Voice of America reported organizational re-grouping of the Taliban. Their forces now grow steadily. Brad Johnson, retired CIA Chief of Station, discusses the organization as it is today and their PR campaign “Hearts and Minds.” Will they use terrorist tactics again?
https://youtu.be/5_ef0SwzL54
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brad johnson for americans for
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intelligence reform it is
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uh march 4th 2021. uh kind of an
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interesting speech got was recently
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reported by voice of america it was
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something that had surfaced
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uh by the number two guy haqqani of of
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the taliban and
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he’s kind of one of the hardcore guys
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one of the leaders his network is kind
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of one of the
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uh tougher ones out of the out of
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taliban
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a couple of take-home things out of that
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uh
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it it first and foremost shows a certain
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uh organizational resurgence on the part
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of taliban
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they’re centered in afghanistan they’ve
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always been there they were never
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completely eradicated
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although they were really down to the
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nubs there for a while
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uh but with uh with essentially us
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kind of pulling out and now uh kind of
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withdrawing from counter-terrorism
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efforts which
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you know interesting decision that
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turned out to be that’s going to bite us
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in the rear
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and this is how and you’re seeing this
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resurgence of taliban and without the
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counter terrorism
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operations to keep them uh you know down
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um they’re they’re they’re going to go
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back into operations and some of those
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things are certainly going to be
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targeting americans so um that’s that’s
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really the main take home out of this
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speech
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it’s it’s rare for anyone other than the
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number one
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guy to do the speaking for taliban and
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have the number two guy come out like i
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said
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this is all kind of interesting it’s a
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show of
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organizational force i would say the
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other thing he does
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in this is he and interesting that they
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publish this but what he does is he kind
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of goes into a uh
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he rangs harangues him a little bit like
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a boss at work sort of thing
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and uh he was saying you know that look
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if you’re supposed to go on
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jihad and we need you know these three
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different regions to send troops over
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here
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you know that doesn’t mean wait till
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spring to do it even if it’s in the
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middle of winter you need to send those
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guys and
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uh things like that and you know not to
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take the law into their own hands and to
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use the court systems that the taliban
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has set up so
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he’s urging them to stay in within the
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organization for things they do also
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part of that
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is that for the population this is the
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hearts and minds
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program is essentially what he was
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hinting at saying that he wants the
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taliban not to just you know arbitrarily
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decide in some dispute among people
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there
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but to put it through the court system
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so it shows that there’s a
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that they are government-like to the
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people
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in the areas that they control rather
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than like
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military despot who does whatever he
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wants so interesting there
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the other aspect of it was was you know
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the showing up on time sitting when
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you’re told
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you know shut up and march on you know
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obey and all of those sorts of things is
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geared at the middle management
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ranks uh which is who this speech was
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really geared for
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in most ways interesting i mean this is
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an organizational thing that
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that everybody has i mean it’s it’s any
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company here in the united states or
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canada or europe
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you the one of the most difficult
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positions to fill is always
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middle management and you know the the
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individuals that you know
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aren’t top leadership but they’re not
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worker be they’re the ones that manages
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uh that manage all of the workers and
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individuals that’s that
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that middle management layer and that’s
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something that’s been recognized
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forever and ever especially in
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militaries which the solution to that in
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the us
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military was to create a superb
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non-commissioned officer corps
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and you know that’s been that solution
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to that middle management issue
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and uh it’s the same thing for for these
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guys and
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and lots of private sector companies and
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uh so he’s
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they’re pushing and prodding and trying
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to get these middle managers
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to do what they expect of them troops
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you know their dime a dozen getting
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getting cannon fodder out there on the
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field is easy for these people
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leadership those ranks are you know
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rarefied and so only a few people in
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them
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and it’s those middle manager people
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that that that are they’re having
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trouble with and this is clearly a
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reflection of that so
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we see some infrastructure growth
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problems which he mentions in here so
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uh the taliban is going through growth
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right so this is this is part of the
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problem
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this is a reflection of what i mentioned
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earlier on that this is a growth
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of problems that are a pattern of a
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growing industry
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where they’re now getting out there and
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starting to organize and they’ll begin
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they’ll begin to reach out further and
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further
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with the tentacles of what they do and
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their terrorism and things like that so
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uh this is something we’ve seen that’s
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true with uh
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uh taliban and also al qaeda there’s
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been a lot of resurgence now a new
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leader picked out of it
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by the way the leader of the the new
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leader of the al-qaeda was one of those
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middle managers that had been out there
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for years and years very successful and
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had basically through the years learned
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to do everything
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that’s why that promotion from within
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often often works where you have those
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people end up in the supreme leadership
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position over time if they
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live long enough and are smart enough
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and gain experience they end up in the
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leadership roles as those people get
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killed off because
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they know what’s going on and have
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loyalty of people so we’re at the
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beginning stages of that of taliban and
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with this
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resurgence takes off a year or two down
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the road maybe sooner
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we’re going to start to see them be more
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active like they were before
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a danger for the future
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you
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Brad Johnson retired as a Senior Operations Officer and Chief of Station with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Operations. Having served domestically and abroad, many assignments included areas of armed conflict. He served overseas in direct support of the War Against Terrorism and he took multiple assignments overseas as Chief of Station. A certified senior expert in counterintelligence, surveillance and surveillance detection, his proven expertise in dangerous operational environments included the highest level of training available in the USG and globally. His tradecraft expertise was put to test in dangerous, difficult, and restrictive operational environments. Brad is an enrolled member of The Cherokee Nation, a Federally Recognized Tribe. In the summer of 2017, he founded the non-profit organization Americans for Intelligence Reform to create awareness of political corruption and the resulting diminished capabilities within the intelligence community. Serving as President, he brings you his unique perspective from deep, international experience and conservative, Christian values.
