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<p>In the aftermath of the Raymond Davis and bin Laden affairs, General James Mattis was key in maintaining ties with top Pakistani military leadership.</p> <p>New Delhi: The next US secretary of defence was the Obama administration's main man to keep a line open and bring ties with the top Pakistani military leadership back on an even keel in the dark days following the arrest of a CIA contractor and the killing of Osama bin Laden.</p>

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former prisoner of war who’s accused of endangering comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan, is asking President Barack Obama to pardon him before leaving office. White House and Justice Department officials on Saturday said Bergdahl had submitted copies of the clemency request seeking leniency. If granted by Obama, it would allow Bergdahl to avert a court-martial trial scheduled for April where he faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the latter of which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. …

BARF ALERT! Video at link.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has suggested the US may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan. An investigation would expose US forces to ICC scrutiny for the first time. Delivering her annual report to members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Monday, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she would decide “imminently” whether to ask judges for permission to launch a full-blown investigation as to whether US military forces and CIA operatives may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan through the “cruel or violent” interrogation of detainees. Bensouda said the Taliban, Afghan government forces and US...

A powerful Taliban truck bomb struck the German consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding more than 100 others, officials said. “The suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden car into the wall of the German consulate in the city,” said local police chief Sayed Kamal Sadat. The Taliban called it a “revenge attack” for a US airstrike in the volatile province of Kunduz earlier this month that left up to 32 civilians dead. …

Democratic Party Conducts Outreach through Leader of Terrorist Group Debbie Wasserman Schultz and company's disturbing embrace of radical Islam. December 7, 2015 Joe Kaufman In a push to do outreach to the local Muslim community, the Florida Democratic Party has officially recognized the American Muslim Democratic Caucus (AMDC), a group based in South Florida with members around the state. While this might look innocuous on its face, AMDC is headed by a woman, Ghazala Salam, who is the leader of a terrorist organization and has deep ties to various radical Islamic institutions. Salam is the Community and Government Relations...

Really not much else to say. It's Afghanistan

Anyone know what's going on with the Taliban five? Most recent "press" is over a year old.

A 16-YEAR-OLD Christian boy faces the death penalty after he was accused of insulting Islam in a Facebook post. The boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a photo of the Kaaba in Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, appeared on his profile. A Muslim man told police the image, which was part of an alleged derogatory post against Islam on the boy’s profile, was insulting and sacrilegious. The black cube-shape is built around an ancient stone at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Locals reportedly claimed the image...

Eight years ago, President Obama pledged to wind down the war in Iraq and redouble efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. “As president, I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be,” he said during a campaign speech. “This is a war that we have to win.” Lasting peace, Mr. Obama said, would depend on not only defeating the Taliban but helping “Afghans grow their economy from the bottom up.” He added, “We cannot lose Afghanistan to a future of narco-terrorism.” Now, at the twilight of his presidency, these goals...

Once again U.S. special operations forces attempted to rescue two American University professors kidnapped in Kabul last month. The Mission was unsuccessful because the White House withheld its approval despite Intelligence reports pinpointing the location at which the hostages were being held. The Two professors – one American, the other Australian were kidnapped during the Taliban attack on the American University. Disguised as police, the attackers killed twelve people and likely kidnaped the educators for ransom. After the release of Bergdahl and the ransom payment to Iran, the Taliban or the Haqqani network seized on the opportunity to grab a...

The United States could be on the verge of posthumously awarding its highest military honor to a soldier who was killed in action in Afghanistan – and the news is stirring controversy. Sgt. John Chapman, an air force technician who was serving as a radioman for the elite SEAL Team 6 during mission in Afghanistan, died in fierce combat against Al Qaeda gunmen on an Afghan mountaintop on March 4, 2002. The Americans led a coalition of nations in the military effort to destroy Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Outgunned, outmanoeuvred, hopelessly outnumbered and besieged in the Afghan desert, a small band of British soldiers chose to save a final bullet for themselves rather than fall into Taliban hands. For nearly two months, the 88 men of Easy Company – a mix of Paratroopers and the Royal Irish – had faced the overwhelming force and firepower of up to 500 Taliban determined to over-run the remote Helmand outpost of Musa Qala.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. After two American soldiers were murdered by an Islamic terrorist in Afghanistan while a crowd of protesters shouted “Death to Americans” and “Death to Infidels”, General Allen visited his men. “There will be moments like this when you’re searching for the meaning of this loss. There will be moments like this when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back,” Allen pleaded. “Now is not the time for revenge, now is not the time for vengeance.”...

Several weeks before he massacred 49 at an Orlando gay nightclub, Muslim terrorist Omar Seddique Mateen transferred over his interest in his Florida home to his older sister and Afghan brother-in-law, property records show — an indication the family possibly had some knowledge of his martyrdom plans. Authorities say the fatally shot Mateen clearly was prepared to die in a gun battle with police during the June 12 attack, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. On April 5, Mateen “quit-claimed” the deed on his Port St. Lucie, Fla., house, signing it over to his sister, Sabrina...

We are living through Benghazi 2, only this time the attack was in America with far more casualties. Obama and Hillary knew they had a major problem with the worst terror massacre since 9/11. Trump predicted this right down to the wife and father's silent complicity. But there are far more chickens coming home to roost at the White House. The killer's father is a radical Taliban-supporting Afghan. He was also a visitor to both the White House and State Department. The Obama administration has been negotiating with the Taliban on a power sharing arrangement in Afghanistan. The Taliban control...

The Taliban holds more territory in Afghanistan today than at any time since 2001. Current U.S. Commander Gen. John W. Nicholson has submitted a secret assessment of the situation to the Pentagon: The report — and Nicholson’s deployment to Afghanistan — come at a time of Taliban resurgence, with the group gaining ground in the southern provinces of the Taliban heartland… The Taliban’s warm-weather offensive has shown the insurgents to be bolder and better organized, holding more territory now than at any time since 2001, when their regime was overthrown by the U.S.-led invasion, according to recent U.N. estimates. Part...

The Taliban are using child sex slaves to mount crippling insider attacks on police in southern Afghanistan, exploiting the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi" -- paedophilic boy play -- to infiltrate security ranks, multiple officials and survivors of such assaults told AFP. The ancient custom is prevalent across Afghanistan, but nowhere does it seem as entrenched as in the province of Uruzgan, where "bacha bereesh" -- or boys without beards -- widely become objects of lustful attraction for powerful police commanders. The Taliban over nearly two years have used them to mount a wave of Trojan Horse attacks -- at...

Seddique Mateen, father of the Orlando killer and outspoken supporter of the Taliban, has also been a guest at Obama’s White House and Hillary’s State Department. I wonder what they were talking about? The senior Mateen has described Omar as a “good son.” Of course he also describes the Taliban as a good government so that should give you a frame of reference for what he considers good...

As the United States braces for an especially bloody summer fighting season in Afghanistan, President Obama inched closer this week to allowing American forces to once again directly battle the Taliban, loosening restrictions on airstrikes and on ground combat in support of Afghan forces, the administration said on Friday. The president’s decision to expand the military’s mission just seven months before he leaves office signaled just how far the United States remains from achieving his goal of ending the American military role in Afghanistan. Under the new rules, airstrikes will no longer have to be justified as necessary to defend...