Taliban on Murder of Aid Workers: "They were Christian Missionaries and We Killed Them All"

Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, center, talks to a journalist during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 9, 2010. The Christian charity said Monday it had no plans to leave Afghanistan despite the murders of 10 members of its medical aid team and repeated that the organization does not attempt to convert Muslims to Christianity. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

From Jihad Watch

Sickness and squalor fi sabil Allah: The medical workers wouldn't even have had to have been preaching openly to provoke the jealousy of the Taliban: filthy infidels performing greater acts of mercy than the mujahedin could dream of is a liability when absolute supremacy is the name of the game. More on this story. "Badakhshan, Taliban kill eight people for being 'Christian missionaries'," from Asia News, August 7:

Kabul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Eight foreigners and two Afghans of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), a Christian charitable organization providing aid and medical assistance to the Afghan people were killed by the Taliban in the district of Kuran wa Munjan in the region of Badakhshan , northeast Afghanistan. Gen Kemtuz, one of three Afghan translators, is the only survivor. The organisation in question is Swiss based International Assistance Mission, which offers medical assistance.

Dirk Frans, IAM Executive Director said that doctors - all opticians - were returning to Kabul from the region of Nuristan, after a two and a half visit, through Badakhshan, considered the safest route. The IAM lost contact with the doctors vehicles on Wednesday and it is presumed they were attacked between Wednesday and Thursday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders through spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid who claimed that the doctors were in possession of Bibles translated into Dari, the local language. "Yesterday - he said - " one of our patrols confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all". He added that they were "American spies" and that they were looking for information on extremist strongholds.

Dirk Frans has strongly denied this claim: "We have been working in Afghanistan since 1966. They know that we are a Christian institution, but we certainly do not distribute Bibles". He added that all of the victims were doctors and that IAM only provides medical assistance.

The names of the eight victims are already known but have not yet been made public. They include six Americans, a Briton and a German. The bodies have been transferred to Kabul. The group's leaders, said Frans, had worked in Afghanistan for decades.

The region of Badakhshan, bordering Tajikistan, is one of the few regions of Afghanistan that the U.S. has stolen control of from the Taliban after the 2001 invasion. The region is considered safe, although the local population has shown signs of revolt in recent times.

Is Hillary Paying Protection Money to the Taliban?

Report Reveals ‘Protection Payments’ From Taxpayer-Funded Private Security Contract

It appears that the Secretary of State is conducting U.S. foreign affairs in much the same way she managed her husband's affairs -- those who can't be destroyed are bought off.

CNS News reports that $2 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds "spent on a Defense Department contract for the private security of 'vital' U.S. military supplies in Afghanistan may be making its way to the Taliban as protection payments for safe passage.”

Taliban Using HIV Bombs

Wayne Owers received the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his bomb disposal work in Afghanistan. Photo: Cpl Rupert Frere

From The Sun

By Tom Newton Dunn

Taliban fighters are burying dirty needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The Sun can reveal.

Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices.

The heroin needles are feared to be contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. And if the bomb goes off, the needles become deadly flying shrapnel.

The tactic, used in the Afghan badlands of Helmand, was exposed by Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer.

Senior backbencher Mr Mercer said yesterday: "Are there no depths to which these people will stoop? This is the definition of a dirty war."

Razor blades are also being used. All Royal Engineer and Royal Logistic Corps bomb search teams have been issued with protective Kevlar gloves.

Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander

From The New York Times

By Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins

The Taliban ’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar , is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar , the Taliban’s founder, and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Read the rest of this entry >>

US-Led Poppy Destruction Aiding Taliban, Says Think-Tank

AKI has an interesting story about how US policy forcing the destruction of poppy crops in Afghanistan "is fuelling support for the Taliban and the insurgency."

The London-based Senlis Council, recommends "that poppies should be cultivated for the village-based production of morphine."

STATEMENT OF IMRAN RAZA REGARDING RELEASE OF AMERICAN CHILDREN FROM PAKISTANI TALIBAN MADRASSA

Since we informed Sunlit Uplands readers two days ago about a new documentary disclosing that American children are receiving training in a Taliban-backed madrassa in Pakistan, two children have been returned to their homes in Atlanta.

Imran Raza, the director and executive producer of the documentary "Karachi Kids" who discovered up to 80 American children in a Taliban-backed madrassa in Pakistan released the following statement regarding the return of two American children:

I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children from Atlanta from a Taliban- backed madrassa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the United States once a year and personally recruits American children to enroll in his madrassa.

The remaining 78 children must be returned to the United States. This pipeline to jihad must be closed.

Let me be clear - these children do not learn math, or science, or liberal arts. They learn one thing - they memorize over the course of seven years every verse of the Koran coupled with the radical interpretation of their teachers.

This is just the first step in integrating these children back to American society. I am proud we did our part so we could say 'Welcome Home."

It is imperative that Members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind.

The Karachi Kids is a documentary about American children in the Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi Pakistan. A trailer of the film is available at www.karachikids.com.