Taliban Behead Man as a Gift to Obama

Yep. He really does seem to be restoring America's reputation. After all, can any of you recall George W. Bush receiving such a gift?

This report from courier.com:

Taliban militants beheaded an Afghan in Pakistan's lawless tribal region after accusing him of spying for the United States, local police said today
The 35-year-old man was kidnapped one week ago and his body found today in Razmak some 65km south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, an official said.

"He was slaughtered overnight. His headless body was put on the roadside," police official Munir Khan said.

A note found on the body of the man, identified as Shafiq Gul, said he was "spying for the US".

"Whoever spies for the US will face the same fate. This is a gift to (US President Barack) Obama," the note said.

My cat used to leave squirrel heads on the porch as a show of appreciation. Same thing I guess.

Taliban Demanding Locals' Daughters to be Their Wives

Yet any day now I expect to see crowds of left-wing nutjobs protesting in their support.

The Taliban are their own worst enemy. Despite the pressure from the Pakistani army along the Afghan border, some Taliban leaders are demanding that tribes hand over young women to be wives for Taliban fighters. This is very unpopular with the tribes, and was one of the major complaints that led to tribes going to war with al Qaeda groups. In addition to burning down schools for girls and killing those who teach girls, the Taliban are also ordering women to stay away from markets, or working outside the home, unless they have a male escort from their family. These are the same attitudes that turned the Sunni Arab tribes against al Qaeda in Iraq, and is doing the same thing among the Pushtun tribes on both sides of the Afghan border.

Video: Taliban Release Video of French Hostage

This will most likely make you very angry.

A French aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan earlier this month has appeared in a video with two rifles pressed to either side of his head and chains around his legs.

In the video, obtained by news agencies in Afghanistan, the dirt-streaked man barely seems to open his eyes as he pleads for his release.

"I have been here for the last eight days, fully in the black," says the hostage, who i More..dentifies himself as Dany Egreteau.

Egreteau was captured by gunmen in Kabul Nov. 3 as he drove to work with another aid worker, who managed to escape. An Afghan who tried to prevent the kidnapping was killed.

It was unclear when the video was taken, although Egreteau's statement suggests it was shot just over a week after he was ambushed.

Fighting Al Qaeda

US efforts to stop al Qaeda in Afghanistan are working but there's still more to be done. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.

Pakistan and U.S. Have a Deal on Airstrikes

I think this arrangement has been obvious for some time considering the Pakistanis don't do anything but whine every time we kill people inside their borders. I mean, they don't shoot at us anymore. It also explains the neophyte Obama's comments during the debate that he would strike Al Qaeda in Pakistan even without Pakistan's permission. That is to say, he already knew we had their permission. He was just acting all John Wayne for the cameras. By the way, it doesn't make feel all that safe when Obama and the Washington Post announce our foreign policy strategies to the public.

The United States and Pakistan reached tacit agreement in September on a don't-ask-don't-tell policy that allows unmanned Predator aircraft to attack suspected terrorist targets in rugged western Pakistan, according to senior officials in both countries. In recent months, the U.S. drones have fired missiles at Pakistani soil at an average rate of once every four or five days.

The officials described the deal as one in which the U.S. government refuses to publicly acknowledge the attacks while Pakistan's government continues to complain noisily about the politically sensitive strikes.

The arrangement coincided with a suspension of ground assaults into Pakistan by helicopter-borne U.S. commandos. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview last week that he was aware of no ground attacks since one on Sept. 3 that his government vigorously protested.

Officials described the attacks, using new technology and improved intelligence, as a significant improvement in the fight against Pakistan-based al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. Officials confirmed the deaths of at least three senior al-Qaeda figures in strikes last month.
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Zardari said that he receives "no prior notice" of the airstrikes and that he disapproves of them. But he said he gives the Americans "the benefit of the doubt" that their intention is to target the Afghan side of the ill-defined, mountainous border of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), even if that is not where the missiles land.

Here's a really cool video that details how the U.S. military works those drones.

Taliban Threatens to Attack in Paris

The Islamist group issues a video threatening attacks on Paris unless French troops pull out of Afghanistan.

They also claim their fighters were behind an ambush in August in which 10 French troops were killed.

See a video report here.

BEST WAR PORN EVER

"In the wild and lawless lands of rural Afghanistan the Taliban are playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with US troops. Under US commander Capt. Workman we march deep into Taliban country. This region is only 60 miles from Kabul, but it feels like the end of the earth. The Taliban have claimed four new victims, and US troops are in pursuit.

PAKISTAN AIR STRIKES KILL 60 MILITANTS

Let's hope this is a sincere effort. It appears Pakistan may be putting an end to its double game.

Pakistan's military says its warplanes have killed about 60 Islamist militants in a strike in the northwestern Swat Valley.

A spokesman for the military says fighter jets bombed a big militant training camp and Taliban cave hideouts deep in the mountains.

He says sources from the area have confirmed that 60 militants have been killed.

HOLY HELL!: WHAT IS THIS THING?

I'm sure there is an English version out there, but this is a Turkish report about a weapon the U.S. is developing and/or already using against the Taliban. You don't need to understand what they're saying to know that whatever this is, it's pretty damn scary.

100 TALIBAN LEARN THE HARD WAY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH SASQUATCH

Right on my pasty white brothers:

About 100 militants were killed in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, half in air strikes that thwarted a major attack on a key town overnight, Afghan and British forces said on Sunday.

The attempt to enter Lashkar Gah from three directions was “virtually unprecedented” in the area in the scale of the attacking force and their degree of coordination, British military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Woody Page said.

Between 50 and 60 militants, part of a group of 150 that had been seen massing outside of the town for several days, were killed in air strikes that stopped them from entering Lashkar Gah, the Afghan and British forces said. Around 40 more were killed in a three-day operation in the nearby Nad Ali district that wound up on Saturday, they said.

UK MILITARY COMMANDER SAYS WAR AGAINST THE TALIBAN CANNOT BE WON

Witness the total collapse of the British Empire. Imagine if the Americans had told the British that the war against Nazi Germany could not be won. Frankly, the Brits and every other European country are worthless as military allies. Absolutely worthless. And that spells the end of Western Civilization.

Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the British public should not expect a “decisive military victory” but should be prepared for a possible deal with the Taliban.

His assessment followed the leaking of a memo from a French diplomat who claimed that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador in Kabul, had told him the current strategy was “doomed to fail”.

Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, said it was necessary to “lower our expectations”. He said: “We’re not going to win this war. It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army.”

PAKISTAN AWAKENING: TRIBES TURN AGAINST TALIBAN

Shades of Iraq:

Intensive Pakistani military action in the border areas has emboldened several tribes to turn against Taliban militants.

The Salarzai tribe in Bajaur, where the military is conducting a bloody campaign against militants, has formed a militia to throw the Taliban out of their area.

The operation in Bajaur has caused heavy civilian casualties and forced 300,000 to flee their homes. But the intensity of the fighting has sent out a strong message of the military’s determination, and made tribal leaders realise that even staying neutral may invite the wrath of the authorities.

On Friday about 400 men brandishing weaponry that ranged from rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs to ancient rifles gathered in the Bajauri town of Raghagan to chant support for the Pakistani government.

The Lashkar, or militia, had gathered to meet a group of journalists taken to Bajaur by the military to show that their operation had the support of locals.

The Salarzai militia is at the vanguard of several tribes on the Pakistani-Afghan border that have formed militias to keep the Taliban – and hence western-backed military operations against them – out of their areas.

Last week they burnt the offices of local Taliban commanders and killed half a dozen fighters.

Many people interviewed in the frontier areas said they had suffered enough of the Taliban’s summary justice. Many thought that local criminals had adopted the dress of the Taliban.

Military officials said tribesmen in other districts of Bajaur were raising militias to expel foreign militants. The next militia expected to be raised may be from the Mamund district even though some Arabs linked to al Qa’eda had family links with the valley.

When thousands of al Qa’eda and Taliban militants fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the tribes sheltered them, viewing them as successors of the mujahideen who fought the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In 2003, Islamabad launched army operations at Washington’s behest in the tribal belt, especially the notorious Waziristan area, but civilian deaths helped to radicalise and fire up many more tribesmen against the government.

TALIBAN IN SECRET TALKS TO END AFGHAN WAR

Needless to say, I'm very skeptical of this story. If true at all, such a ploy would be either to effect U.S. elections, or to allow them time to regroup. No way the murderers in charge of the Taliban are just going to give up their power. No way.

TALIBAN leaders have reportedly been in secret talks about ending the Afghan war in a peace process sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain.

The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former Taliban member acting as a go-between, according to the Observer newspaper.

He has been travelling between the Afghan capital Kabul, Saudi Arabia and European capitals, and the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan.

The Taliban are understood to have submitted a list of 11 conditions for ending hostilities, which include demands to be allowed to run key ministries and a programmed withdrawal of Western troops.

The go-between has spent weeks ferrying lists of demands and counter-demands between parties. He has visited London to speak to Foreign Office and MI6 personnel.

However, the Observer reported the talks had lost momentum over the intense summer fighting season.

JOE BIDEN TELLING MORE TALL TALES: MISLEADS CROWD ABOUT HIS HELICOPTER BEING FORCED DOWN IN AFGHANISTAN

I swear, all Democrats are pathological liars.

Earlier this week we reported on Joe Biden lying about a drunk driver killing his wife. Now, Joe Biden is telling more tall tales. From Newsbusters:

Back on September 10 in a visit to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden seemed to hint that al Qaeda forced down a helicopter he was traveling in when he was visiting Afghanistan in February of 2008. He made the claim again on September 22 in a campaign stop at the National Guard Association. The truth, however, is not exactly what Biden may be trying to allege. Thus far, only ABC's Jake Tapper is exposing the ruse for what it is, a misleading tale pumped up to make his Afghanistan visit seem more menacing than it really was.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that on September 10 Biden told a Chicago audience a harrowing tale about his helicopter ride.

"The superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down...John McCain wants to know where Bin Ladin and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That's where Al Quaida is. That's where Bin Ladin is. It's not in the country of Iraq."

Wow. Forced down was it? Biden says this as if it were some attack that forced his helicopter down, doesn't he? However, immediately after that September 10 campaign stop, it came out pretty quickly that Biden's helicopter was not forced down by enemy weapons fire. No, it was a snow storm in the mountains that "forced" the aircraft down and then only because the pilot thought the better decision would be to err on the side of safety. He had generals and Senators in his craft, after all. You can imagine how nervous the pilot was in that case.

Now, let's face the truth here. Biden would not be using the words "forced down" without explaining that it was weather that forced him down unless he meant to convey that he was forced down in some extraordinary circumstances, as if he'd been fired upon. If he didn't mean to mislead the audience into imagining that weapons fire "forced" his craft down he would say that "when the weather forced down my helicopter." If he didn't mean to give his helicopter ride more gravity, the "forced down" part was meaningless to the greater point.

TALIBAN USING SKYPE TO AVOID DETECTION

Interesting:

Taliban fighters targeting British troops in Afghanistan are using the latest ‘internet phones’ to evade detection by MI6, security sources said last night.

Skype, a popular piece of consumer software that allows free calls to be made over the web, has been adopted by insurgents to communicate with cells strung out across the country.

Unlike traditional mobile calls, which can be monitored by RAF Nimrod spy planes, Skype calls – the commercial application of a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – are heavily encrypted.

The British and American governments are investing considerable resources to crack the codes, and in the UK the Government is introducing legislation to force internet service providers to log all web activity by subscribers, which could then be turned over to the security services on demand.

AMERICAN TALIBAN DEAD WHERE HE STANDS

Cya turd!

Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa'eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.

Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called "killer computer nerd" originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.

Mr Gadahn has been credited with helping transform al-Qa'eda's al-Sahab propaganda wing into a slick operation which communicates in fluent English and produces professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year.

BUSH WARNS OF SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES OVER PAKISTAN'S AID TO TALIBAN

That's right! Serious action! No more 7-11 job exchange program.

The United States has accused Pakistan’s main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting.

President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gillani, Pakistan’s prime minister, in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI, its military intelligence, in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues.

The move comes amid growing fears that Pakistan’s tribal areas are turning into a global launch pad for terrorists.

Bush warned that if one more attack in Afghanistan or elsewhere were traced back to Pakistan, he would have to take “serious action”.

BRITISH MUSLIMS FIGHTING WITH THE TALIBAN

Don't anyone in Britain act surprised.

British Muslims are part of the Taliban militia fighting against UK security forces in Afghanistan, a top British commander, who served in the restive country, has said. "There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places like Kandahar," said Brig. Ed Butler, who spent six months commanding British forces in Afghanistan.

UK security forces have found evidence that British Muslims are actively supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in attacks on coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, Brig Butler was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

According to the report, the commander said British Muslims are helping the Taliban force fighting against the country's troops deployed under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan. Earlier this year, it was revealed that RAF Nimrod spyplanes monitoring Taliban radio signals in Afghanistan had heard militants speaking with Yorkshire and Midlands accents, the report said.

CIVIL WAR BREAKING OUT AMONG PAKISTAN TALIBAN

Can't they all just get along?

Taliban in the Bajaur tribal district split into two factions after infighting between two militant organisations in Mohmand Agency led to the killing of eight members of one group on July 18.

Pro-Baitullah Mehsud Taliban leader Umer Khalid killed eight members from the Shah Sahib militant group, including its chief and deputy chief, on July 18.

“We, four commanders, are resigning from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) over the killing of mujahideen in Mohmand Agency,” Salar Masood, a spokesman for the four commanders, told Daily Times on Monday. “We will form our own group – Tehreek-e-Taliban Al Jihad – to continue jihad against the United States,” Masood said on the phone from an undisclosed location in the Bajaur region. Maulvi Munir, Dr Abdul Wahab and Maulvi Abdul Hameed are the three other commanders who left the TTP.

“Innocent mujahideen were killed in Mohmand. This is against shariah. Mujahideen do not kill innocent people,” Masood said. He charged the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP with “deviating” from the real cause of fighting the Americans inside Afghanistan. “We took up the matter with Baitullah Mehsud but he did not take our concern seriously,” he said.

Jihad schmucks.

IT SEEMS TALIBAN SAM NO LIKE THE STRIP SEARCH

Taliban claim they were dishonored during strip search by Marines. Bahahahahahahaha....