U.S. program offers Taliban money to switch sides in Afghanistan (Video)

Um. Is it me? Or does this make no sense at all?

Isn't this akin to "negotiating with terrorists"? Bribe The Taliban? Huh?

Taliban Releases Video of Captured US Soldier, Bowe R. Bergdahl, from Afghanistan (Video)

Footage of Private First Class Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23.



The AP reports:

The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol.

He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, which he calls extremely hard, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low.

Asked how he was doing, the soldier said on the video:

"Well I'm scared, scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner."

He begins to answer questions in a matter-of-fact and sober voice, occasionally facing the camera, looking down and sometimes looking to the questioner on his left.

He later chokes up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend.

"I have my girlfriend, who is hoping to marry," he said. "I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I'm gone. I miss them and I'm afraid that I might not ever see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again and I'll never be able to hug them."

He is also prompted his interrogators to give a message to the American people.

"To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home," he said. "Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power."

The video is not a continuous recording — it appears to stop and start during the questioning.

Bergdahl is a United States soldier who was captured by Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has identified the American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured.

The Defense Department said in a statement Sunday that the soldier is Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho. The statement also says his status is now classified as missing-captured, rather than whereabouts unknown.

In a video posted online by the Taliban on Saturday, he's heard saying he's "scared I won't be able to go home."

Before the Pentagon released Bergdahl's identity, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the 28-minute video was the captured soldier.

The military said on July 2 that a U.S. soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner.

Raw Video: Military Attacks Afghan Insurgents

The U.S. Military has released video of an air weapons team engaging and killing insurgents when responding to the insurgents' complex attack on a small patrol base in Paktia province on May 27.

This is always cool stuff when our GIs beat down some Taliban a holes! Keep in mind how much caution the military used to avoid civilian casualties.

Marines Pound Taliban Compound (Video)

The best trained, best equipped military in action.

Missiles, machine guns and strafing runs from fighter jets destroyed much of a Taliban compound in Now Zad, Helmand province, in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Taliban To Obama: "[The defeat of the U.S.] is very near, very near" "One white ass has gone; a black ass has taken over"

So much for hope and change...

MEMRI reports (h/t Gateway Pundit)

In an interview held in late February 2009 with Al-Qaeda's media arm, Mullah Nazeer Ahmad, the Emir of the Taliban Mujahideen in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan, stated that the Taliban's jihad will not stop after the U.S. leaves Afghanistan. Ahmad further stressed that the Taliban's jihad is not limited to Pakistan and Afghanistan, as its objectives are global.

Mullah Nazeer Ahmad also warns that there will be vengeance for the deaths of clerics killed during former Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf's 2007 Red Mosque operation in Islamabad.

On the Downfall of the U.S. and Jihad in Afghanistan

"Allah willing, very soon [the U.S. will be defeated in Afghanistan]. After this year, in 2010, America will be torn into pieces. It has already become powerless in Afghanistan. It is confined to its camps in Afghanistan. They come by aircraft to hold meetings, they cannot come out of [the base camps]; the total area is under the control of mujahideen. Allah willing, very soon, you will hear the good news that Afghanistan has been conquered. But we must take advantage of this time and make sacrifices.

"[The defeat of the U.S. worldwide] is very near, very near. Its economy has utterly collapsed. It has met with defeat in Somalia and Iraq. It's about to be defeated in Afghanistan. The thuggery it has started will definitely end."

On Barack Obama as U.S. President and Expectations From the U.S.

"One white ass has gone; a black ass has taken over in his place. To have any expectations will corrode our belief. We put our trust only in Allah... We cannot expect from Bush or Obama that they will be relief for us. Instead, our difficulties are soothed by jihad."

NY Times Cutting Edge Front Page News Coverage: Attack The U.S. Soldier Fights Taliban In Pink I Love New York Boxers! (Video)

Slobbering Liberal Media: Full-On Alinksy-esque attack on anyone in pink underwear!

All the news that fits [our radical Liberal, Socialist Obamamaniacal, Sorosian agenda] to print...

This is a disgusting display of media bias. The point of the New York Slimes is to mock this soldier, insult our military and support the ObamaMessiah.

In actually, the soldier was sleeping and did what he had to do to support his platoon. Not to mention this kid joined the military because of the 9/11 attacks.

Zachary Boyd is defending our Constitution and our Democracy; something the Left will never understand or appreciate. Damn traitorous anti-American Fascists like the NY Times and Nancy Pelosi are the worst kinds of Americans.

However when Zachary Boyd, 19, was woken up by a Taliban assault on his platoon he only had time to grab his weapon, helmet and body armour before springing into action.

If President Obama discharges this young man for "being out of uniform" I will launch a formal protest to have Obama impeached.

Gen. David Petraeus On Afghanistan/ Pakistan/ Taliban Threats, Says Al Qaeda No Longer Operating In Afghanistan (Video)

U.S. Central Command commander Gen. David Petraeus appeared on "Fox News Sunday" to discuss the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.



From Fox News:

The head of U.S. Central Command said Sunday that Al Qaeda is no longer operating in Afghanistan, with its senior leadership having moved to the western region of Pakistan.

Gen. David Petraeus said affiliated groups have "enclaves and sanctuaries" in Afghanistan and that "tentacles of Al Qaeda" have touched countries throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. But he said the terrorist group has suffered" very significant losses" in recent months, and agreed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent assessment that there is no Al Qaeda based in his country.

Still, he said he believes Usama bin Laden and his No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri remain in charge of the terrorist network.

"They surface periodically. We see communications that they send out," Petraeus said.

Though Petraeus said nobody can provide an accurate location for either terrorist, he said Al Qaeda senior leadership clearly is now rooted in the border region of western Pakistan.

"There's no question that Al Qaeda's senior leadership has been there and has been in operation for years," Petraeus said.

The head of U.S. Central Command, speaking on "FOX News Sunday," warned of the severe threat extremist groups now pose to Pakistan but praised the U.S. ally for what he described as a coordinated campaign to beat back an uprising of Taliban forces.

He said that the Taliban's effort to extend their territory beyond the northern Swat valley seems to have "galvanized all of Pakistan" against the group.

"There is a degree of unanimity that there must be swift and effective action taken against the Taliban in Pakistan," Petraeus said, warning of the dire consequences of a Pakistan defeat.

"This is not a U.S. fight that Pakistan is carrying out at this point ... This is a Pakistani fight, a Pakistani battle, with elements that as we've mentioned threaten the very existence of the Pakistani state."

Petraeus spoke Sunday on "FOX News Sunday" and CNN's "State of the Union."

Which President Let the Taliban Become So Strong? Hannity: "No Discernible Plan At All" In Afghanistan (Video)

Karl Rove and Sean Hannity discuss recent comments from President Obama about Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the war on terror.

Taliban Chief Claims Responsibility for N.Y. Shooting Massacre

Developing...

Earlier this month, Team "0" said it wanted to cozy up to the "moderate Taliban". The Taliban response called the proposal illogical and an oxymoron!

Last weekend, Obama vowed to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Taliban and Al-Qaida.

Last week, an alliance of the Taliban and Afghan military promised "amazing" attacks on Washington, D.C. and the Taliban once again called Obama's diplomacy efforts a "lunatic idea".

Fox News reports:

A Pakistani Taliban militant leader has claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which 13 people were killed, Reuters reported.

"I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks," Baituallah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location on Saturday.


U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment about Mehsud's claim, Reuters reported, and one Pakistani security analyst dismissed the claim as a publicity stunt.

Representative Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, told the New York Times that indications are the gunman was an immigrant from Vietnam.

Mehsud's claim comes as a suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles at an alleged militant hide-out Saturday in northwestern Pakistan, killing 13 people.

Taliban Yet Again Mocks Obama! "Lunatic Idea", Taliban Says Of Latest U.S. Offer of "Honourable Reconcilation"

I have to wonder if Obama and his "cut and run", anti-American National Security Team will come to understand a very crucial U.S. Policy.

The United States does not negotiate with terrorists!

The Taliban is simply "not that into you" and your teleprompter like your elite media buddies and flocking- sheep- Kool Aid- masses back home. Terrorists don't drool over empty promises and 50 cent words; nor does anything you say make them tingle. They are merely mocking you and laughing from their secret caves.

They seek nothing more than to destroy the U.S. It's very simple, Mr. President, why are you trying to complicate the issue.

No matter what you and your cowardly radical socialist friends believe; the war on terror is very real, Mr. President, and not a conflict started by The United States.

Earlier this month, Team "0" said it wanted to cozy up to the "moderate Taliban". The Taliban response called the proposal illogical and an oxymoron!

This past weekend, Obama vowed to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Taliban and Al-Qaida.

Yesterday, an alliance of the Taliban and Afghan military promised "amazing" attacks on Washington, D.C.

The Taliban remains unimpressed with Dear Leader.

The Times of India reports:

KABUL: Taliban insurgents rejected on Wednesday a US offer of “honourable reconciliation” as a “lunatic idea” and said the withdrawal of foreign troops was the only way to end the war in Afghanistan.

“This matter was also raised in the past,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, referring to comments by Obama who spoke of reaching out to moderate Taliban. “They have to go and find the moderate Taliban and speak to them. This is a lunatic idea,” Mujahid said by telephone.

Meanwhile, about70 Taliban militants in Swat valley entered a house belonging to opposition PML-Q leader and former federal minister Amir Muqam on Wednesday and blew it up. Muqam was not present in the home.

VIDEO: Obama To "Disrupt, Dismantle and Defeat" Taliban and Al-Qaida

I thought Team "0" was supposed to cozy up to the "moderate Taliban" despite being an illogical oxymoron?

Tough words, but we all know how little faith we can place on the TOTUS.

President Barack Obama on Friday ordered 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan, vowing to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Taliban to Obama, Biden: Diplomacy Request "Illogical"; "I do not know why they are talking about moderate Taliban and what it means?"

No kidding? Remember, Joe The Biden said the majority of the Taliban would turn into allies in the war on terror.

President Obama supports open diplomacy with the radical Islamist extremist as well.

Reuters reports:

Afghanistan's Taliban on Tuesday turned down as illogical U.S. President Barack Obama's bid to reach out to moderate elements of the insurgents, saying the exit of foreign troops was the only solution for ending the war.

Obama, in an interview with the New York Times, expressed an openness to adapting tactics in Afghanistan that had been used in Iraq to reach out to moderate elements there.

"This does not require any response or reaction for this is illogical," Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a purported spokesman for the insurgent group, told Reuters when asked if its top leader Mullah Mohammad Omar would make any comment about Obama's proposal.

"The Taliban are united, have one leader, one aim, one policy...I do not know why they are talking about moderate Taliban and what it means?"

"If it means those who are not fighting and are sitting in their homes, then talking to them is meaningless. This really is surprising the Taliban."

Laughing stock of the world, I tell you! Surrender to Russia, surrender to Iran and now the Taliban?

Anyone getting the impression our President doesn't know what he's doing? He promised to increase emphasis on fighting the "real enemy" in the war on terror in Afghanistan, instead of Iraq.

Mr. President, the enemy is the Taliban! What are you doing?

Biden Says Majority Of Taliban May Turn Into Allies; Who Might That Be, Joe?

Joe Biden is at it again!

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - In Belgium consulting with NATO allies about a new strategy for Afghanistan, Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he would support reaching out to moderate members of the Taliban but added that the initiative must ultimately begin from the Afghan government.

Biden held a morning meeting with the North Atlantic Council, the principal forum for NATO's 26 member states, at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. He assured them that he was there to consult, as part of the Obama administration's 60-day review of American strategy, and not to impose a U.S.-centric view in Afghanistan.

"What we want to learn is what your countries believe are working, what you think is not working, how we can do a better job in stopping Afghanistan and Pakistan from being a haven for terrorists... The deteriorating situation in the region poses a security threat, from our perspective, not just to the United States," he said.

"I want to make it clear to you, from the perspective of the average United States citizen, an attack, a terrorist attack in Europe is viewed as an attack on us. That is not hyperbole because we understand and we view it as an attack on the West. And we view it as a gateway to further attacks on the United States... this is not a U.S.-centric view that only if America is attacked is there a terrorist threat," he added.

In a joint press conference later with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Biden said he agreed that reaching out to the Taliban could prove beneficial. President Barack Obama had said in a New York Times interview last Sunday that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and that alliances with moderate Taliban should be explored.

Biden said, "T[o] paraphrase Secretary Holbrooke, our Special Envoy, and I agree with his assessment after numerous visits to the region and throughout the country -- 5 percent of the Taliban is incorrigible, not susceptible to anything other than being defeated. Another 25 percent or so are not quite sure, in my view, the intensity of their commitment to the insurgency. And roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money, because of them being -- getting paid."

"The idea of what concessions would be made is well beyond the scope of my being able to answer, except to say that whatever is initiated will have to be ultimately initiated by the Afghan government, and will have to be such that it would not undermine a legitimate Afghan government," he added.

Um... Joe... which "moderate taliban" would that be?

KABUL, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban will fail to end the Afghan insurgency as it is inflexible Taliban leaders who are orchestrating the war, not moderates, analysts said.

Obama, in an interview with the New York Times newspaper published on its website on Saturday, expressed an openness to adapting tactics in Afghanistan that had been used in Iraq to reach out to moderate elements there.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama's proposal but analysts were doubtful.

"Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality," said Waheed Mozhdah, an analyst who has written a book on the Taliban.

"Where are the so-called moderate Taliban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" asked Mozhdah, who was an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments.

Karzai's pro-Western administration and the growing number of foreign forces in Afghanistan have increasingly come under attack from a resurgent Taliban, with Obama now describing Afghanistan as a top foreign policy priority for his new administration.

"'Moderate Taliban' is like 'moderate killer'. Is there such a thing?", asked writer and analyst Qaseem Akhgar.

Or, as Gateway Pundit puts it:

But, lets be clear... It's only the "moderate elements" of radical Islamist fundamentalist organization that he is interested in appeasing.

Who might that be?

The moderate members who hide women under dark cloaks?

The moderate members who keep women from holding jobs?

The moderate members who burn down barbershops and bomb girl's schools?

The moderate members who believe in Shariah law?

The moderate members who beat women in public?