Taliban Surveillance

The Taliban is repurposing a plan made by the U.S. to put in place mass camera surveillance in large Afghan cities in order to restore security.

There are currently 62,000 cameras in major Afghan cities operated from one control room. The new system will be set up strategically, to provide security and suppress the Islamic state and other militant groups.

“I think that’s plenty. I don’t know what the people of that country would prefer, but to me, who doesn’t live there, seems like a lot,” said Gretchen Frankenfield, a Findlay local.

The Afghan plan involves repurposing a plan by the U.S. before their 2021 pull-out from Afghanistan. The State Department said that they are not working on infrastructure with the Taliban.

“We should not have set the Taliban up with all of this equipment. They are a borderline terrorist group who have taken millions from the US military,” senior Adam Reddish said.

The Taliban claims to have reached out to Chinese technology corporation Huawei for possible collaboration.

“Strategically, it’s good for the Taliban. For safety it’s smart, they could make an alliance and that leads to more possible trading and stronger numbers, but it makes me nervous to see a country like Afghanistan get close with China,” Reddish continued.

Some analysts have questioned the financial ability of the regime to run the program. In 2021 there was a different camera plan which was not finished and would have cost an estimated $100 million dollars. The annual budget of the Taliban is two billion dollars, most of which is spent on defense.

“I think that they should focus on humanitarian efforts and make sure that their people have electricity and the infrastructure of the country; but, then again, we did go in and stomp them, so I could see their concern. There are other countries around them stomping them too, so they probably do need the defense,” Frankenfield said.

The Taliban claims that the cameras will not infringe on the rights of the Afghan people. Only 40% of the Afghan people have electricity; Still, the Taliban is determined to improve their camera systems.

“They say it’s an act of security, I don’t think it is, I think it’s intruding on the people of Afghanistan and their rights,” Reddish said.