Pakistani Reports Capture of Taliban Leader
By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and DEXTER FILKINS
Published: February 22, 2010ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In another blow to the Taliban senior leadership, Pakistani authorities have captured Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the group’s inner circle and a leading military commander against American forces in eastern Afghanistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official . .
Mullah Kabir was detained several days ago in Nawshera, in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, the Pakistani official said, speaking on condition of anonymity . .
The capture of Mullah Kabir appeared to be a strictly Pakistani operation, and Pakistani officials appeared to be keeping Mullah Kabir’s arrest a closely held secret, even from their American allies.
Mullah Kabir is a longtime associate of Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s founder. He was the governor of Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Since then, he has overseen military operations in eastern Afghanistan, including those in Kunar, Nangarhar, Nuristan and Laghman Provinces.”
February 23, 2010
Pakistani troops capture Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Kabir
January 22, 2010
Fox News backs presence of Bible inscriptions on military weapons because the Taliban “started it”
U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes
Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.
The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army…
Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”
I wasn’t buying that this has been tradition for the U.S. military. So I called up the registrar at the local war museum and asked him to take a look at the remains of their World War II rifle collection, and WHADDYAKNOW:
December 1, 2009
Dick Cheney continues to pot-shot Obama and to remind us who he really is
Is Obama about to speak? Then look at me! Over here!
Dick Cheney slams President Obama for projecting ‘weakness’
By MIKE ALLEN & JIM VANDEHEI | 12/1/09 5:40 PM ESTMCLEAN, Va. — On the eve of the unveiling of the nation’s new Afghanistan policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed President Barack Obama for projecting “weakness” to adversaries and warned that more workaday Afghans will side with the Taliban if they think the United States is heading for the exits.
In a 90-minute interview at his suburban Washington house, Cheney said the president’s “agonizing” about Afghanistan strategy “has consequences for your forces in the field.”
“I begin to get nervous when I see the commander in chief making decisions apparently for what I would describe as small ‘p’ political reasons, where he’s trying to balance off different competing groups in society,” Cheney said.
“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is the commander in chief really behind what they’ve been asked to do?”
What a load of garbage from a guy famous for a fatal inability to make the right decision, by whatever means. Dick Cheney, the guy who was unable to protect America during 9/11. Who then retaliated by attacking Bumfuckistan Mesopotamia, killing 4,00 Americans. I can’t believe this moron is popping his head out and his mouth off in his own version of political whack-a-mole. Dangerous, incompetent and classless, what a trifecta.
Meanwhile, the guy who runs the War in Afghanistan, Republican hero General McChrystal, issued a statement commenting on Obama’s address and the ‘dithering’ review:
“The Afghanistan-Pakistan review led by the President has provided me with a clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task. The clarity, commitment and resolve outlined in the President’s address are critical steps toward bringing security to Afghanistan and eliminating terrorist safe havens that threaten regional and global security.
“The NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) objective is equally clear: We will work toward improved security for Afghanistan and the transfer of responsibility to Afghan security forces as rapidly as conditions allow. In the meantime, our Afghan partners need the support of Coalition forces while we grow and develop the capacity of the Afghan army and police. That will be the main focus of our campaign in the months ahead.
“The 42 other nations of the Coalition will benefit from a strengthened U.S. commitment, as success in Afghanistan must be an international, integrated civil-military effort – from our security and training capacity to the governance and economic development assistance that sustains long-term stability. The concerted commitment of the international community will prevail in bringing real change to Afghanistan — a secure and stable environment that allows for effective governance, improved economic opportunity and the freedom of every Afghan to choose how they live.
“We face many challenges in Afghanistan, but our efforts are sustained by one unassailable reality: neither the Afghan people nor the international community want Afghanistan to remain a sanctuary for terror and violence. The coalition is encouraged by President Obama’s commitment and we remain resolute to empowering the Afghan people to reject the insurgency and build their own future.”
Spot on, again, Dick, dead center in reality. And by forcing a time table upon the corrupt Afghan government, they either straighten up or fail of their own accord, not that you’d think of these things. Because you just move to the right on everything, which makes you about as smart as a one-legged insect.
Go ahead Dick, take another shot: how about that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed trial in New York?
“One of their top people will be given the opportunity — courtesy of the United States government and the Obama administration — to have a platform from which they can espouse this hateful ideology that they adhere to,” he said. “I think it’s likely to give encouragement — aid and comfort — to the enemy.”
Zacarias Moussaoui ran his mouth his whole entire civilian trial in Federal court in Virginia. Don’t you recall how emboldened Al Qaeda became? Don’t you remember how much aid and comfort it gave the enemy? Weren’t you just crushed by that? Remember how Americans were agonized by it all? No?
Zacarias Moussaoui came off like an hysterical, dogmatic clown, powerless and pathetic. [here comment on dick cheney] The moron failed, on the world stage, to do the job he was tasked to do, so now he just talks to the bricks. [here comment again]
November 24, 2009
Republicans, already unpopular (about 21% of Americans), consider making candidates jump through a ‘purity’ hoop
At a time when Americans self-identify as ‘Republicans’ less than at any time in the last 8 years, they want to squeeze candidates through ‘purity’ bottlenecks? This is a good idea? Will this help attract new, and especially rare non-white, folks to their ‘pure’ Republican candidates? Doesn’t sound like it.
G.O.P. Considers ‘Purity’ Resolution for Candidates
By ADAM NAGOURNEYThe battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on important issues — is probably going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.
Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama’s socialist agenda.” According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement.
What do the proposed ‘purity’ vows look like? Here:
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective
action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.
Not only is this a bad idea for a party that’s in danger of becoming marginalized, the list itself is a complete joke, the sort of thing that insiders write for insiders to read and then cheer about. Poorly written, poorly thought out and full of flimsy talking points, it’s easily made fun of…
1.) You’d oppose Obama’s well-known stimulus bill tax cuts? 237 fricking billion dollars? Are you guys lying, or just stupid?
2.) Healthcare reform radically increases marketplace competition, that’s one of its obvious mechanisms for driving down costs. That’s why it lowers the deficit–see your own #1.
4.) EFCA doesn’t get rid of secret balloting or change the mechanism by which secret balloting certifies a union. Period. I thought everybody knew that.
5.) A total non-sequitur. Rounding up illegal immigrants has nothing to do with supporting legal immigration. If all these poor folks could legally immigrate, they would.
6.) There are ‘military-recommended troop surges’ for Iraq? That’s what’ll get America to reverse course, hang on there for years and years and then ‘win’? Hello?
9.) Most ridiculous of all–do you know how many Americans die because they have no access to healthcare? It’s far past rationing, it’s full-blown denial, followed by death.
If I can trump this pathetic thing in a matter of a couple minutes, I doubt that it’ll score with centrists and outsiders who are notoriously slow to buy political pablum. And that’s whom the Republicans desperately need.
ADD: Keith Olbermann notes that this ‘purity test’ would have, in the past, excluded a bunch of half-asses like…Ronald Reagan:
October 9, 2009
August 31, 2009
Remember those bad old days? In 2008, idiot Vice President Dick Cheney urged the Bush administration to attack Iran
What a brilliant move that would have been.
Cheney Says He Was Proponent for Military Action Against Iran
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney hinted that, in the waning days of the Bush administration, he had pushed for a military strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mr. Cheney described himself as being isolated among advisers to then-President George W. Bush, who ultimately decided against direct military action.
“I was probably a bigger advocate of military action than any of my colleagues,” Mr. Cheney said in response to questions about whether the Bush administration should have launched a pre-emptive attack prior to handing over the White House to Barack Obama.
“I thought that negotiations could not possibly succeed unless the Iranians really believed we were prepared to use military force,” Mr. Cheney said. “And to date, of course, they are still proceeding with their nuclear program and the matter has not yet been resolved.”
Mr. Cheney’s views were at odds with those of other top officials at the time. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said repeatedly during those final months that a strike against Iran would make the Middle East more unstable and would raise the risk on American forces in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This is a very unstable part of the world, and I don’t need it to be more unstable,” Adm. Mullen said in July 2008.
So many reasons why war mongers make for terrible Presidents and Vice Presidents. Cheney’s gambit would have…
1.) Started a third war, in Iran.
2.) Pissed of the majority Shiites in Iraq, placing American military personnel in danger.
3.) Pissed off the Taliban in Afghanistan, with similar results.
4.) Provided a terrific recruiting tool to terrorists, their organizations and sympathizers world-wide.
5.) Handed Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda a giant p.r. victory, legitimating their propaganda that we are the real terrorists.
6.) Soured virtually any western-style reform efforts in the Middle East.
7.) Steeled Iran’s pursuits of nuclear capabilities ‘in defense of the nation.’
8.) Put Israel’s security in jeopardy.
9.) Forced Iran to redouble their efforts to fund and support the attacking and killing of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
10.) Further divided an already divided United States.
And those are just the first 10 things I could think of. Attacking Iran would have been even dumber than invading Iraq, and that’s one of the biggest fiascoes in U.S. history. Incidentally–how do you successfully end a war with Iran? How do you get out with the ‘victory’ Americans always require? They’ve got over 70 million people.
Dick Cheney is an absolutely moronic, evil human being.
July 23, 2009
Turns out that Fox News' and Lt. Col. Ralph ('Bob') Peters' calling for the death of Bergdahl, the Taliban hostage, not popular with Pentagon, veterans, people
I’m no military veteran, but TV talking heads shouldn’t call for the executions of our captured service men and women? Seems reasonable enough. [For more on the titanic asshole 'Bob' Peters, see here and here and here]
Pentagon furious over call for execution of captured soldier
According to NBC’s top Pentagon correspondent, the Department of Defense is furious with Fox News analyst Ralph Peters, who said on July 19 that the Taliban should murder 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, captured after he strayed from his post, to save the Army “legal hassles and legal bills.”
Peters, a well-known Neoconservative and frequent Fox News guest, attempted to clarify his shocking statement on Tuesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, telling right-wing host Bill O’Reilly he believes that Bergdahl had “deserted” his unit and deserved no sympathy. He did not apologize. O’Reilly added that Bergdahl must be “crazy.”
However, Wednesday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow fired back, interviewing Jim Miklaszewski, NBC’s top Pentagon correspondent, who said the Department of Defense is furious with Peters and Fox News, adding there is no evidence that Bergdahl is a deserter.
Peters’ and O’Reilly’s insidious comments drew a sharp reaction from a bipartisan group of 22 veteran members of Congress, who all signed a letter demanding Fox News CEO Roger Ailes apologize to Bergdahl’s family for allowing a guest on his network to provide “aid and comfort” to America’s enemies.
“Mr. Peters’ indefensible comments call into question, without any supporting evidence whatsoever, PFC Bergdahl’s patriotism and commitment to his country, and suggest in a non-subtle way that he deserved to be captured,” they wrote. “The truth is that Mr. Peters’ words give more aid and comfort to the enemy…and put PFC Bergdahl at additional risk of harm.”…
Jim Miklaszewski, NBC’s Pentagon correspondent, told Maddow on Wednesday night that Bergdahl “came off patrol on June 30th, dropped off his weapon, his body armor, grabbed up a bottle of water, a compass and a knife and took off out on his own. It was sometime after that, apparently, that some local militants grabbed him and turned him over to the Taliban.”
“Should he have left the post alone?” Miklaszewski asked. “Of course not. But that doesn’t make him a deserter.”
He continued: “Military officials I talked to are quite outraged at Peters’ comments, not just the idea perhaps that he suggested that the Taliban should execute Bergdahl, but because it’s totally irresponsible. Here you have a kid, 23-years-old, in custody. He’s got to be terrified. And now, these Peters comments could actually be used by his captors to get even deeper inside Bergdahl’s mind and further erode any confidence that he may have that he will ever come out alive.”
“I suspect my fellow Americans might really bail out of the FOX viewership over this one,” opined former war reporter and photographer Tim King, who edits Oregon-based Web site Salem-News.
“If this insolent wicked little man named Peters at FOX manages to turn people against this American who volunteered to serve in the military, fully aware that almost anyone in the Army can be deployed overseas, he should be arrested and tossed in prison,” King continued. “When does FOX News cross the line? This is a new age, a new time, and there is no way in Hell that Peters or FOX can cry ‘free speech’ now.”
July 21, 2009
Fox News' rah-rah patriot Lt. Col. Ralph ('Bob') Peters: 'That soldier hostage Bowe Bergdahl is a loser, go ahead and kill him'
Unrepentant Fox biter ‘Bob’ Peters strikes again. The guy is a living hurricane of asshole (seriously–see here and here).
Bowe Bergdahl has been taken hostage by the Taliban, and I’m not sure what else needs to be highlighted. His tortured family will certainly not be soothed by Fox’s ‘news coverage’:
That’s right–just think about his buddies, all their hurt feelings. Which they can indulge because they’re safe and sound.
May 20, 2009
Blackwater gets tossed out of Iraq, turns to blasting and killing Afghans
More terrific news about the homicidal cowboy contractors. After going on a 20 minute berserk in a crowded Baghdad intersection in October 2007, opening fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers and slaughtering 17 people, you’d think they’d had enough. Or perhaps after these back-slapping big-money assholes were denied their routine billion dollar contracts and tossed from Iraq, maybe then they’d learned their lessons. No.
From here on out, I’ll be employing the ‘Blackwater Executive Babel Fish’ translator…
Afghan dies after incident with contractors,
U.S. military says
(CNN) — One of three Afghan civilians wounded when U.S.
contractors shot at them in an incident in early May died of his wounds Sunday, according to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan…
‘Again? Crap. Call legal.’
Meanwhile, three of the four contractors involved in the shooting have left the country, according to the California lawyer who says he represents them. Two are back in the United States already…
‘Legal called back. “Get ‘em the fuck out of there” they said.’
Xe spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the four men had their contracts terminated “for failure to comply with the terms of their contract, which require, among other things, compliance with all laws, regulations and company policies.”
The contractors told their lawyer they believe Xe was concerned that they had been given guns without a license to carry them, according to [Attorney Dan] Callahan…
The U.S. military told CNN the contractors were likely allowed by the terms of the contract to possess privately owned weapons.
‘We figured out if we hire them as ‘independent’ contractors, we don’t have to give them guns–they can just carry their own. Next time we get sued for shooting civilians, we blame the contractors for pulling their own triggers. Hell, we didn’t arm them, right? Neat, huh?’
[Callahan] said the contractors acted appropriately in the incident, which began after a traffic accident in which a car slammed into one of two contractors’ cars. The contractors got out to help their colleagues, according to Callahan.
‘Wha–that was no accident! That was a terrorist attack.’
“The attacking vehicle did a U-turn and headed back at them, so they shot,” he said.
‘See? SEE?‘
The U.S. military, in describing the incident in a news release, said that the car was in an accident but did not describe how the accident happened. However, the military statement provided a similar account of what happened after the accident, saying the contractors “were approached by a vehicle in a manner the contractors felt threatening.”
‘Fucking Al Qaeda Taliban. No regard for American lives.’
All four contractors are U.S. military veterans and had been working for Paravant in Afghanistan for six months, according to Tyrrell. None of them has worked for Xe or its other subsidiaries, including Blackwater, she said.
‘WOAH–they didn’t even pick up that we are Xe, and run Paravant. That paper-hanging dick in M&A, Jenkins, is some kinda genius.’
An industry source familiar with the incident said all four contractors were on their first deployment with the company.
‘C’mon–they’re just kids, you can’t expect them to be perfect, it’s a War Zone ferchrissakes, and an impossible job, and these guys, these patriots were scared for their lives, serving their country, protecting army translators blah blah…….’
March 22, 2009
fox news: canadian military are total pussies
I’ve seen some bad Fox News clips, but this is really something else.
Canadian soldiers have been fighting ‘The War on Terror’ in Afghanistan alongside us since 2002. Over 100 of their personnel have died, many more injured. Still, they’ve decided to stay in Afghanistan through 2011.
Recently, Lt. General Andrew Leslie told a Canadian defense committee that their overseas commitments will have to cease after 2011 in order for the military to re-group. They are needing senior officers, equipment and maintenance, and the break would give them an opportunity to address the problems.
Fox News apparently read about the comments, and this is the result…
Wingnut Halloween: Commie Nazi Muslim President Barack Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
Boo! Well, now John Bolton will have to advocate bombing Scandinavia, too.
Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world “hope for a better future” and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew criticism as well as praise.
The decision to bestow one of the world’s top accolades on a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, provoked gasps of surprise from journalists at the announcement in Oslo.
The first African-American to hold his country’s highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.
“Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in a citation.
The more you think about it, the more you can understand how the surprise happened. His blunt assessments of American past mistakes in foreign policy had to give people a sense of a grounded presence in the role of ‘Leader of the Free World.’ His willingness to do the same for the actors in the Middle East, including Israel, while providing an outline for the future gave people some hope that sanity and rational thought might win out, even there. His opposition to settlements backed up that philosophy.
The fact that a President who is presiding over two wars fighting terrorism, who is about to change the Afghan strategy to chasing and killing Al Qaeda over the Taliban, could still get a Palestinian official to react to the award this way says quite a bit:
…the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, welcomed the award to Obama and expressed hope that “he will be able to achieve peace in the Middle East.”
That’s a shocking change in attitude from the Palestinians. This is the sort of the thing the committee was probably taking into account. More:
Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland rejected suggestions from journalists that Obama was getting the prize too early, saying it recognized what he had already done over the past year.
“We hope this can contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do,” he told a news conference.
The committee said it attached “special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,” saying he had “created a new climate in international politics.”
That is true. And remember this? The speech in Cairo, to ’seek a new beginning’? It was extraordinary.
That surely played a part in it, no President has ever given a speech remotely like it. And don’t forget what the entire continent of Africa feels about the guy:
Abroad, he is still widely seen around the world as an inspirational figure.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who had been tipped as a favorite for the prize, told Reuters that Obama was a deserving candidate and an “extraordinary example.”
Clearly, the committee wanted to get on the bandwagon with the new President to perhaps give him a little more star power and leverage in working in solving international problems. If he’s around for 8 years, his second term would be the one where real progress in the Middle East and combating nuclear proliferation could happen. This is an award more for what could happen than for what has happened, so it’s risky. It will be criticized quite a bit.
And does it say much for the Peace Prize news that the reactionary, violent peoples of the world, our wingnuts included, will speak and have already spoken up about it, and despise it?
Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an embarrassing “joke.”
The Taliban: “We condemn the award of the Noble Peace Prize for Obama,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “We condemn the institute’s awarding him the peace prize. We condemn this year’s peace prize as unjust.”
Expect more of that from the terrorists, the obstructionists in the Middle East and our American conservatives.