Don't say the magazine industry is dead yet - there's still some space left for expansion - like into the world of international terrorism.
Neal Ungerleider at True/Slant found this gem of jihadi literature online. It's a dense 73 pages and is titled "The Echo of Battle". (Maybe the magazine industry just needs to work on its titling?) Interestingly, it seems to feature a lot of discussions of movement philosophy as well as some very charming stock imagery:
'Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban political leader delivered a message Friday to President Obama, calling his attempt to lure away Taliban fighters with money "an old weapon that has failed already."
"The Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are not mercenaries and employed gunmen like the armed men of the invaders and their surrogates," Mullah Brader Akhund said in the statement. "This war will come to an end when all invaders leave our country and an Islamic government based on the aspirations of our people is formed in the country."
Akhund is the deputy emir of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which is the political arm of the Taliban.
He was referring to the Taliban reintegration provision, part of the $680 billion defense appropriation bill that Obama signed Wednesday to pay for military operations in the 2010 fiscal year.
Akhund said 19th century British invaders and Soviet fighters in the 1980s tried the same tactic, unsuccessfully.
He said the Taliban consider the U.S. measure "a sign of weakness and complete despondency of the enemy."'
The video is deliberately blurred, the view is only partial, and it lasts for just a few short seconds. But that is enough for the tantalising question to be raised: Is this the first video footage of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to emerge in more than two years?The video is deliberately blurred, the view is only partial, and it lasts for just a... more
the Pakistan Taliban was dealt an other blow when the hometown of one of Pakistani Taliban's chief was taken by the Pakistan army
Excerpt From article:
The 8-day-old air and ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region is a key test of nuclear-armed Pakistan's campaign against Islamist militancy. It has already spurred a civilian exodus and deadly retaliatory attacks.
Washington has encouraged the operation in the northwest because many militants there are believed to shelter al-Qaida leaders and are also suspected to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has also kept up its own missile strikes in the lawless tribal belt, including a suspected one that killed 22 Saturday.....the Pakistan Taliban was dealt an other blow when the hometown of one of Pakistani... more
"BERLIN -- Midway through a propaganda video released last month by a group calling itself the German Taliban, a surprise guest made an appearance: a cleanshaven, muscular gunman sporting the alias Abu Ibrahim the American.
U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits -- including Americans -- are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps. The flow of recruits has continued unabated, officials said, in spite of an intensified campaign over the past year by the CIA to eliminate al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in drone missile attacks.
The videos all featured German speakers who urged Muslims to travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan to join their cause.
"They're doing such good business that they are dropping a new video every week or so," said Ronald Sandee, a former Dutch military intelligence officer who serves as research director of the NEFA Foundation, a U.S. group that monitors terrorist networks. "If I were a young Muslim, I'd find them very convincing."
Other European countries are also struggling to keep their citizens from going to Pakistan for paramilitary training."
War of Necessity? For who?"BERLIN -- Midway through a propaganda video released last month by a group calling... more
This is probably the most realistic and smartest take of what's going on in Afghanistan today. Of course General McChrystal is going to write a report saying he can "win" this war if only he had more resources. That's his job...he's a military general. The question still stands: what is a win? How much will it cost? And given how much a defined win will cost, will it be worth it? This article seeks to define the terms of these questions and it's well worth a look!This is probably the most realistic and smartest take of what's going on in... more
Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years while the Taliban's funding is flourishing, according to the US Treasury.Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years while the Taliban's funding is... more
This link is a running tab of the costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.
You can also access how they are financially impacting your community.
Then wonder why we can't get decent healthcare or climate change legislation out of Congress. And why some of us are still scratching our heads as to why this brought a Nobel Peace Prize to the president of the country waging these wars that our children are going to have to pay for.This link is a running tab of the costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.... more
By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and MARK McDONALD
Published: October 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide car bomber attacked a military vehicle in a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens more, police and hospital officials said.
The explosion occurred at the Alpuri market, whose shops are adjacent to a police station and a mosque, in the Shangla District within the restive Swat Valley. Among the dead, according to a local police official, were six soldiers and four newly recruited members of a community police force.
No one took immediate responsibility for the blast, although the blame is likely to fall on Taliban insurgents who have been active in the area. The Pakistani military had declared Swat cleared of militants after an offensive this summer, and this was the most deadly militant attack in the region since the end of that campaign.By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and MARK McDONALD
Published: October 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan... more
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber flung himself at a military convoy passing through a busy market in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing 41 people in the latest in a wave of deadly strikes, the military said.
The bomber targeted a paramilitary convoy as it passed through a security checkpost in a bazaar in Alpuri town in Shangla, a district neighbouring Swat valley and the target of a recent anti-Taliban military offensive.
Pakistan's army claims to have cleared Swat and nearby districts of the Taliban threat in an offensive launched in April, and are now poised to start a similar ground and air assault in the nearby northwest tribal belt.
"Forty-one people were killed and 45 were injured in the suicide blast," said Mian Iftekhar Hussain, the information minister for the troubled North West Frontier Province. "Twelve of the injured are in serious condition."
Major Mushtaq Khan, a spokesman at the military-run Swat Media Centre, said that six of the dead were soldiers, while the rest were civilians.
"The attacker was wearing a suicide vest packed with high-quality explosive material," he told AFP.
"Our assessment is that the bomber was on foot. When he blew himself up, some of the trucks carrying ammunition were also hit and the ammunition exploded, causes more human losses."
Khan said that 12 shops and seven vehicles were destroyed in the blast, while some buses packed with civilians were also caught in the explosions.
"The target was a security convoy near an army checkpost. This is a crowded bazaar and a lot of people were present at that time," Shangla Member of Parliament Fazlullah Khan said on a local television station.
Swat valley was the target of the punishing military offensive launched in April this year after Taliban militants advanced towards Islamabad.
Fighting also spilled into Shangla, where Taliban militants had infiltrated in a bid to impose a harsh brand of Islamic law across the northwest.
Alpuri was known to be a stronghold of fugitive Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, who remains at large, raising concerns that the Swat Taliban are regrouping in the northwest Pakistan's rugged mountains.PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber flung himself at a military convoy passing... more
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said today Karzai had been "very helpful on many fronts", and progress in Afghanistan was often "overlooked". But she said that if he were returned to office, there would have to be "a new relationship" between Karzai and foreign governments.
Clinton, who is visiting Britain, also said the Obama administration was reassessing the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaida, but denied any change of strategy on Afghanistan had occurred.
Her comments came after reports that the president's security advisers were pressing him to shift the focus of the war from the Taliban in Afghanistan to al-Qaida in Pakistan. The Taliban issued a statement last week claiming they posed no international threat, in an apparent attempt to put daylight between themselves and al-Qaida.
Asked whether the US was changing its focus, Clinton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are not changing our strategy: our strategy remains to achieve the goal of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida and its extremist allies and denying them safe haven and the chance to strike us here in London, in New York and anywhere else."
But she added: "We are doing a much more careful analysis of who is actually allied with al-Qaida. Not everyone who calls himself a Taliban is necessarily a threat to the UK or the US."The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said today Karzai had been "very helpful... more
President Obama is beginning to map out a plan that appears to offer appeasement to the Taliban in order to concentrate the fight with Al Qaeda.President Obama is beginning to map out a plan that appears to offer appeasement to... more
Statement on known Taliban website may indicate that leaders are retreating from alliance with al-Qaida.
The Taliban have issued an English-language statement claiming they pose no international threat – a move that will fuel the debate among American and European policymakers over whether the hardline Afghan insurgent group can be split away from the international militants of al-Qaida.
The statement came amid reports that Barack Obama's military advisers are shifting the focus of US operations to target al-Qaida in Pakistan while downplaying the threat posed to America by the Taliban.
Published on the eighth anniversary of the first coalition strikes on Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban communique declares the militants' aim to be the "obtainment of independence and establishment of an Islamic system".
"We did not have any agenda to harm other countries including Europe nor we have such agenda today," said the statement, which was posted on a known Taliban website on Wednesday.
"Still, if you want to turn the country of the proud and pious Afghans into a colony, then know that we have an unwavering determination and have braced for a prolonged war."Statement on known Taliban website may indicate that leaders are retreating from... more
The Taliban release a statement to their website that they have no intention of ever attacking the US or European nations, but affirm that they will fight any foreign troops on Afghanistan's soil.The Taliban release a statement to their website that they have no intention of ever... more
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army on who makes war in America.Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary... more
WASHINGTON — Just weeks before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an Afghan immigrant with ties to a senior al-Qaida operative drew the attention of U.S. intelligence organizations, intelligence officials familiar with the investigation say.
Prosecutors claim Najibullah Zazi, the 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who received training in Pakistan, was planning to strike another New York City target on 9/11, this time with homemade bombs.
The CIA learned about Zazi through one of its sources and alerted domestic agencies, including the FBI, intelligence officials said.
U.S. intelligence organizations first became aware of Zazi in late August, a senior administration official said. The intelligence and administration officials declined to offer more details on the operative and spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on the government's claim that the charges against him are part of a broader, international case and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community.
It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida rather than an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI.
President Barack Obama began receiving briefings on the investigation in late August, updated at least daily and sometimes several times a day as intelligence officials were crafting their case against Zazi, senior administration officials said.
Several people who traveled from New York to Pakistan last year with a man accused of plotting a terrorist attack have since returned to the United States.Several people who traveled from New York to Pakistan last year with a man accused of... more
What do these four things have in common, three are important to the American people one is not.What do these four things have in common, three are important to the American people... more
Al-Qaida militants suspected of planting landmine that killed US troops and Philippine marine.
Two US troops were killed in a landmine attack today by suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines, officials said.
One Philippine marine was also killed and two others wounded in the blast on Jolo island, where the Americans have been providing combat training and weapons to Philippine troops fighting Abu Sayyaf militants.
It is believed to be the second time US soldiers have been killed in the southern Philippines in violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf group since American counterterrorism troops were deployed to the region in 2002.Al-Qaida militants suspected of planting landmine that killed US troops and Philippine... more
