which obviously have a military impact on the Taliban as well as a perceptual impact on non-combatant civilians.

GPS and cameras in Afghanistan

Wired's Danger Room has a short article on work-for-pay programs in Afghanistan. And I quote:

"So how do you track cash-for-work in a place like Helmand, where fighting still rages? John Stephens, who manages programs in Afghanistan for the U.S. charity Mercy Corps, came up with one solution: Use cameras with GPS to verify aid projects in insecure places where expatriate staff can’t oversee projects in person."

"The idea is simple: If an area is too dicey to send in expats, Mercy Corps sends in Afghan staff with GPS cameras — either a Nikon point-and-shoot, or a Garmin handheld GPS with built-in camera — to verify that the projects are actually being undertaken in the right places, so they can pay wages. The data is then uploaded to a Google Earth–style program, so Mercy Corps — which implements USAID projects — can track projects and their participants."

Let me get this straight. National staff is being sent into potentially hot conflict zones with a digital camera and GPS and told to take pictures? I hope there's a little more to this story in terms of risk management. I suspect packing a Western camera and GPS receiver around the Helmand Province might just be viewed as spying by the Taliban. What do you think? With some potentially nasty consequences for the Afghan employee. On the surface this sounds like using national staff as, excuse the pun, Canon-fodder.

Any readers from Mercy Corps that are hip to the details care to comment?

New Taliban Rules and NGOs

Several articles (1, 2) on a new set of 30 rules the Taliban will operate under in Afghanistan. Lots of security implications because among other things it spells out Taliban rules of engagement and how it will deal with NGOs and development work. A translated version of the full list of rules is here. If you do work in Afghanistan, this is an important read.