Norwegian reporter embeds himself in Taliban unit (possibly nsfw)

[Rob]

pend the next 21 minutes of your day watching this extremely rare footage of the war in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province — from the Taliban’s perspective. The video, released by an Australian TV news program, comes from Paul Refsdal, a Norwegian documentary journalist who embedded with a Taliban commander named Dawran earlier this year.

Most American troops spend their tours in Afghanistan with only the vaguest idea of who they’re fighting. In June, a Special Forces A-Team in the south reportedly couldn’t find the Taliban. It wasn’t so hard for Refsdal. This self-described “tall white man” managed to effectively infiltrate the insurgency in one of its bastions. The only other person we know to have done anything similar is our crazy friend Nir Rosen, who’s been known to pass himself off as a Bosnian Muslim.


Refsdal portrays the Taliban as a bunch of dudes goofily hanging out: combing their long dyed hair; joking with one another; praying a ton; and repeatedly firing on U.S. convoys from high in the mountains. (“Use the rocket launcher, Rafiq, the rocket launcher.”) Dawran is a doting father of young kids who tells the reporter stories about how he came this close to killing a “traitor” but then took mercy on him. His men gawk at how scared Refsdal appears and can’t seem to load their ammunition properly.

Original source




It's uh....interesting. I don't even know what to say. The reporter must be out of his mind; the Taliban soldiers are simultaneously humanized and revealed as inhuman. Very different.

[Burris]

This is an organization that willingly kills civilians.

[Rob]

Yes it is, and a government that was justifiably removed from power.

But that doesn't make its adherents any less human.

[President Shrub]

Mind you they could be putting on a show for the camera.

[Penguin]

I'm half-surprised he didn't get blown up in an airstrike for WikiLeaks to cry about.

[Zyn]

Aaaaaaaand the video is gone.

[Beer|\/|onger]

Do you reckon that guy shot American troops to stay undercover?

[Latzen]

Do you reckon that guy shot American troops to stay undercover?

What? Of course he didn't shoot people. Photojournalism isn't undercover police work. The man said, "Hai guize, I wants to tak pictars!" not "Allahu Ackbar!"

[The Good King Bad]

Video removed. Is this the one where the insurgents play a few rounds of "who's on first" with a retarded spotter over a cell phone trying to ambush an outbound US convoy? And do they then go on to try to and detonate IEDs from a cellphone but fail miserably, and as they are walking away calling it quits after a hard days martyrdom joking about the cell phone they finally press a button and actually detonate one? It reads like an SNL skit up until the point that a month after the journalist left the group they overran and killed everyone in a local police station.