Taliban accidentally out entire PR mailing list

It is enough of a shocker that the Taliban even has a PR department. During a routine distribution of a press release, the Islamic fundamentalist group accidentally gave away the contact information of its 400-person mailing list, according to an ABC report Friday.

Apparently the Taliban regularly sends press releases in order to claim responsibility for militant attacks. Official Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmedi publicly CC’d the names and email addresses of the mailing list. The email was from the account of another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. Upon receiving the original email, Ahmedi forwarded Mujahid’s email to the Taliban’s PR list.

If you’re the Taliban, you might not want your entire mailing list made public. This is just what resulted when Ahmedi forgotten to BCC, or blind carbon copy, instead of regular CC. The full list was made public to all who received the press release.

According to ABC News, the list consists mostly of journalists, but several more high profile members of government, as well as “academics and activists” had their information leaked.

In recent weeks, the Taliban’s public relations people have been increasing the number of emails, now sending out several per day. The end of the “fight season” correlates with the increased emails.

Qari Yousuf Ahmedi failed to answer any of ABC News’ emails asking for a comment.

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