Noblesse Oblige

The mainstream press is beginning to figure out that Al Zawahiri is running Al Qaeda. Several articles are out this morn with leads of “Osama Sidelined“. That’s been the case for a long time as was noted here last year when Zawahiri announced the formation of the new Shura council.

The articles state that zero high-value AQ targets have been captured in the past year, which isn’t quite true as several captures and kills of upper level operatives have occurred. Notably this capture of the AQ leader in Iraq responsible for the death of the Sheikh Abu Reesha who led the Anbar Awakening purge of Al Qaeda.

Afghan Army commandos have been doing a fine job as well, recently capturing an AQ operative who had contact with Azzam the American (Adam Gadahn,) and who was responsible for leading fighters and groups between fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq by crossing through Iran. He’s been transported to Guantanamo.

Al Qaeda’s promised Ramadan offensive has begun in Iraq, with three separate bombings, killing 17 – 27 depending on whose report you go with. For now I will stick with AFP’s 17 since they tend to vette stringer reports from the fronts better than the UK papers and News agencies. Continue reading →

The Turkish Daily news goes to great pains to say that the latest Al Qaeda tape does not really reference Ankara, but a Syrian city instead.

While they might console some of their readers, they have quickly forgotten that Al Zawahiri declared Al Qaeda Jihad against Turkey in May. Let us hope it’s just Turkey’s reporters who are delusional, and not the followers of Kemal.

From Defenselink, Yesterday in Afghanistan:

A new battalion of Afghan National Army commandos today completed it first operation, capturing a well-known Taliban facilitator and two suspected Taliban extremists.

Working with a contingent of Afghan national police advised by coalition forces, the commandos led a two-day mission 30 miles southwest of Jalalabad in the Sherzad district of Nangahar province. During the mission, the commandos captured and detained Haji Shir Khan, a known improvised explosive device maker, who is responsible for numerous IED attacks on Afghan and coalition forces in the province.

The assault force also found two weapons caches that contained 18 rocket-propelled-grenade rounds, an anti-tank mine, 10 hand grenades, a 12-gauge shotgun, eight fully-loaded AK-47 magazines, and more than 80 kilograms of opium.

“The commandos represent a bright future for the Afghan national security forces, and it’s no surprise after all of their training that they were successful in today’s mission,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. “Operations such as this one demonstrate that the (Afghan National Police), and now the commandos, are authority figures to the residents of Nangahar and can rapidly conduct synchronized missions against the enemies of peace and stability.“

In separate actions today:

— In Ghazni province, Afghan and coalition forces killed several suspected militants and detained another.

— Several suspected militants were killed and two others were detained during an operation in Helmand province. The detainees include a suspected militant who was wounded during the course of operations and evacuated for further medical attention. Soldiers found opium, several AK-47s, numerous full ammunition vests, a machine gun and several rocket-propelled grenades during the operation.

The Taliban are mufsidunn, running drugs and killing children who try to attend school — anyone who calls them “holy warriors” is an idiot.

One of the USF Muslim students arrested in South Carolina on explosives charges has been granted bail and the government is appealing. CAIR (The Council of American Islamic Relations, Unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Terror Funding trial,) is effectively saying Mohamed was bad, but Megahed is a nice boy with a clean record, he just happened to be in the car…. Continue reading →

The Taliban attacked an army officer’s messhall with a suicide bomber, killing 15 SSG soldiers near Tarbela dam. Continue reading →