NBC Airs Exclusive Taliban Interview

On Tuesday evening, NBC News broadcast the “first Western interview with “Commander Ismail,” a 35-year-old Taliban commander behind some of the most deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

MSNBC.com has a story by Lisa Myers and the NBC investigative unit. “NBC News interviewed Ismail in August and again this month,” it says. “Both times, the Taliban made sure we could not provide their location to the U.S. military. An NBC producer was taken on a confusing seven hour odyssey to an unknown location, where Ismail then appeared.”

Also: “NBC News provided details of the interview to U.S. intelligence. Senior officials say his claims are consistent with what they know about the battle, and they have no reason to believe that the man is not Commander Ismail.”

NBC News analyst Rick Francona said the interview was revealing. “It’s important that all Americans see who we’re dealing with here — the face of the enemy,” he said.

Rantingprofs isn’t impressed. In a post called Giving Terror a Platform, Cori Dauber writes: “We learn nothing of substance from this interview. All we get out of it is the terrorist’s efforts to justify his actions, while he gets out of it the chance to legitimize himself by appearing to be someone worthy of a big-time network interview.”