Biden against 9-11 victims

Daniel Greenfield reports faux-president Joe Biden's staff are opposing 9-11 victims in court, all for the sake of giving the Taliban money they don't deserve:

White House Democrats have a history of fighting against terror victims suing Islamic terrorists. The Obama administration battled American terror victims suing the PLO. In 2015, after they won a $218 million judgement against the terror group, Blinken, then only a deputy secretary of state, intervened claiming that the lawsuit threatened “several decades of US foreign policy.”

But now Biden is fighting 9/11 victims on behalf of the Taliban. At stake are billions being held by the Afghan central bank fund in the United States.

A decade ago, 9/11 families sued the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Iran. The court found that the Islamic terrorists were responsible and a judgement of $6 billion was handed down.

The verdict was described as "symbolic" at the time. CBS News commented that "it would be near impossible to collect any damages, especially from the Taliban or al Qaeda." But that was before Biden turned over Afghanistan to the Taliban. Since Afghanistan has assets in this country, including $7 billion in bank funds, it’s now entirely possible to collect that money.

Or it would be if the guy who let the Taliban take over wasn’t also in the White House.

Biden officially announced that he was splitting the $7 billion between the families of the victims and a "trust fund" to provide "humanitarian aid" for the people of Afghanistan.

But that was just another one of his many lies and double crosses involving Afghanistan.

The $3.5 billion was placed in a separate trust that would be "separate and distinct" from the around $800 million the Biden administration has already spent on aid to Afghanistan. Officials admitted that the money could actually be used for matters other than "humanitarian aid".

The media headlined it as, "Biden frees frozen Afghan billions for relief, 9/11 victims". But a Biden official admitted that it was done to stop 9/11 families from getting access to the money.

It goes without saying that to undermine victims and relatives of such a barbaric act as the attack on the WTC only compounds the evils of the Democrats. Now, thousands of 9-11 victims have been desecrated as the result of far-left ideologies.

Did anyone REALLY expect that this wouldn't happen?

The five Taliban commanders that Obama traded for Bowe Bergdahl

From CNN:

Detainee swapped for Bergdahl suspected of militant activities

The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar by making contact with suspected Taliban associates in Afghanistan...

But, remember, according to the White House, the Taliban is not a terrorist group.  Pffffft.

Viagra Is Haram!

So says the Taliban:

Pakistani Taliban members are threatening store owners to quit selling Viagra-type potency pills or “face the consequences,” according to a media report.

The shopkeepers are also being warned against selling “obscene films,” Agence France-Presse reports. The warnings are being distributed via handwritten pamphlets, the outlet reports.

“Selling sex, drugs, vulgar films and obscene movies are against Sharia,” the pamphlets read, in the name of a Taliban official, AFP reported. “All those involved in this business are warned to quit this occupation and start a lawful business or face the consequences.”

The market of this latest Taliban target is located in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar. Threats against shopkeepers for selling products offensive to the Taliban are not uncommon; hundreds of music shops have been targeted and bombed in the past, AFP reports.

Just in time for Valentine's Day!

Oh, wait.

Valentine's Day is haram, too.

Muslim Par-tay! Rockin' Da House With Mo and Allah

"Taliban Style Party" - 17 party-goers 'found beheaded' in southern Afghan village

From Will at The Other News:

"Taliban Style Party" - 17 party-goers 'found beheaded' in southern Afghan village.(TI).KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN:

Fifteen men and two women were found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Monday, punishment meted out by Taliban insurgents for a mixed-sex party with music and dancing, officials said.

The bodies were found in a house near the Musa Qala district, about 75 km (46 miles) north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, said district governor Nimatullah, who only goes by one name. "The victims threw a late-night dance and music party when the Taliban attacked" on Sunday night, Nimatullah told Reuters. 

There were no immediate claims of responsibility. In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, men and women do not usually mingle unless they are related, and parties involving both genders together are rare and highly secretive affairs. 

For the Taliban, flirting, open displays of affection and the mixing of men and women are vehemently condemned. According to witnesses of a major attack that killed 20 near Kabul in June, Taliban gunmen stormed a high-end hotel demanding to know where the "prostitutes and pimps" were. 


The Taliban said it launched that attack on Qarga Lake because the hotel was used for "wild parties". During their five-year reign, which was toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001, sparking the present NATO-led war, the Taliban banned women from voting, most work and leaving their homes unaccompanied by their husband or a male relative. 

Though those rights have been painstakingly regained, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places on earth to be a woman. Helmand governor spokesman Daud Ahmadi said a team had been sent to the site of beheadings to investigate.

Read the full story here.

Funding The Taliban In Afghanistan?

With a hat tip to Sam Huntington of Praesidiumn Respublicae, citing this source:

The U.S. military estimates that $360 million spent on combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has battled for nearly a decade: the Taliban, criminals and local power brokers with ties to both…

Some "war," huh? Our tax dollars are funding the enemy!

Talib al-Britani: British nationals caught supporting the Taliban

Britain’s connection to jihad in South Asia was once again cast into the spotlight with the capture of two British nationals with alleged links to the Taliban in Herat. The man and woman remain unidentified, and the British Ministry of Defense and Foreign Office have both merely confirmed that they were British nationals. Stories have started to circulate in the press that they were plotting an attack back in the U.K. and it seems that they were dual Afghan-British nationals known to MI5, though other reports indicate they may be of Pakistani origin. Whether they were planning an attack in the U.K. or not, the prospect of British nationals fighting British soldiers in Afghanistan is something that has long worried British officials. Either way, their presence shows the connection between the U.K. and fighting in Afghanistan continues to exist, a demonstration of how ingrained extreme ideas continue to be in the U.K.

Posts for Oct 4th: Saudi child bride, Choudhry's process, AQ threatens Christians, Taliban flog drug-addicts, Mosque's hate campaign in UK, Taliban blow schools

1. Saudi Arabia: 80-year-old man marries 14-year-old and now refuses to divorce: “Her father said he does not have the money (for the divorce) and is appealing for all benevolent people to help him so he will regain his daughter…the old man has threatened that they either pay him or he will take her by force.”
2. UK: Woman stabbed MP Timms "in revenge for Iraq war vote": Jeremy Dein QC, defending Roshonara Choudhry, 21, said she did not recognise the jurisdiction of the court and did not wish her lawyers to challenge evidence put before the jury.
3. Iraq: All Christians "targets", Al-Qaeda in Iraq says: Wednesday, the group released a new message saying, “The Ministry of War of Islamic State of Iraq declares that all the centers, organizations and bodies of Christian leaders and followers have become legitimate targets by the Mujahedeens, wherever our hands will reach them.” According to witnesses, one of the attackers was 12-years-old.
4. Pakistan: Taliban publicly flog men for "taking drugs" against their diktat: Members of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan detained 65 tribesmen on the “charge” of selling and using hashish and heroin... After they were “sentenced” by the militant court, the men were taken to a ground on Sunday and each of them was given 10 lashes by Taliban fighters as a large crowd watched.
5. UK: Mosque linked to hate campaign against Ahmadiyya Muslims: Evidence shows Ahmadiyya Muslims are being demonised and ostracised by UK Islamic fundamentalist group Khatme Nabuwat, whose hardline clerics have been preaching in south London mosques.
6. Pakistan: Taliban blow up another school in Mohmand Agency: Another girls primary school was destroyed by miscreants on Tuesday. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

Magazine: The People's Cube.

Posts for Nov 3rd: Iranians in Isle of Man, Imam condemned in Spain, Sakineh update, Malaysian blogger Kamaruddin, Iraqi massacre update, Women and the Taliban, Algeria ambush, Obama adviser on "anti-Muslim sentiment"

1. Investigation: Why did Iran register ships in the Isle of Man? File on 4 investigation has discovered questions over whether the Iranians have already sidestepped the international arms embargo, on the UK’s own doorstep by setting up companies in the Isle of Man to register ships for its fleet.
2. Spain: Cunit's imam, Benbraim Mhamed, sentenced to a year in prison for coercing a woman to wear the Hijab:The president of Cunit’s Islamic cultural association, Abderrahman el Osri, was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to nine months in prison and the imam’s daughter, Hafssa Ben Brahim, to pay a fine of 730 euros. They may not approach the victim or communicate with her for two years and must pay 1,500 euros in moral damages. If it would have been me, I would have expelled them all. They have given sufficient evidence (with death threats and intimidation to her family) that they are not succesfully integrated in Spanish society.
3. Apparently Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was going to be executed today, but in the end she has not. But her family is also fearing for the lifes of both his son and lawyer, both arrested with two German journalists when they were trying to speak about her. When attempting to secure lawyers for the two, authorities have said that the two men did not need legal representation.
4. Malaysia: exiled Muslim blogger accused of "insulting Islam" is free to return. He has refused: “This order has lapsed but it does not stop the authorities from seeking my client’s detention on other grounds should he return,” said lawyer Jadadish Chandra. He lives in the UK now.
5. Iraq: Pope sends mesage to Syriac Archbishop of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Vatican envoy to the UN, Archbishop Chullikatt, said that although the Holy See favors efforts to protect religion from “hate speech and incitement to violence,” his delegation was uneasy with the approach that targets “defamation of religion.” In practice, he said, measures promoted to stop “defamation of religion” have actually “served as a means for State-sponsored oppression of religious believers.” Let's see if someone really begins protesting about the abominable UN Resolution on the Defamation of Religions.
6. Afghanistan: negotiating with Taliban will crush women. "The evidence that girls will be able to go to school under the Taliban is slim. While girls might go to schools in some areas, in my experience, this is highly exceptional and by no means a uniform practice. The Taliban have been quite consistent in their beliefs that girls should not be educated and women who work outside the home deserve to die, a belief enacted in the Taliban’s murder of numerous female politicians, elections workers, policewomen and other prominent professional women. They are hardly interested in the protection or welfare of children given they regularly use children as suicide bombers and spotters and have hung boys they accuse of “spying for the Americans“".
7. Algeria: Islamic terrorists ambush soldiers: 2 killed, 3 wounded: On Oct 3rd, another 5 soldiers were killed on the same spot, a stronghold of AQIM.
8. US: Obama adviser decries "anti-Muslim sentiments".Hussain said he’s concerned about the increasing vitriol directed at Muslims, which he said may be due to their increasing visibility in the U.S. It’s a “reaction to a lot of progress made by Muslim communities,” he said.

Lastly, from Townhall.com:

Posts for Oct 20th: Evo Morales, Iranian universities, Taliban in South Korea, Saudi schoolgirls, Bomb in Pakistan, Hector Aleem, Indonesian Churches Attacked, Egyptian fundamentalism, Islam & Catalonia, Gadaffi in Europe

Latest posts on T&P:

1. Iran: Bolivian President Evo Morales on trade visit to "boost trade ties". Morales, who arrived on Sunday night, is to discuss an earlier agreement on projects worth 1.1 billion dollars over the next five years, and another 287-million-dollar investment by Iran in Bolivia.
   Morales’ second visit to Iran in two years was scheduled to last three days, the news network Press TV reported.
2. Iran: Govt forbids Universities from offering "Western subjects".“Expansion of 12 disciplines in the social sciences like law, women’s studies, human rights, management, sociology, philosophy….psychology and political sciences will be reviewed,” said Abolfazl Hassani, from the education ministry. These sciences’ contents are based on Western culture. The review will be the intention of making them compatible with Islamic teachings.”
3. South Korea: Govt fears Taliban are gaining foothold in the country. A man who was arrested when entering the country, said, during an interrogation that he was there to bomb US bases. But the problem is that the man had been entering 17 times during 5 years with a fake passport! They ask some pertinent questions, like if North Korea helped him in any stage of his endeavours.
4. Saudi Arabia: Schoolgirls warned against wearing "tight clothes". "”The schoolgirl’s dress must be in line with Islamic tenets…it must not be transparent or sticking to the body in a way that will highlight her organs…there should not be any resemblance to the boy’s dress as our prophet (peace be upon him) had cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men.”
5. Spain: Conference on "Islamic feminism". "There are currents within Islamic feminism. Moderate and radical, but they all flatly refused to talk about the veil, hijab-(and banning) because, they say, “is an excuse to distract from other substantive issues.” Some carry it always, some never, some “sometimes, because it is a symbol of submission,” argues Marie Laure. But most Muslims believe that Islamic feminism is “a threat” to their traditions and religion. Women as Masuma Assad (Union of Muslim Argentinian Women) for whom Islamic feminism “is aimed at the destruction of Islam to uphold the principles of secularism in Islamic societies".”
6. Pakistan: Bomb blast at Sufi shrine killls four. The actual death toll is 8. "Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have increasingly been the target of bloody attacks by Islamist militants in Pakistan".
7. Hector Aleem's trial for blasphemy: Mullahs gather outside the court. Hector Aleem is being tried in Pakistan for blasphemy against Mohammed, Islam’s prophet. On October 21st and 25th, the days of the hearings, some Mullahs were assembled in the main entrance of the court at Rawalpindi to chant slogans calling for his death and against Christianity and to shout “Allah Akbar“. His family has made some videos from a mobile phone.
8. Indonesia: 700 churches attacked in past decade. "The violence also increases the indifference of the civil authorities and police, who shrug off the violence".
9. Egypt: Islamic fundamentalism rising, govt suspends 12 TV channels. They were promoting religious hatred, violence and quack medicine.
10. Spain: pro-independency Catalonian entity wants to show the "bonds that historically have existed between Islam and Catalonia". "Muslims should vote for pro-independency parties, as they rely on us to get votes. But what they do not know is that, when they let us vote, we’ll all vote for Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils and from there with the great powers of Catalan autonomy, Islam will begin to be implemented" (Abdelwahab Houzi, Salafist Imam, Lérida, Catalonia).
11. Europe should convert to Islam, Gadaffi says.MUAMMAR Gaddafi sparked a backlash yesterday after calling on Europeans to convert to Islam, and demanding billions of euros to stop migration leading to a “black Europe”.

US Navy Gets it Right

Afghanistan: election's day amid threats and kidnappings

Elections on Afghanistan were held amid the threats from the Talibans against the voters, the kidnappings of several campaign workers and, probably, of a candidate too, and the risks that female candidates have in this country.
About violence, yesterday there were several episodes of violence against voters. The most important ones are these two. The first, from Reuters:

"One national army and six Arbaki (militiamen) were killed in the attack," Baghlan's police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, told reporters by phone. Five others were wounded in the attack in Baghlan province, which took place near a polling station and an adjacent security outpost.

The second reported by Herald Sun:

That Spinning Sound You Hear Is General Patton

This just makes my hair hurt. Since when does a general of the US military, in the field, express concern about protests against the ENEMY that are being conducted at home?

I don't care whether Terry Jones' "burn a Koran Day" idea is a "good" one or not. He and his church are not committing censorship or preventing anyone from obtaining their very own copy of the Krayon. Assuming they bought those Korans and didn't cat-burgle a mosque, this protest of theirs falls under acts of free speech, period. (It doesn't get anywhere near "yelling fire in a crowded theater" because there is no rational reason for anyone to react to it by rioting and killing.)

This is so infuriating that if I weren't going to be in NYC at the GZ protest -- NOT holding a sign for some reason -- I'd be down there in Florida holding Terry Jones' coat for him.

If some moron decided to stage a "Burn Atlas Shrugged Day" I'd say meh, the more fool he, and ignore him. The fact that Muslims are hysterical immature savages with no concept of individual rights is no concern of General Petraeus. His job is to KILL THE TALIBAN BASTARDS, not to worry about whether their feelings are hurt.

And while we're at it, General, would you like us to destroy all remaining prints of those old Donald Duck anti-Nazi WWII cartoons? I suppose it might have been feared that such "offensive" expressions would "endanger" General Patton's Third Army. Care to guess what General Patton would have had to say about that?

Petraeus Warns Against Church's Koran Burning
Published September 06, 2010
FoxNews.com

A Florida church's plan to burn Korans on Sept. 11 isn't doing the troops in Afghanistan any favors, Gen. David Petraeus said Monday.

Hundreds of Afghans protested Monday in Kabul over the decision by the Gainesville, Fla.-based Dove World Outreach Center's decision to burn copies of what Muslims consider the word of God.

Petraeus said he's concerned that the protests could spread across the country.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan. It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community," Petraeus said in a statement provided to Fox News.

Though Dove World Outreach Center has been denied a permit to hold a bonfire, the Koran burning is still scheduled to proceed on Saturday. The burning -- set to mark nine years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- follows a campaign last year in which the church distributed T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil."

In a blog on the church's website, writer Fran Ingram offered the groups’ reasoning for burning the Koran, arguing that it is not God's word and denies Jesus is the son of God, that Islam is totalitarian and that the religion teaches idolatry, paganism, rites and rituals.

"We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful. We do not hate any people, however. We love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth," the blog reads.

Other writings by the same blogger include headlines like "Islam is Cursed by Cursing Israel" and "The Koran: A Sorcerer's Scroll."

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the church's plans, saying Washington was "deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

But outside the U.S. Embassy, where as many as 500 protestors chanted "Long live Islam" and "Death to America," demonstrators argued that the church isn't acting of its own will.

"We know this is not just the decision of a church. It is the decision of the president and the entire United States," said Abdul Shakoor, an 18-year-old high school student who said he joined the protest after hearing neighborhood gossip about the Koran burning. [Get your sorry ass into a Taliban gang, Abdul, the Marines need you for target practice.]

Burning a Koran is considered by Muslims among the most offensive actions taken against Islam. In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Koran in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. [Can't make up their effing minds, can they? Which is it that's offensive, burning them or tossing them in the toilet to put them out?] Newsweek later retracted the story.

Fox News' Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Holder: Pakistani Taliban Behind Times Square Attack

Surprised?

In his first Sunday morning interview, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that the Pakistani Taliban was behind Faisal Shahzad’s attempted bombing of Times Square last week.

“We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack,” Holder said on “This Week.”

“We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their direction.”

Times Square bomb suspect had ties to key Pakistani militants

Faisal Shahzad's family background may help explain why he grew radicalized and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban, sources say.

From the La Times:

Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, grew up in a Pakistani family whose circle of acquaintances included two future militants — a Taliban leader and one of the participants in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, a government source said Friday.

Officials now believe this family background may help explain why Shahzad, after immigrating to the United States, grew radicalized and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban via the Internet. The group would have welcomed him because as a naturalized U.S. citizen, he could easily travel to and from Pakistan.

Agents interviewing Shahzad, 30, who lived in Connecticut, also learned that he was upset over repeated CIA drone attacks on militants in Pakistan, his native country. He was also troubled by marital and financial difficulties and a foreclosure on his home, said the government source, who has been briefed on the investigation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The revelations provide fresh indications that the Pakistani Taliban — in the past mainly concerned with fighting the Pakistani government — has broadened its focus to include the U.S. by encouraging Shahzad to detonate a Nissan Pathfinder in New York last week.

But it remained unclear whether Shahzad's Internet contact with the Taliban was an attempt to volunteer, or whether the militants reached out to him.

"What we don't know is if he was actively recruited by these guys or if he recruited himself," said a second source, a senior U.S. official.

But, the senior official said, if the Taliban has widened its focus to carry out attacks on the United States, then "it would change the game." He added that it could force the U.S. to reassess the threat it faces from Pakistan and how best to respond.

Taliban Taking Credit?

Yes, according to The Long War Journal.

If so, it lends credence to the theory it WAS Islam/Taliban since the audio tape must have been recorded before the attack was thwarted. It states it was "a jaw-breaking blow to Satan USA".

Bit premature on that, eh Mehsud? You worthless goatfucker.

Interesting to note that the original YouTube audio has already been pulled for terms of use violation.

The bigger question is, if this is indeed Islam, is this the beginning of the response to the Final Call to Jihad?

Wake up and pay attention, people.

(quick update -- Jawa saw the video before it was pulled and states that it had been uploaded April 30, 2010. BEFORE the bombing attempt. This is starting to more and more walk like a duck. . .)

Pakistani Taliban claim credit for failed NYC Times Square car bombing
By Bill RoggioMay 2, 2010 10:24 AM

A top Pakistani Taliban commander took credit for yesterday's failed car bomb attack in New York City.

Qari Hussain Mehsud, the top bomb maker for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, said he takes "fully responsibility for the recent attack in the USA." Qari Hussain made the claim on an audiotape accompanied by images that was released on a YouTube website that calls itself the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.

The tape has yet to be verified, but US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal believe it is legitimate. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on YouTube was created on April 30. Officials believe it was created to announce the Times Square attack, and Qari Hussain’s statement was pre-recorded.

"This attack is a revenge for the great & valuable martyred leaders of mujahideen," Qari Hussain said. He listed Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed in a Predator strike in August 2009, and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the former leader of al Qaeda Islamic State of Iraq who was killed by Iraqi forces in mid-April. And although he was not mentioned, an image of Abu Ayyub al Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was also displayed in the images accompanying the audiotape.

Qari Hussain also said the failed attack was "revenge for the Global American interference & terrorism in Muslim countries, especially in Pakistan for Lal Masjid operation," a reference to the July 2008 Pakistani military assault on Islamists holed up in the Red Mosque in Islamabad, as well as Predator strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas and the arrest and detention of Pakistani scientist Aifa Siddique.

Qari Hussain warned NATO that it must denounce the US and apologize for "the massacres in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistani tribal areas otherwise be prepared for the worst destruction and devastation in their regions."

At the opening of the tape, the failed car bomb was described as a "jaw-breaking blow to Satan USA," however Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the device, which failed to detonate, as “amateurish.”

The car bomb was discovered Saturday evening after a street vendor spotted smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder SUV and alerted police.

The bomb squad was dispatched to the scene and discovered a crude bomb made of “three canisters of propane like those used for barbecue grills, two five-gallon cans of gasoline, consumer-grade fireworks … and two clocks with batteries,” The New York Times reported.

Police currently do not have a suspect. The license plate is not registered to the Nissan, and the vehicle identification number has been removed. Police are also looking at video from surrounding stores to see if they can determine anything about the identity of the bomber.

Taliban Say Buildup Under Way

Newsmax:

AP Exclusive: Taliban Say Buildup Under Way
Sunday, 18 Apr 2010 07:19 PM

The Taliban are moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer showdown with insurgents, according to a Taliban commander with close ties to senior insurgent leaders.

NATO and Afghan forces are stepping up operations to push Taliban fighters out of the city, which was the Islamist movement's headquarters during the years it ruled most of Afghanistan. The goal is to bolster the capability of the local government so that it can keep the Taliban from coming back.

The Taliban commander, who uses the pseudonym Mubeen, told The Associated Press that if military pressure on the insurgents becomes too great "we will just leave and come back after" the foreign forces leave.

Despite nightly raids by NATO and Afghan troops, Mubeen said his movements have not been restricted. He was interviewed last week in the center of Kandahar, seated with his legs crossed on a cushion in a room. His only concession to security was to lock the door.

He made no attempt to hide his face and said he felt comfortable because of widespread support among Kandahar's 500,000 residents, who like the Taliban are mostly Pashtuns, Afghanistan's biggest ethnic community.

"Because of the American attitude to the people, they are sympathetic to us," Mubeen said. "Every day we are getting more support. We are not strangers. We are not foreigners. We are from the people."

It is difficult to measure the depth of support for the Taliban among Kandahar's people, many of whom say they are disgusted by the presence of both the foreign troops and the insurgents. Many of them say they are afraid NATO's summer offensive will accomplish little other than trigger more violence.

Mubeen said Taliban attacks are not random but are carefully planned and ordered by the senior military and political command that assigns jobs and responsibilities to its rank and file. The final arbiter is the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who heads the council, or shura, that decides strategic goals which are passed down the ranks to commanders in the field, he said.

"We are always getting instructions from our commanders, what suicide attacks to carry out, who to behead if he is a spy," Mubeen said, gesturing with a maimed hand suffered during fighting in 1996 when the Taliban were trying to gain control of the capital of Kabul.

Then, like now, his enemies were members of the Northern Alliance, dominated by Afghanistan's minority ethnic groups and returned to power by the U.S.-led coalition following the Taliban's collapse in 2001.

Mubeen, a native of Zabul province, worked with the Taliban's civil aviation minister, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, during the Taliban's five-year rule. In the final days before the Taliban abandoned Kandahar in 2001, Mubeen played a crucial logistical role, helping move weapons and supplies to hideouts outside the city.

Mullah Mansoor was one of two senior Taliban figures named by Mullah Omar to replace the No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader, who was arrested in Pakistan in February.

Mubeen said that in the first years after the Taliban were routed, fighters had to survive in the mountains, rarely making forays into Afghan towns and villages. He attributed the Taliban comeback to deep resentment — especially among ethnic Pashtuns — to the presence of foreign military forces and public disgust with the Afghan government.

"Our brothers are already here and ready," he said. "Our people are skilled now. They know a lot of things, how to make things more difficult and to be more sophisticated in our attacks."

Mubeen said Taliban fighters had received better training, although he would not say where and by whom.

"But we were interested to get the training and we understood that we needed the training," he said.

Mubeen said the Taliban's main goal in the war is the establishment of sharia, or Islamic law, in Afghanistan. When they ruled the religious militia enforced an antiquated and regressive interpretation of Islamic law that appalled the West, including publicly amputating hands and feet for theft and carrying out public executions.

"We want sharia. That is first. Everything else comes after that," he said. "People want sharia and then development."

Mubeen said he was confident that efforts by President Hamid Karzai and his international partners to win over rank-and-file members with promises of amnesty, jobs and money would not succeed in undermining the insurgents.

"The government and the Americans did a lot of work to make disputes in the Taliban and to give money to the Taliban," he said.

He also said peace negotiations with the Taliban leadership would not take place without the blessing of Mullah Omar.

"The world community should leave our country and then we are ready to negotiate," he said.

Afghanistan: Support for Taliban Hits 25%

Public support for the Taliban hit an “all time high” in Kandahar province last spring.

Polling data compiled by the Canadian Military shows 25 per cent of respondents said they had a favourable view of the Taliban, including six per cent with a “very favourable” opinion.

The Canadian Press reports the data says “International economic assistance is heavily preferred over military assistance.”

The survey was part of the 2009 military spring campaign assessment.

The survey also finds one-third of respondents said they had an unfavourable impression of foreign soldiers.

via 580 CFRA News Talk Radio.

Can this be the reason why recently Karzai threatened to join the Taliban? Or was that reaction caused by another causes?

25% of support means than one out of four have a favourable view of the Taliban while one out of three have the opposite opinion of foreign troops, that is NATO. It's an important part of the population, specially because there is a growing trend of support for the Taliban:

"The Taliban (is) not winning public consent," said the study. "Afghans still strongly prefer the (government of Afghanistan), but confidence is waning due to lack of security, justice, basic services."

The report's analysis focused on the tide of rising violence that followed the spectacular attack on Sarpoza prison in June 2008, a seminal event that ground commanders hoped would only dent public confidence.

As it turned out, the perception of insecurity it created was long-standing and the numbers did not "bounce back" as expected, the survey noted.

"Fewer Kandaharis report feeling safe than in previous polls; more believe that security is worsening than improving," said the study, carried out in February 2009.

So, this means that actually the Taliban are not winning the people's favour, but rather that the foreign troops are losing it.

Ajmal Samadi, director of the Human Rights group Afghanistan Rights Monitor, defends that foreigners have not understood Afghan politics and that there are people in the country who considered that, even if they were harsh, they made them feel strong and protected.

Meanwhile Kandahar's governor considers that people in villages are "hostages" of the Taliban and that they can't do anything but supporting them.

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Cross-posted from T&P.

Iran is training the Taliban, The Times says

Image via Wikipedia

The attack was a training exercise overseen by Iranian security officials in plain clothes. The Taliban do not know whether they were police officers, soldiers or secret service agents. What they can say is that in camps along the border between Afghanistan and Iran, Taliban recruits are being taught how to ambush British, American and other Nato troops using guns and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

They are learning to attack checkpoints as well as mountain bases. Iranian instructors are also giving them target practice on desert ranges with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

... A Taliban (Sunni) commander who has been trained in Iran (Shia) said last week: “Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans.”

(via).

Meanwhile, the Taliban leader Hetmayar has "offered" a peace proposal (via), something shocking specially because he is the leader of one of the three most important Taliban groups. It would be quite stupid to make peace with one of those groups, while the others continue attacking. :|

The plan calls for a full withdrawal of NATO and allied troops by the end of 2010, a withdrawal of those forces from cities to remote bases in the interim, and a full turnover of security to the Afghan Army and police. "Foreign troops will have no rights to carry out military operations, house search and arrests on their own anywhere in Afghanistan," the statement read.

That said, I don't think NATO can trust any of these guys: they know that if they succeed in pushing ISAF troops to leave Afghanistan, their possibilities of returning to power multiply.

Cross-posted from T&P.

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• U.S.: Taliban fighters training in Iran (cnn.com)
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You'll kindly recall, please, that Uncle Barry and his crones say the Taliban should have a plate at the Afghan government Table.

Perhaps first he should talk to Meena.

from Stormbringer:

FREEDOM FIGHTERS OR TERRORISTS - YOU DECIDE

From a remarkable BBC Interview:

BOMBS AND BEATINGS: LIFE AMONGST THE TALIBAN
5 February 2010

In Pakistan an account of life with the Taliban has emerged from a 13-year-old girl called Meena, who says her own family tried to turn her into a suicide bomber.

My brother used to tell me that the place for a woman is either at home or in the grave. I was always restricted to home.

He said: "If you leave the house I'll cut off your head and put it on your chest."

My brother had been to the local school and beaten the girls and the teachers.

Taliban commanders used to come to our house. There was an underground bunker beside the house, with electricity.

It was concrete and very strong. Cars would drive on top but no-one would realize what was underneath. In that hideout they used to train suicide bombers.

Most were children of my age or younger than me. They were used for these activities because they were too young to know any better.

Going to 'Paradise'

I used to see these children getting on a vehicle to go for their missions. They used loud Islamic CDs to motivate them.

And I would think, "My God, more Muslims are going to be buried". Then the news would come that more Muslims were wiped out.

My brother used to prepare bombs and my sister-in-law did too. He told me that he would teach me this. I told him no. I would not even look at what they were doing.

My father and brother told me to carry out a suicide attack. They were pressuring me to do this.
They told me: "If you do it you will go to paradise long before us." I replied: "Why don't you tell me I will go to hell long before you?"

Every day they used to tell me this. Every day. I was very young when they started telling me this. I said to them: "What about all the people I will kill? They are all Muslims."

Bomber's Medicine

They started beating me when I refused. They beat me non-stop. They made my life hell. I never had a single moment of happiness. They did everything other than kill me.

They said: "The bomb will be connected with a button, or something like the remote control of a TV. We will give you this kind of remote, and you will go to the place.

"We will also give you a mobile, and we will ring that phone, and press the remote, and you will be blown up with this bomb."

They told me they would use such a large amount of explosives that no-one would even know if it was a man or a woman.

They told me that I had to do it.

There was a kind of medicine they used to give to the bombers that made them go around smiling, in a trance.

They said they would give me that medicine, and then I would go running to die - with a smile. I was so scared I decided to prepare my own tea, and my own food.

I was afraid they would mix that medicine with my food.

Sister's Story

They attached a bomb to my sister Nahida. They tied rectangular pieces to both her arms, and a black strip was wrapped around both her legs.

Then they connected the whole thing. She told my brother the bomb was heavy and she could not walk.

He said she would be comfortable once she was sitting down in the car.

They gave her medicine. But she was crying very loud for my mother. She kept going to her and hugging her. When my sister looked down at the bomb, she shivered.

Then my brother and my father started beating my mother, and they were shouting: "Why you are distracting the girl from her mission?"

I heard my sister saying: "Where is Meena? I want to see her." But I didn't have the strength. My heart couldn't take it.

My mother fainted when they put her in the car. My brother said my sister's attack was in Afghanistan.

I always think about my sister. She was healthy and a very nice girl. She was younger than me, but she was wiser. My mother used to tell me that I was an idiot, but she was very wise.

A 'Lucky Goat'

My brother was involved in the Khyber Bazaar bombing (in the frontier city of Peshawar in October 2009, in which more than 50 people were killed). It was discussed in the house.

When someone was sent somewhere they would talk about the target.

They would say: "We are sending this group there."

After the bombings they would celebrate. They would garland each other with flowers as people do when they come back from the Haj.

When (former Pakistani Prime Minister) Benazir Bhutto died my brother started calling everybody. They started firing, and saying "Benazir has died, Benazir has died". Everybody started firing - they celebrated until it was very late.

My brother visited a friend's house after many years and was given a goat and a motorbike which he brought home.

They used to get animals as gifts because there were so many Taliban to be fed. He asked me to take care of the goat but she ran out of the gate. I went after her.

Our house was on a ridge. There was a stream down below. She went down to the stream and I followed her. A plane came making a lot of noise, and vibrations. (This was an attack by a helicopter gunship.)

When I looked back up to my place all I could see was a lot of smoke rising. My house was turned into rubble.

I didn't have a clue about how many of my family members were dead or alive. Since that place was full of arms and explosives I could hear big bangs.

Then I started walking and by the evening prayers I had reached a local town.

People say I have a strong heart. I've had to be strong. What can I do? God won't even let me die.

If my brother gets hold of me, I will poison him and myself.

The Taliban slaughter other people's children. They turn women into widows. They should be made to suffer too.

I want these Taliban to be burned alive.

There is no independent confirmation of her account but police say they believe she is telling the truth, and her information could be valuable.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A common theme of the liberals in our country and repeated by the Left in the other developed countries, is that the war in Afghanistan - like the war in Iraq - is an "unnecessary war".

If for no other reason, we are there to free the oppressed from the kind of savagery Meena described above.

There is a segment of the liberal Left who would decry our actions, who claim that it is the West who has driven the Taliban to become who they are.

These people call themselves 'Progressives'.

Obama Funder Jodie Evans on Her New ‘Tali’ Pals: Taliban Bring Peace and Justice, U.S. Created ‘Hell on Earth’ in Afghanistan

From Big Government:

[Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans. Click here to read earlier articles.]

Photo Credit RAWA

In a wide-ranging interview released this week by MIPtalk, Obama funder, terrorist sympathizer and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans spoke about her meetings with the Taliban and President Barack Obama. She lauded the Taliban for bringing peace and justice to Afghanistan while saying that the U.S. has failed to deliver either.

In a separate interview with Lauren Steiner, Jodie Evans went further in her criticism of the United States saying that we had created “hell on earth” in Afghanistan.

Jodie Evans also spoke about being called on by Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff for a morning-after briefing following her hand delivery of a propaganda package to Obama about Afghanistan.

Jodie Evans admits in the interview she does “a lot to not support the troops.”

(more…)