WASHINGTON (KRT) – Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia might be preparing to poison humanitarian food supplies and blame the United States, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
“We are going to make sure that this is as widely known as fast and as far as we can,” said Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, the deputy director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He indicated that U.S. aircraft may drop leaflets and broadcast radio messages warning Afghan civilians against accepting food from the Taliban.
Stufflebeem’s allegations represented an unusual disclosure of top-secret intelligence and underscored the Pentagon’s sensitivity to what it says are efforts by the Taliban to use deception to weaken global support for the U.S. bombing campaign. There was no way to confirm his allegations independently.
“The United States has obtained information that the Taliban might intend to poison humanitarian food stuffs,” he said at a news conference, giving no details. “There are reports that the Taliban might poison the food and try to blame the United States.”
There is “no truth that we would poison” the food, Stufflebeem said. The United States is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to the estimated 6 million people believed to be facing starvation and exposure in Afghanistan this winter.
The United States has been pursuing a major information warfare operation as part of its offensive against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government accuses bin Laden of engineering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander in chief of Central Command, also accused the Taliban of exaggerating civilian casualties and hampering American efforts to provide aid in Afghanistan.
As commander of the Tampa, Fla.-based Central Command, Franks holds the same position as Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf did during the Persian Gulf War. Central Command has authority over U.S. forces from Pakistan, across the Middle East to North Africa.
U.S. officials are concerned that the alleged Taliban disinformation could undermine support for the U.S. anti-terrorism drive from Arab and other Muslim countries where bin Laden enjoys considerable popular support.
In an effort to counter Taliban claims, the Pentagon has owned up to a number of incidents in which it says U.S. weapons mistakenly hit civilian areas.
Franks, midway through a Persian Gulf tour to reaffirm regional support, said at a stop in Muharraq, Bahrain, on Wednesday that the U.S. military has been “absolutely open and absolutely honest about the casualties that we have caused and we will continue to do that.”