It was seem that Azzam.com, the mother of all al-Qaeda websites, has been resurrected for all of your anti-American propaganda needs.
While the latest incarnation of al-Neda and Jehad.net still appears to be down, it would seem that Azzam has been resurrected, abeit in far diminished form. I found the link to Azzam from Taliban Online, which in turn is hosted by Muslim Thai. And I while I can't read Thai, the graphics alone would seem to suggest that the site has an anti-American bent to it.
Just thought the other Freepers might want to know that Azzam is back up and ready to be shut down again.
I've spent some time the last couple weeks going to all the various "spin" websites for terrorists, taliban, and the like taking issue with the amount of American dead that are reported. While I don't think any Americans have been lost in nearly two months, the various bad guy web sites generally show 10 or 20 a day being killed.
My emails go like this:
You keep making claims of American Servicemen killed in Afghanistan. I know you would prefer to have accurate reporting so here is the list of the true amount of American Servicemen killed in Afghanistan. I hope this will help your site be more responsible. I know you wouldn't want to mislead people. The best way to gain people's respect is to tell the truth. When you mislead people all the time, it's hard to get them to believe you again.
American Deaths Since the Afghanistan Campaign Began
The Associated Press
American deaths related to the fight against terrorism since the Afghanistan campaign began Oct. 7, 2001:
Sixteen Americans have been killed in combat or hostile situations:
-Aug. 7: Sgt. 1st Class Christopher James Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., died of wounds received July 27 in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Four other American soldiers were injured.
-May 19: Sgt. Gene Vance Jr., U.S. Special Forces soldier, was killed while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan after his unit came under heavy fire.
-March 28: Chief Petty Officer Matthew J. Bourgeois, 35, of Tallahassee, Fla., was killed when he stepped on a land mine during a training mission near Kandahar. Another serviceman was wounded.
-March 4: Seven American soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded when two
helicopters took enemy fire in the largest allied air and ground offensive of the war. Those killed: (Army) Sgt. Bradley S. Crose, 27, of Orange Park, Fla.; Sgt. Philip J. Svitak, 31, of Joplin, Mo.; Spc. Marc A. Anderson, 30, of Brandon, Fla.; Pfc. Matthew A. Commons, 21, of Boulder City, Nev.; (Navy) Petty Officer 1st Class Neil C. Roberts, 32, of Woodland,Calif.; (Air Force) Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman, 36, of Waco, Texas; Senior Airman Jason D. Cunningham, 26, of Camarillo, Calif.
-March 2: Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, 34, of Wade, N.C., was killed by enemy fire during an assault on Taliban and al-Qaida fighters regrouping in eastern Afghanistan.
-Jan. 4: Army Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, of San Antonio, was killed in the vicinity of Khost, near the Pakistan border. First U.S. soldier killed by the enemy.
-Dec. 5, 2001: Staff Sgt. Brian "Cody" Prosser, 28, Frazier Park, Calif.; Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, Watauga, Tenn.; and Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, Cheshire, Mass., were killed in Afghanistan when a U.S. bomb missed its target.
-Nov. 25: CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, 32, of Winfield, Ala., was killed by rioting prisoners at Mazar-e-Sharif. First American killed in action in Afghanistan.
---
Twenty-three Americans have died in military aircraft crashes or while on other duty in support of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
-June 12: Three were killed when their Air Force MC-130H transport plane crashed on takeoff in Eastern Afghanistan. Seven others injured.
-April 15: Staff Sgt. Brian T. Craig, 27, of Houston; Staff Sgt. Justin J. Galewski, 28, of Olathe, Kan.; Sgt. Jamie O. Maugans, 27, of Derby, Kan.; and Sgt. 1st Class Daniel A. Romero, 30, of Longmont, Colo., all died in Kandahar when rockets they were trying to destroy accidentally blew up.
-March 2: Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher M. Blaschum, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va., died after ejecting from his F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, which crashed during a training exercise in the Mediterranean Sea.
-Feb. 13: Army Spc. Jason A. Disney, 21, of Fallon, Nev., was killed shortly after a piece of heavy equipment fell on him at Bagram air base, 40 miles north of Kabul.
-Jan. 20: Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cohee III, 26, of Wicomico, Md., and Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan, 24, of Mendocino, Calif., both Marines, were killed when their CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed while on a resupply mission. Five other Marines injured.
-Jan. 9: Capt. Matthew W. Bancroft, 29, of Redding, Calif.; Capt. Daniel G. McCollum, 29, of Irmo, S.C.; Gunnery Sgt. Stephen L. Bryson, 36, of Montgomery, Ala.; Staff Sgt. Scott N. Germosen, 37, of New York; Sgt. Nathan P. Hays, 21, of Wilbur, Wash.; Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Bertrand, 23, of Coos Bay, Ore.; and Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of
Gary, Ind., all Marines, were killed in the crash of a tanker plane into a mountain in Pakistan.
-Nov. 29, 2001: Pvt. Giovany Maria, 19, of New York, was shot to death in Uzbekistan, where about 1,000 members of the Army's 10th Mountain Division were stationed. Officials say his death is under investigation, not result of enemy action.
-Nov. 7: Sailor Bryant L. Davis, 20, of Chicago, a fireman apprentice, was declared dead after he fell overboard from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.
-Oct. 19: Army Rangers Pfc. Kristofor Stonesifer, 28, of Doylestown, Pa., and Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyo., were killed in the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in Pakistan.
-Oct. 10: Air Force Master Sgt. Evander Earl Andrews, 36, of Solon, Maine, was killed in a heavy-equipment accident in the northern Arabian peninsula. The first death in the campaign.
AP-ES-08-12-02 2013EDT
This story can be found at:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAYWZO1T4D.html
Last week I actually got taliban news, which is since gone, to respond to my post and email. Here is there response.
hi tom
thanks for you email
unfortunately there is no way of verifying the figures provided by AP or Reuters. they take them directly from the Pentagon, and do not apply the usual 2/3 source checks on the information received.
ummahnews doesn't claim to be able to verify the stats received from agancies like azzam and talbain news but any reader with any discernment should treat them as partisan sources
faisal bodi
editor
Then followed by my response again, and I've not heard from them after this:
The figures provided by AP and Reuters are easily verifiable. That is to say that if the Pentagon list those killed in Afghanistan, and some American father or mother did not see their son's name on the list they would be out calling a press conference saying the government was covering up their son's death and that he should be honored along with other folks that died in Afghanistan or while supporting the war.
That hasn't happened even once. That's a pretty good indicator that those figures are correct. Perhaps you can hide the deaths of soldiers in certain countries, but if you're familiar with the United States at all, then you know that you can't hide stuff like that.
In Afghanistan you have reporters from four or five television networks at a base with cameramen. You'll report that a plane crashed at that base and 50 US soldiers died in a big ball of flame. Then the networks will show a reporter from the same base saying nothing happened all day.
In the United States, reporters are begging for something to report on. They would like to report that there is a cover up by their own government. In fact they are always trying to find one. It just hasn't happened.
I thought you would want accuracy in your articles. If you're just putting the articles out to make people feel good and mislead them about what is really happening then I guess accuracy has no value to you.
I misjudged you and thought you wanted people to know the truth. My mistake.
Tom
Well, the bad guys' general spin is either that all of the info is being covered up by the evil Zionist New World Order (you know, the ones with the black helicopters).
I personally just don't buy it. I might, MIGHT be able to be persuaded that some of those airplane or helicopter crashes were actually shot down. However, the type of massive conspiracy needed to keep 900+ dead secret is utterly beyond a government that can't keep its war plans from being published in the New York Times.