February 08, 2010

You should see him when the goat makes it to 100%

Terror Free Somalia:

a top commander in Somalia's hard-line Islamist militant group al-Shabaab was killed by his own guards, according to Somalia's state radioAmar Ibrahim, a Jordanian national, was killed in Mogadishu's Yaqshid neighborhood, residents told Radio Mogadishu, the state radio of Somalia's transitional government.Ibrahim was reported to be a ruthless commander, and his guards killed him in apparent vengeance

Amir

* Sheikh Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow" (2007–2008)
* Sheikh Mukhtar Robow "Abu Mansoor" (2008–2009)
* Sheikh Moktar Ali Zubeyr "Godane" (2009–present)

It appears that al-Shabaab leaders last oh about a year. So I just used a random al-Shabaab guy in the "dead" pic above. I mean chances are that guy's dead too right?

We at Jawa Report would like to provide our good Bros. at al-Shabaab some music to listen to as they continue their leadership determination process.

That and we always throw a party when this happens.

From the New York Times:

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A recently erected statue of President Obama as a 10-year-old boy will be removed from a public park here, city officials said Friday, bowing to vociferous criticism on Facebook just a month before Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia.

Jawa exclusive pic courtesy of "Citizen of the World".

Looks like the Taliban planned to attack another Pearl Continental Hotel yet again, this time in Lahore. The hotel is one of a handful that cater to Western businessmen, all of whom the Taliban types just assume are U.S. agents.

Given the security situation in Pakistan it's a wonder any why any Westerner would want to go to that country for any reason? But the Taliban cell behind the operation seemed to care not a whim if their victims were American or Pakistani. Simply being in or near a hotel which caters to the kafir is enought for them to justify your killing:

Pakistan police have arrested six suspected Taliban militants with a suicide vest and hand grenades allegedly on their way to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans in the country's cultural capital.

The militants arrested on the outskirts of Lahore included a 14-year-old boy and a prayer leader from Pakistan's Khyber tribal area near the Afghan border, said police official Zulfikar Hameed.

The prayer leader was wearing a vest packed with explosives. They told police they were targeting Americans at the Pearl Continental hotel, he said...

Police seized 26 hand grenades and five detonators from the suspects, who were travelling by car and motorcycle, said Mr Hameed. Despite their intentions, the men did not know for certain whether any Americans were staying at the hotel, he said.

Earlier I posted on the news that the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) led Somali Unity government had appointed an American citizen, Abukar Arman, to be their special envoy to the US. This would be the same ICU that we dubbed the African Taliban because of their support for Taliban-esque sharia law. The image to the right was taken at an ICU rally in Mogadishu shortly after they came to power the first time. Yes, that is Osama bin Laden.

In that post I asked if any one knew who Abukar Arman was. Thanks to dahozho, we learn that in addition to being a "community activist", Arman is also an author at the Huffington Post.

In this post Arman advocates the implementation of sharia law in Somalia. Ironically, since he's now working for a government that wishes to impose Taliban-like sharia, he argues that Taliban-like sharia isn't, you know, the real sharia:

If by Shariah we mean the Talibanesque, self-righteous, and unjust brand currently being practiced by the Somali Neo-Islamists known as al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, the answer is: No.

I'm not sure I understand why any Muslim who has tasted freedom wants sharia. Even moderate Islamic jurisprudence calls for penalties for blasphemy, even if they sometimes eschew the death penalty. Hence, unless one resorts to definitional tricks -- like calling anything they like sharia, and anything they don't like not sharia -- then it seems that sharia is inherently antithetical to secular governance.

But let us assume that some very liberal forms of sharia can be reconciled with modernity. If history is any guide then unfortunately the government which he now apparently represents doesn't want that.

This would be the same government that killed a 22 year old apostate for leaving Islam and embracing Christianity. That banned the watching of movies in theaters.

Now, I'm not saying that ICU Islamists of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed aren't less despicable than those of the al Shabaab. Clearly, there is more order to the murders and oppression which would accompany a real consolidation of power in the ICU and its so-called Unity government. And since the al Shabaab is clearly aligned with al Qaeda (which, I note that Arman disputes -- even though Shabaab itself makes the claim) it makes a whole lot of sense that we have to deal with the ICU as there may be no better alternatives.

The problem here is not necessarily that Arman is now working for what will clearly be an oppressive regime. Neither is the problem that Arman advocates reconciliation with that regime. Realpolitik may mean we have to learn to live with the bad in order to avoid the worse.

The problem is that the Huffington Post has given him a bullhorn to spread what are essentially lies. Lies about the nature of sharia. Lies about the nature of Sharif Ahmed's vision of political Islam. The actions of the former ICU government led by Ahmed speak for themselves.

Perhaps reconciliation is a worthy goal in Somalia. Stability also may be a worthy goal. And so, too, a government willing to oppose the al Shabaab. The suffering of the Somali people may be less under an oppressive sharia regime than under the present chaos.

But Arman is clearly a propagandist who wishes to whitewash what has happened in Somalia and disconnect all of the many atrocities done there from the ideology which inspired those very same atrocities -- political Islam.

Arman reminds me of one of those apologists for Communism who were all the rage on the Left during the height of the Cold War and which were endlessly quoted in the Soviet Press. And the HuffPo has become his Pravda.

UPDATE: I asked Robert Spencer if he had come across Abukar Arman. He has. For instance, see these posts which take on Arman's past publications. Apparently he's the kind of guy who likes to accuse those that disagree with political Islam "Islamophobes" or worse -- he insinuates that those opposed to political Islam are racists (including, ironically, Charles Johnson):
"More people were victimized as a result of Islamophobia than the other way around"
Islamophobia? Not so fast
Slander against Spencer, Horowitz in Middle East Times editorial

Also see this Front Page article about Arman from Patrick Poole:

Abukar Arman is one of the most prominent public defenders of the al-Qaeda-backed ICU terrorist organization in the West, having published numerous articles in print and online defending the group prior to their violent takeover of Somalia last summer, during their campaign to impose shari’a on the Somali population during brief time in power, and following the ICU’s expulsion late last year by Ethiopian troops to restore the UN-backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and to defuse the threats made by the ICU to conduct terror operations inside Ethiopia.

Back this past December [2006 -- ed], Arman called the ICU takeover of Somali “the best thing that happened to Somalia in the past 16 years”:

Reportedly, species of animals and plants are endangered because of human overpopulation and the Center for Biological Diversity is launching a program to minimize homo sapiens procreation. Free condoms emblazoned with images of endangered species will be distributed to prevent pregnancies.

Heh. Imagine a latex-clad member sporting the image of a California condor (right). Eco-friendly intimacy, eh? Frankly, I would sense a bit of bad karma or negative mojo putting images of endangered and, presumably, unfit-to-survive species on my jewels.

Nevertheless, the biological diversity crowd see the primary conflict as endangered species versus people and they are rooting for the endangered species. (More ....)

My thoughts and prayers go to his family.

A group of burglars has hit a Paris Post office using Burquas as a disguise.

Update on The Jawa Report's Obligatory CribNoteGate Post

Heh...

How will the leftists spin this?

Crazy shite right there

h/t Ace

Potty mouth related:
Amanda Marcotte: It Gets Worse

Today’s “Jesus cries when women f**k” update by Amanda Marcotte

Well, the Texas House of Representatives got Republican Jesus and he reminded them that out of of all the things he hates, which are multitude, nothing incurs his wrath more than women’s sexuality.

The bloggers, Amanda Marcotte, formerly of Pandagon, and Melissa McEwan, of Shakespeare's Sister, had come under fire from right-wing bloggers for statements they had previously made on their respective blogs.

A statement by the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, which called Marcotte and McEwan "anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots," and an accompanying article on the controversy in the New York Times this morning, put extra pressure on the campaign.

The teacher, Nicholas Dafuris, filled out a" Racist Incident Reporting Sheet" only to be told; 'If the child was older, say 15, I might take it more seriously, he's only nine, he's only doing it to wind you up."

UK's "Central Employment Tribunal" needs to view child training videos by terrorists...

Daily Mail

A Christian teacher told today how he lost his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as 'heroes'.

Nicholas Kafouris said he was forced from his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behaviour of children.

He said the predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class, and hailed the terrorists of the 2001 atrocities as 'martyrs'.

Mr Kafouris, 40, told how one pupil said to him, ‘Don’t touch me, you’re a Christian’, when the teacher accidentally brushed against him with his arm.

Others said, ‘We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up', and 'the Christians and Jews are our enemies, you too because you're a Christian', he added.

Mr Kafouris, who had taught at Bigland Green Primary School, in Tower Hamlets, East London, for 12 years, said there was a change in attitude of pupils at the school - where the majority of pupils are Muslim - after the World Trade Center attacks. more....

WWJSS? (What Would Jeff Spicoli Say?)

Aweseome. Totally awesome!

The Big Feed has more.

His name is Abukar Abdou Arman and he's a long time resident of the United States and a "well-known community activist." So well-known, in fact, that I've never heard of him. Any one have any info on Arman?

How screwed up is Somalia? The African Taliban in Somalia -- who Arman represents -- are now our allies. These would be the same people that we helped oust from power through our support of the Ethiopian invasion only to find that the alternative in the al Qaeda aligned Shabaab were worse.

The rift between the Islamic Courts Union (the African Taliban) and their armed wing in the al Shabaab did not occur over whether or not adulterers should be stoned to death, movie theaters closed, and apostates murdered -- no, both groups are in agreement over that. No, the rift came when the ICC decided it would negotiate through the UN, promise not to support violent jihad outside of Somlia's borders, and enter into a transitional government.

In any event I find it disheartening that this is as good as it gets in Somalia. There has to be some better alternative to a government run by al Qaeda types and one run by Taliban wannabes.

Terror Free Somalia Foundation has more.

Via Somali reporter extraordinaire Rahm

Al-Shabab fighters have reportedly vacated their strongholds in Mogadishu ahead of a government offensive.According to sources, the group has been pulling out all its weapons and vehicles from its main stronghold ever since they heard the reports of an imminent government attack.

Other reports also suggested that other Al-Shabab strongholds, including the Daynile district, have witnessed large movements of military personnel and equipment. It is unclear if this is a military tactic that Al-Shabab is employing. In addition, five people were killed and dozens of others injured on Sunday in shelling that rocked parts of the Somali capital Mogadishu, medics and witnesses said...

Related:
Al Shabaab declares jihad on Kenya

Michelle Malkin:

I was offline most of the weekend with family, so surfed over to Memeorandum tonight to catch up on the latest blog buzz. What have the left-wing blogs been raging about?

The ink on Sarah Palin’s hand.

The wall-to-wall coverage leads with “exclusive” investigative reports from a HuffPo “independent journalist and foreign correspondent.”

Plus: Breaking updates on the “crib notes!”

Seriously?

Shocking!

Sort of, I guess.

Telegraph:

Fusilier Martin Williams described shooting the insurgents as a “vendetta” against those who killed his friend Robert Hunt, who was the 200th soldier to die in Afghanistan.

His skills were put to the test when his patrol came under fire after it moved into a compound in an area north of Lashkar Gah in central Helmand last Monday. He took up his position and waited patiently for enemy troops to appear. His victims included two Taliban shot in a ditch at a distance of about 800 yards, including one who was hit in the throat.

“He put his hand out as if asking someone to help but not one came,” the Welshman said. “There was definitely less movement after I dropped them.

“The Taliban are used to machine guns but as soon as you get a sniper on the ground, it puts the fear of God into them.”

Hat Tip: Rambo.

Always expect the unexpected.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.

The space shuttle took flight before dawn, igniting the sky with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. The weather finally cooperated: Thick, low clouds that had delayed a first launch attempt Sunday returned, but then cleared away just in time.

"Looks like the weather came together tonight," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. "It's time to go fly."

"We'll see you in a couple weeks," replied commander George Zamka. He repeated: "It's time to go fly."

There are just four more missions scheduled this year before the shuttles are retired.

If you are concerned that we're going to be begging rides from the Ruskies and Chicoms or watching people splode in that famously dependable SpaceX POS, just think of how much pride we'll be able to take in totally kicking Holland's ass by becoming the world leader in windmill technology.

F*ck Yeah!

Yahoo: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Costa Ricans have elected their first woman president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America's most stable nation.

With most of the votes from Sunday's election counted, Laura Chinchilla held a 22-point lead over her closest rival. Her 47 percent share of the vote was well beyond the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off.

The 50-year-old protege of the current president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias, promised to pursue the same economic policies that recently brought the country into a trade pact with the U.S. and opened commerce with China.

"Today we are making history," said Chinchilla, who will be the fifth Latin American woman to serve as president when she takes office in May. "The Costa Rican people have given me their confidence, and I will not betray it."

...Chinchilla, the mother of a teenage son, is a social conservative who opposes abortion and gay marriage

Desperate to keep wildly unpopular New York governor David Paterson from running for re-election, elements of the Democrat Puppet Media appear to be ready to smear the hapless politico as if he were a Republican:

New York, United States - It is being reported that New York Governor David Paterson will resign on Monday after the New York Times will publish a “bombshell” article on the same day, according to New York Magazine. The piece would reveal a scandal for the governor and force him to submit his resignation; however, it is unknown what the scandal could be.

Until the Gray Lady's water breaks, we can only speculate.

February 07, 2010

K Bai Nao

Via Big Government

Antisemitism is rampant on Facebook

Via Islam in Europe

Police have launched an urgent investigation into a horrific Facebook group that gave graphic details of anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated by its members against Ilford's Jewish community.

The group, created by a student at Loxford School of Science and Technology, attracted more than 500 members in two weeks following its launch last month and featured teenagers boasting about engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour.

It featured messages from youths using language rife with spelling errors,
profanities and teenage colloquialisms.

One girl wrote: "Jews are the ones that killed prophets in the past. Dirty filthy scum-bags. No wonder they have the curse of Allah upon them. Burn Jew burn."(...)

The Jewish News was informed about the group, created by a student at
Loxford School, by a private investigator in Australia. It has since been
removed from the popular social networking site.

The group was described by a Community Security Trust (CST) official as "one of the most shocking things I have ever seen".

Heh....

h/t Dave in Texas

Terrible tragedy:

Via Hartford Courant

MIDDLETOWN - Witnesses and authorities said as many as 100 people may have been injured and two killed when a massive explosion, which homeowners more than 10 miles away mistook for an earthquake, blew up a power plant being built on the Connecticut River in the southern section of Middletown at about 11 a.m. Sunday.

Medical rescue personnel said four of the 100 were injured, four critically, and two were dead at the site of the Kleen Energy Systems plant on River Road.

"There are bodies everywhere," a witness said. Another witness said many victims may be buried in rubble.

Middletown deputy fire marshal Al Santostefano said at 1:15 p.m. there were "confirmed fatalities" but that he did not know who many. He said there were at least 50 construction workers on the site.

"It was a massive explosion" he said.

Santostefano said the explosion was related in some fashion to natural gas, but he did not know how.

Dan Riehl has more

"Tight End"?

Ha!

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we wi...ll have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Apparently these children didn't please the sexually perverted Taliban:

Via UK's Major Paul Smyth's Helmand Blog

Boys as young as 12 are being used by the Taliban to plant bombs designed to kill and maim British troops in Afghanistan.

Army commanders say insurgents are forcing children to lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs) because they know they will not be shot by British snipers.[...]

A senior Army source said: ‘The Taliban know that if they get caught in the sights of our snipers, they don’t last long, so they have resorted to hiding behind compound walls and directing children to plant bombs for them.

‘Lots of home-made IEDs detonate before they have even been laid, but the Taliban don’t seem to care whether a child gets killed or maimed. Some boys are as young as 12.’

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Jedge Lewin, 41, the Household Cavalry Battle Group’s doctor, said: ‘In the past few days alone, we have had five cases of children who have been exposed to blasts causing severe damage to, or loss of, hands and fingers.

‘Children can pick up devices when they are playing or handle detonators when forced to plant the bombs. This is a cowardly Taliban tactic and when children are suffering the consequences, it’s particularly sickening.’

February 06, 2010

God, grant them victory and grant it swiftly:

In a break from traditional military secrecy, American, British and Afghan commanders have announced that Marjah, the last town in Helmand under Taliban control, will be attacked.

Operation Moshtarak (“Together”) will be by far the largest offensive since General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, instigated his counter-insurgency strategy, backed by President Barack Obama’s 30,000-troop “surge”.

About 1,000 Taliban, mostly Afghans but with some foreign fighters in their ranks, are believed to be in Marjah, an opium centre and local headquarters for bomb-making and sending out suicide bombers.

Military sources described the use of publicity as a psychological tactic to intimidate the Taliban into laying down their weapons or fleeing.

Today, in 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in rural Illinois. He’s the kind of leader who ordinarily comes along only once in a life-time. We’re hoping we can beat those odds.

heh...

h/t Chip

His name is Issa T. Salomi, a sixty year old man from El Cajon, California. He was in Iraq as a civilian contractor. He's been missing since Jan. 23rd. A video of him appeared on the internet today.

The same group announced that it had the body of another American civilian kidnapped and murdered in 2006. His name was Ahmed Qusay al-Taie.

It's a Shia group tied to the Iranian government is holding Salomi. They call themselves the League of Righteousness. They are demanding the release of members of their group from Iraqi prisons in exchange for Salomi's life. They also want Backwater employees to be prosecuted for alleged crimes and for all U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.

Here's the video of Salomi.

We pray for his immediate release -- and if that doesn't happen of their own volition, for U.S. Special Forces to be instruments in God's hands.

UPDATE: Long War Journal has more. Let it sink in that we've already swapped prisoners for hostages with this group in the past. A move supposed to have bought us reconciliation, but instead has only brought us .... more hostage taking.

Silly me, I meant the adviser said; Pope Benedict XVI is “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

I just wanted to "borrow" Dan Riehl's headline, very catchy

My inbox:

I clicked on Can you write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper now?

I entered a standard zip code for Las Vegas for the heck of it.

This ain't over yet folks.

These dudes remind me of the Salem witch hunt.

"Lahore, Muslim lawyers will "burn alive" anyone who defends murdered 12 year old Christian."

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Because of the threats posed by the powerful Lahore Bar Association – an umbrella organization of city lawyers - no Christian or Muslim lawyer is ready to take on the defence in the murder of 12 year-old Shazia Bashir, it was reported yesterday by The Pakistani Christian association that deals with legal assistance.

The girl, of Christian faith, died on Jan. 23 as a result of violence - even sexual – at the hands of her employer, a wealthy and powerful Muslim lawyer in Lahore. The alleged murderess, Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem, is a former president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association. The girl, just 12 years old, had worked as a maid in the home of Naeem in the last six months.

The Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) denounces that access to the courtroom where the court hearings were held against the accused was denied, because a group of Muslim lawyers (pictured) 'prevented' entry. The association is fighting - for free - for the rights of the poorest and marginalized groups has been threatened by thousands of lawyers - friends of the murderer - that promise to burn alive anyone who wants to represent the victim in court. "

h/t Robert

Good news: al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Northwest Africa) did not kill Italian Sergio Cicala and Pierre Camatte, from France as they had promised.

Bad news: they're giving Italy and France 25 more days to exert pressure on the government of Mali to release members of AQIM. After that the two hostages will be murdered.

France and Italy have a long tradition of caving in to the demands of terrorists over hostages. While this may save the lives of today's hostages, it also leads to more hostage taking. Such a strategy leads to more hostage taking and deaths.

We demand the hostages be set free without any conditions or any quid pro quo. Hostage taking is barbaric and exposes al Qaeda as the murderous thugs that they are. If you support this, you too are a barbarian.

Unfortunately for Muslims, the taking of slaves and hostages in battle was a practice endorsed by Muhammad. The practice is clearly evil. Either Muhammad wasn't a prophet, or his example (sunnah) in many cases should not be followed.

February 05, 2010

Gawd, this is one of the most disgusting about me, BS the one has made!

Yes, those are the words of the president, last night at the Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Washington:

"I got a letter -- I got a note today from one of my staff -- they forwarded it to me -- from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer. She didn't have insurance. She couldn't afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt."....more

The statement comes at 8:25 in video:

Why did they laugh? Uneasiness at the statement he made? This is bizarre.

Let this be a lesson to all of you, don't mess with zippers!

h/t Weston

Despite calls from al Qaeda's online battalions to "invade Facebook", Murad Batal Al-shishani searches and doesn't find that many of them using the social networking tool.

The author has searched Facebook using keywords such as "jihad," "al-Qaeda," "al-Zarqawi," "Bin Laden," etc. and found a number of pro-al-Qaeda groups (“groups” on Facebook are applications created by users with common interests, fan-bases, advocates of a cause, etc). The author found that the number of members in these groups, which use names such as "Zarqawi," "al-Jihad al-Rayyan," "al-Qaeda," "Yusuf al-Batar battalion," etc. range from 50 to 150; however, groups using the name "Osama bin Laden," (there is more than one) tend to have more members, sometimes in excess of 400.

Yeah, that's not a problem.

In public, that is. I hear that in private the Saudis are all about the huge schlong:

Saudi Arabia has rejected Pakistan’s nominated diplomat as his name translates into ‘Biggest Dick’ in Arabic

Akbar Zib, a high profile Pakistani diplomat was nominated for the Saudi post but after some hand-wringing the country had to reject him due to the unforunate loss in translation.

Via Breitbart

h/t Connie

No suprise...

Via Gallop Poll

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism," while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives.

Read the rest, small business, free enterprise, entrepreneurs, capitalism, big business, and the federal government is also in the poll besides socialism.

h/t Weston

Meena, the girl in the interview, is 13 and says her brother pushed her to become a suicide bomber. This is Pakistan, so at 13 she's practically a grandmother.

But note that her 9 year old sister was a suicide bomber. A successful one. And by successful I mean that at 9 years old she was a mass murderer for the Taliban.

And isn't 9 young by Taliban standards? I mean, sure Mohammad was already having sex with his 9 year old wife Aisha, but suicide missions should at least wait for puberty!

Click on Meena's image to watch the video.

Exit question: Given that it's the Pakistani government is pushing this story, isn't there some amount of cognitive dissonance for Pakistanis who find it easy to believe that the Taliban recruit 9 year old girls for suicide missions but think that it's impossible that al Qaeda would use Khalid Shiekh Mohammad's niece for fund raising?

Thanks to Square Mile Wife.

American Bowe Bergdahl in Taliban hostage video

Pakistan Tribune:

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently. They claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice.

“Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the US court on false charges,” said a senior Afghan Taliban commander.

We continue to hope and pray he is located and freed unharmed. But these are the Taliban. They are bloodthirsty for their own Muslim people who refuse to follow them. I don't expect much mercy or fair dealing for Pfc Bergdahl.

Hat Tip: Alex

UPDATED and bumped by Rusty: Okay, let me reemphasize the seriousness of the Aafia Siddiqui case in the Muslim world. Think about the fallout of the Mohammad cartoons -- the riots, the deaths threats, the acts of terror -- and that is the scale of the outrage in the Muslim world over Siddiqui's conviction.

Muslims around the world are convinced that the US routinely kidnaps Muslim women, holds them, tortures them, and worse. Yeah, stupid and yet this is what they believe. Siddqui's conviction is "proof" of this to them.

Yet, isn't this screaming irony even while her family claims that she is innocent and is in no way an Islamist extremist (overlooking both their own ties to al Qaeda's longtime allies in the L-e-T, her marriage to Khalid Shiekh Mohammad's nephew, and KSM's admission that she is an al Qaeda agent) that they have turned to the Taliban for help?

Will protests organized by Islamist radicals in Pakistan now turn on the Taliban and demand that Bowe Bergdahl be released? Not. Freaking. Likely.

The utter hypocrisy of it all stinks to high heaven. On the one hand radical Muslims constantly praise women "mujahideen" and the wives of terrorists for their supporting roles, and yet whenever one of these women is caught red handed they deny that any Muslims woman would ever do such a thing!

More here at Daily Caller.

To recap: I was hit by an SUV while crossing a DC street legally, the driver who hit me is a federal agent who failed to identify himself in any way, I’m about to undergo reconstructive surgery to repair the knee injury he admits he caused, and somehow I was issued a jaywalking citation whose particulars in no way match what was seen by multiple eyewitnesses.

Wednesday night I just wanted to get a few things at CVS, watch Lost on Hulu, and go to bed after a long day of work. Now it’s turned into a whole big thing.

Fine by me.

UPDATE by Rusty: What a freaking wuss Treacher is. If he was a real man, it would be the car driver complaining of the Treacher shaped dent in his front car.

(But seriously dude, get better!)

....twoofer and Alex Jones' Infowars follower Gordon Duff's James O'Keefe is a Super Sekrit Zionist spy post

Last week’s breakin at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office in the New Orleans Federal Building was more than it seemed, much more. All of the 4 arrested had been trained by the CIA and, possibly, Israel. One arrested, Stan Dai, is listed as an Operations Officer of the Department of Defense Irregular Warfare Program and a known expert and lecturer on, not only surveillance but explosives training, assassinations and “false flag operations.” If you wanted a plane to crash, an enemy to get sick and die or a building to blow up, Dai would be the man to know how to make it happen.

We at Jawa Report support that 100%.

We would also like to extend a warm welcome our new Zionist overlords.

Hey Yoda, pass that back over here. My faith in this just slipped a bit.

Hat Tip: Shona.

Hate to pee in the punchbowl, but this is not good:

A sharp increase in the number of people giving up looking for work helped to depress the jobless rate. The number of 'discouraged job seekers' rose to 1.1 million in January from 734,000 a year ago.

With Americans increasingly anxious about high unemployment, President Barack Obama has declared that job creation will be his top priority in 2010.

Makes you wonder why only in an election year the focus suddenly becomes jobs when jobs were ignored in the non-election year.

Last month, the services sector added 40,000 jobs after shedding 96,000 positions. The figure included a rise in federal government employment, partly as a result of the hiring of staff for the 2010 Census. Temporary help employment rose 52,000, maintaining a rising trend seen in the past month.

Manufacturing payrolls rose 11,000 last month, the first gain since January 2007, after dropping 23,000 in December (ed. - that's a net loss of 12,000 payrolls in manufacturing in those two months, for those doing math). But the construction sector, continued to struggle, losing 75,000 jobs, likely because of unusually cold weather. Construction payrolls fell 32,000 in December.

The leftwing smear merchants just never ever learn, do they?

You f*ck with Retracto, and you're gonna get burned.

The akhis at Islamic Awakening are none to pleased convert to Islam (in prison) Bilaal McCloud turning on their brother, fellow blogger Tarek Mehanna. Mehanna was arrested in October of 2009 for plotting terrorism attacks inside and outside the U.S.

Via Boston Globe

A crucial witness in an FBI probe that led to terrorism charges against two Greater Boston men was rewarded for his cooperation yesterday with a sentence of probation for his own crime.

Bilaal McCloud, 54, of Roxbury, who began cooperating with the FBI in 2005 after he was indicted on charges of being a felon in possession of a semiautomatic pistol and ammunition, told a federal judge, “I felt it was my duty to assist in that way.’’

During the sentencing hearing in US District Court in Boston, prosecutors said McCloud “provided singular and very important information’’ in a significant case, but did not publicly disclose which case it was.

Two people familiar with the inquiry that led to the terrorism indictment in November of Tarek Mehanna, 27, of Sudbury, and Ahmad Abousamra, 28, a fugitive formerly of Mansfield, said McCloud is one of the unnamed cooperating witnesses in that case.[...]

McCloud converted to Islam while in state prison and befriended Mehanna and Abousamra while attending mosques in Greater Boston, according to one of the people familiar with the investigation.

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Terror Arrest In Boston (UPDATED, BUMPED: Blogger Arrested)

Desiring to take “some kind of action in furtherance of jihad,” Tarek Mehanna and his conspirators allegedly had multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in malls, including discussions of the logistics of the mall attacks, assaulting from different entrances, obtaining the automatic weapons, and possible attacks on emergency responders, US Attorney Michael Loucks said this morning....

Mehanna is facing a charge of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Authorities allege he conspired with Ahmad Abousamra and others in the plot, Loucks said in a news conference today at his office in Boston.

The al Qaeda supporter and blogger arrested by the FBI earlier this week has been identified as Tarek Mehanna. Mehanna was arrested as he attempted to leave the country on charges that he had lied to the FBI about prior knowledge of another Muslim blogger's, Daniel "Al-Jughaifi" Maldanado, plans to travel from Egypt to Somalia to join the jihad. Maldanado is now in federal prison after being convicted of receiving specialized weapons training from an al Qaeda linked group in Somalia.