Category Archives: Taliban

Links for Feb 15 09

Posted on by

Below are a few links. The first is a video I must confess I myself did not watch. I link to the site which offers it and it suggest you do not watch as well. I respect and agree with the logic of them posting it. To pretend this is not happening does not make it not happen. Perhaps its better to be aware of the horrors being perpetuated before they are endemic than see them in black and white movies after they happen to millions scored with a cello in a minor key. Maybe if we see now, we act and stop it. Is it possible to change a historical cycle with foreknowledge as we surely have, or is Mark Twain right when he says that history does not repeat, it rhymes.

Here it is, a beheading in Somalia for apostacy. Someone decided they didnt want to be Muslim anymore and so where excruciatingly beheaded while bieng filmed.

Here is a link to Jihad watch about an Afghan diplomat who beat his wife for fifteen solid hours. A Muslims beating his wife sadly is not news. I think most of us know enough about Koran at this point to know that in orthodox Islam, women are not technically people at all and so are treated worse than animals, as typically animals are bought and valued. Much as in the days of the building of the canals in New Orleans, black slaves where not used to do the work as malaria killed so many. So they used the Irish instead. No one had to pay for them. However I post this story because here on VTB there is a continuing thread about the new Afghanistan we are fighting for, and paying for and of course, dieing for. I often have a difficult time distinguishing between modern Afghanistan under the Karzai government and the Taliban except for the degree and frequency of brutality. But the failure to remove political Islam from the constitution of modern Afghanistan makes the exorcise in my opinion, utterly pointless. The fact that this particular Afghan diplomat happened to be in New York makes it that much worse. One would imagine Kabul sending someone like this to Saudi where his actions would be applauded. Search Vlad for several other stories of people being sentenced to death for merely questioning Islam and one wonders why we are there at all at this point. Why not leave a not on a rock that says any more terrorist training centers and we use a tactical nuke on it. Do what you want to each other till then. Iraq appears to be a great success as the last election showed, where people elected a much more secular government. However pre Baath, Iraq was a democracy. It has some history as such.

Is this what we are fighting for in Afghanistan?

Posted on by

According to MSNBC two men face a death sentance for ‘misinterpreting quoran‘ by writing a pocket size edition of it. I don’t care if they had wonderful intentions by Islamic standards meaning a Koran that’s easier to carry or if they like Salmon Rushdie meant to mock it and raise awareness of what a god awful piece of crap it is (pun intended with apologies) either way how dare western troops be in Afghanistan to support a government that would kill a person for writing something down. This is not the first incident under the Karazai Government. A man was sentenced to death last year as written about here on Vlad for bringing a piece of paper into class questioning whether Islam was in opposition to woman’s rights. This was at a university. Students are supposed to ask questions of their societies. He was sentenced to death and the judges at his ‘trial’ actually where shocked to discover that it was possible to print something off of the internet. This means either printers or the internet will not be legal long in Afghanistan I wager.

afghan1

Here is an excerpt from the article…

KABUL – No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say.

The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They’re accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

The trial illustrates what critics call the undue influence of hardline clerics in Afghanistan, a major hurdle as the country tries to establish a lawful society amid war and militant violence.

The book appeared among gifts left for the cleric at a major Kabul mosque after Friday prayers in September 2007. It was a translation of the Quran into one of Afghanistan’s languages, with a note giving permission to reprint the text as long as it was distributed for free.

Some of the men of the mosque said the book would be useful to Afghans who didn’t know Arabic, so they took up a collection for printing. The mosque’s cleric asked Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a longtime friend, to get the books printed.

But as some of the 1,000 copies made their way to conservative Muslim clerics in Kabul, whispers began, then an outcry.

Many clerics rejected the book because it did not include the original Arabic verses alongside the translation. It’s a particularly sensitive detail for Muslims, who regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and a mistranslation could warp God’s word.

‘Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed’
The clerics said Zalmai, a stocky 54-year-old spokesman for the attorney general, was trying to anoint himself as a prophet. They said his book was trying to replace the Quran, not offer a simple translation. Translated editions of the Quran abound in Kabul markets, but they include Arabic verses.

Continue Reading →

Stratfor: Obama’s first real challenge. really really good read.

Posted on by

Obama Enters the Great Game www.stratfor.com

January 19, 2009 | 1942 GMT


Graphic for Geopolitical Intelligence Report

By George Friedman

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in on Tuesday as president of the United States. Candidate Obama said much about what he would do as president; now we will see what President Obama actually does. The most important issue Obama will face will be the economy, something he did not anticipate through most of his campaign. The first hundred days of his presidency thus will revolve around getting a stimulus package passed. But Obama also is now in the great game of global competition — and in that game, presidents rarely get to set the agenda.

The major challenge he faces is not Gaza; the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not one any U.S. president intervenes in unless he wants to experience pain. As we have explained, that is an intractable conflict to which there is no real solution. Certainly, Obama will fight being drawn into mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his first hundred days in office. He undoubtedly will send the obligatory Middle East envoy, who will spend time with all the parties, make suitable speeches and extract meaningless concessions from all sides. This envoy will establish some sort of process to which everyone will cynically commit, knowing it will go nowhere. Such a mission is not involvement — it is the alternative to involvement, and the reason presidents appoint Middle East envoys. Obama can avoid the Gaza crisis, and he will do so.

Obama’s Two Unavoidable Crises

The two crises that cannot be avoided are Afghanistan and Russia. First, the situation in Afghanistan is tenuous for a number of reasons, and it is not a crisis that Obama can avoid decisions on. Obama has said publicly that he will decrease his commitments in Iraq and increase them in Afghanistan. He thus will have more troops fighting in Afghanistan. The second crisis emerged from a decision by Russia to cut off natural gas to Ukraine, and the resulting decline in natural gas deliveries to Europe. This one obviously does not affect the United States directly, but even after flows are restored, it affects the Europeans greatly. Obama therefore comes into office with three interlocking issues: Afghanistan, Russia and Europe. In one sense, this is a single issue — and it is not one that will wait.

Obama clearly intends to follow Gen. David Petraeus’ lead in Afghanistan. The intention is to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan, thereby intensifying pressure on the Taliban and opening the door for negotiations with the militant group or one of its factions. Ultimately, this would see the inclusion of the Taliban or Taliban elements in a coalition government. Petraeus pursued this strategy in Iraq with Sunni insurgents, and it is the likely strategy in Afghanistan.

But the situation in Afghanistan has been complicated by the situation in Pakistan. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. and NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan are delivered to the Pakistani port of Karachi and trucked over the border to Afghanistan. Most fuel used by Western forces in Afghanistan is refined in Pakistan and delivered via the same route. There are two crossing points, one near Afghanistan’s Kandahar province at Chaman, Pakistan, and the other through the Khyber Pass. The Taliban have attacked Western supply depots and convoys, and Pakistan itself closed the routes for several days, citing government operations against radical Islamist forces.

Meanwhile, the situation in Pakistan has been complicated by tensions with India. The Indians have said that the individuals who carried out the Nov. 26 Mumbai attack were Pakistanis supported by elements in the Pakistani government. After Mumbai, India made demands of the Pakistanis. While the situation appears to have calmed, the future of Indo-Pakistani relations remains far from clear; anything from a change of policy in New Delhi to new terrorist attacks could see the situation escalate. The Pakistanis have made it clear that a heightened threat from India requires them to shift troops away from the Afghan border and toward the east; a small number of troops already has been shifted.

Apart from the direct impact this kind of Pakistani troop withdrawal would have on cross-border operations by the Taliban, such a move also would dramatically increase the vulnerability of NATO supply lines through Pakistan. Some supplies could be shipped in by aircraft, but the vast bulk of supplies — petroleum, ammunition, etc. — must come in via surface transit, either by truck, rail or ship. Western operations in Afghanistan simply cannot be supplied from the air alone. A cutoff of the supply lines across Pakistan would thus leave U.S. troops in Afghanistan in crisis. Because Washington can’t predict or control the future actions of Pakistan, of India or of terrorists, the United States must find an alternative to the routes through Pakistan.

Continue Reading →

Interview with David Harris former Chief of Strategic Planning for CSIS and current Director of INSIGNIS

Posted on by

Here is an interview with a man in a position to know what is going on with respect to Islamic terrorism in the world. He speaks of Iran, Hamas Spain and the soft Jihad. Sadly this is only about thirty percent of the total interview he gave as the sound quality was simply too poor on the first two thirds to be able to make one’s way through. In this last third he does make some very strong points about the truly grave dangers facing the western world, Canada and the USA in particular and the danger of unchecked immigration.

An article by David Harris is available here about the infiltration of Islam to the Canadian political mainstream.

David B. Harris is a Canadian lawyer, Director of INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc’s International and Terrorist Intelligence Program, and former Chief of Strategic Planning of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

(Note from James Cohen)

“This show created some difficulty for me, not the least of which is the horrific nature of the information Mr. Harris gave and the severity and immediacy of the threat facing the western world and classical civilization itself, but because I never before have had to edit any show other than making the transitions from speech to music a little smoother but never for content. In this case as we had massive sound issues due to a number of new variables we introduced in this particular show, the first 2/3rds of the program are simply unlistenable and I felt that it would be better removed. However for those who would like to hear the entire file I will make it available as a download by request through email. You can understand the first part but it takes some focus. Anyone wishing to hear the entire show may email me at ja***@***************io.com and I would be happy to send you the entire thing. I wish to stress that no editing was done in order to change the context or nature of any information Dave Harris gave but because of the technical issues with the first parts of the show. Also, after we say good bye to Mr. Harris he brings up a rather excellent point at the end about how people who are preventing any real threat mitigation by demanding no loss of civil rights are very likely facing a situation where any civil rights are a distant memory for all of us and likely for a very long time.”

Here is the link to the interview

ROWR-DavidHarris     

Taliban asserts harsh sharia in Swat valley. Forces women to ‘marry’ militants.

Posted on by

I put marry in quotes because if one party of the two being ‘married’ is forced it is hardly marriage by any definition a civilized person would recognize. In fact on the issue of Islamic polygamy I am indifferent to the aspect of multiple wives. It is the concept of Islamic marriage as a whole I object to. When a woman is forced into a marriage often as young as six years old to men in their thirties and older it is slavery not marriage and a ceremony does not change that. Read the story below from India Express to get an idea of how the Taliban is managing to reassert its old regime and draconian version of sharia law in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province. It really is dificult to imagine that anyone would want to live this way let alone force this way of life upon as many others as they are able. I will post a video at the bottom of this article which shows how a teenager from Pakistan was tricked into becoming a ‘shahid’ or suicide bomber. Fortunately for him and his potential victims he was arrested and taken into custody in Afghanistan.

Islamabad: On the heels of their crusade against girls going to schools, the Taliban have now issued new dictum in the areas under their sway asking parents of the grown up daughters to marry them to militants or ‘face dire consequences’.This new force-marriage campaign is being run in most of the areas in the Pakistan’s troubled NWFP through regular announcements made in mosques to congregations.

Such instances have come to light recently through some of the affected women daring to go to authorities for justice rather than meekly surrender to the militants dictates.

Salma, who teaches in a primary school in Peshawar, told the influential ‘Dawn’ newspaper that Taliban have told families to declare in mosques if they have unmarried girls so that their hand could be given in marriage, most probably to militants.

If they did not do so, the girls would be forcibly married off; the newspaper quoted the 30-year-old widow as saying.

She also said the Taliban in the Swat valley of NWFP have threatened women with dire punishment, if they are found outside their homes without identity cards and a male relative accompanying them. Couples should also carry ‘Nikah Nama’ or marriage certificates with them when they venture out of home or they will be in trouble, she said.”I have heard that Taliban have announced that if a girl above the age of seven is found outside her house, she would be slaughtered,” Salma said.

Once an avid listener of Pakistani Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah’s FM radio station, Salma doesn’t tune in to the channel any more.

“Usually there is only dreadful news on the radio, so I stopped listening to it,” said Salma, who has three sons.

Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio for the fiery sermons he broadcasts on his illegal FM station, leads a campaign by Taliban militants to enforce Shariat or Islamic law in Swat.

Fazlullah’s followers have blown up or torched over 100 girls’ schools in Swat and barred women from going to markets.

The Taliban’s recent decision to completely ban girls’ education from January 15 has upset Salma and her colleagues because most of them are the sole bread-winners of their families.

“My colleagues were crying when they heard this bad news. Some have aged and handicapped parents while others have lost their male members in the ongoing conflict,” she said.

“Our principal has said that all female teachers should write down the domestic problems forcing them to work so that they could be forwarded to Taliban, who would be requested to review their policy about women’s education,” Salma said.

And now the video of the captured suicide bomber from CNN.COM

[kaltura-widget wid=”342r6nkd20″ width=”410″ height=”364″ addpermission=”3″ editpermission=”3″ /]

Pakistan looses Swat valley to islamic terrorists.

Posted on by

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) —

Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistan’s picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.

The deteriorating situation in the former tourist haven comes despite an army offensive that began in 2007 and an attempted peace deal. It is especially worrisome to Pakistani officials because the valley lies outside the areas where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have traditionally operated and where the military is staging a separate offensive.
“You can’t imagine how bad it is,” said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. “It’s worse day by day.”
The Taliban activity in northwest Pakistan also comes as the country shifts forces east to the Indian border because of tensions over last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, potentially giving insurgents more space to maneuver along the Afghan frontier.
Militants began preying on Swat’s lush mountain ranges about two years ago, and it is now too dangerous for foreign and Pakistani journalists to visit. Interviews with residents, lawmakers and officials who have fled the region paint a dire picture. A suicide blast killed 40 people Sunday at a polling station in Buner, an area bordering Swat that had been relatively peaceful. The attack underscored fears that even so-called “settled” regions presumptively under government control are increasingly unsafe. The 3,500-square-mile Swat Valley lies less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.A senior government official said he feared there could be a spillover effect if the government lost control of Swat and allowed the insurgency to infect other areas. Like nearly everyone interviewed, the official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by militants.

Continue Reading →

Some vid caps of Muslim love of their own children

Posted on by

Here are 4 video captures of how a loving taliban offers to assist school kids walking home from school with his jeep taken from this US forces video

In the first one we see some Afghani kids walking home from school. Probably some girls enjoying the first opportunity for a real education are among the students.

taliban-kill-kids-1

Below, a clearer picture of the children as a Jeep approaches to offer them a lift Islamic style. I think the Taliban should try out their slogan for the western press with respect to girls getting an education…..

Graves Not Schools!

taliban-kill-kids-2

The jeep slows down so as to be able to lift the maximum number of school kids who clearly do not know enough about their proud heritage of Islam

taliban-kill-kids-3

And lastly the jeep taking all the kids for a last ride right to Allah. I wonder how many lives it gets per ton of C4.

Do watch the video its only about a minute here.

taliban-kill-kids-4