The Yellow-Tolo Leak

In the latest of Obama-Karzai tit for tat, the Yellow Building in Kabul has leaked some secret Afghan government documents to its marionette media entity Moby Group. The documents allege that President Karzai set free hundreds of suspected insurgents from Afghan prisons over the past two years.

The joint Yellow-Tolo report – apparently Moby executives cleared draft scripts with experts/officials at the Yellow Building – tempts Tolo’s Afghan audience to believe that President Karzai has been backing Taliban suicide attackers. Among other Afghans, Taliban attackers also target Northern Alliance leaders.

Spreading this sort of carefully packaged leak will make the already toxic political environment in Kabul far nastier for President Karzai as he’d be under increased heat from the so-called “loyal opposition” and the civil society.

The leak has all the hallmarks of “psyops” which US & NATO uses extensively in Afghanistan to shape and reshape events, politics and decisions.  

It comes as the White House is losing the spin juggle vs. President Karzai and is making  contradictory statements. For instance, the White House has said it seriously considers the zero-option – complete withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year - while Martin Depmsy, chairman of joint chiefs of staffs of US military, has said he neither considers this option nor recommends it.

The Obama administration also blundered in Doha, Qatar last month as it allowed the Taliban to officiate an unprecedented propaganda exhibit under James Dobbins’s nose.

Good leaks, bad leaks

Sometimes through the NY Times style “a Western diplomat who did not want to be named” and haphazardly via local satellites, the US has leaked Afghan government and political elite's secretes on numerous occasions.

This kind of leaking if in line with US’s interests and thus sanctioned as legit.

Ironically an Obama administration that follows toughest policies to root out any leaking of US government secretes has been sanctioning leaks in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.

Over the next days the Yellow Building’s media monitoring unit will be busy compiling reactions to the Tolo leak. The Building’s staffers will also be meeting Afghan influentials and asking “so, what do you think about this?”

Alas, one wishes details of this drama will one day leak to Wikileaks!