Radio chatter seen pointing to weakened Taliban

[Naveed Yaseen]

* NYT report says communication intercepts show Swat Taliban are on the run

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Pakistan Army says that communication intercepts show that the Swat insurgents are on the run.

Claiming access to a log of the intercepted messages, The New York Times has reported that they point to low morale among the Taliban.

The paper said American officials were as frustrated as Pakistani citizens that while the military seemed able to monitor Taliban leaders, including Fazlullah, it remained unable or unwilling to kill or capture them. In a text message to journalists on Monday night, a group of anti-Taliban activists from Swat said they could not believe that the military was ‘serious’ unless Fazlullah and his five deputies were killed.

The Taliban chatter in recent weeks has sounded gloomy, according to the log seen by the Times.

Amid some inspirational words and rallying cries there were many lost, hungry and isolated voices. A Khazara villager said Taliban leaders gathered locals in the Minara mosque shortly before he and his family fled, demanding a gun, a son, or 50,000 rupees. He said few obliged.

The Taliban are careful not to name locations. Instead they use a system of code names. The military believes that top leaders, including Fazlullah, are still hiding in Swat.

A military official said the operation had reduced the coverage area for the FM radio run by Fazlullah to 15 percent of the original.

According to one transcript, a man calling himself Jawad was heard saying that those who no longer wanted to fight should leave, but not a raise white flag as some people were doing.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg7_8