babble-intro-img
babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

Taliban Capture Canadian Spy

83 replies [Last post]

Comments

Northern Shoveler
Offline
Joined: Feb 17 2011

"According to the spokesperson, there are documents, photographs and footage that confirms his espionage "

Dumb excuses when caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Really those nice shots of your bunker emplacements were just for scenic value.  The reason I have lists of people I think are Taliban is for research purposes only."  Ranks right up there with, "we were just hiking in the Kurdish mountains and wandered into Iran."  Or maybe;  "is that river I waded really the American border?"


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

Northern Shoveler wrote:

"According to the spokesperson,

Yeah, the Taliban spokesperson...Laughing


M. Spector
Offline
Joined: Feb 19 2005

Haven't you learned yet, Northern Shoveler, that only NATO spokespersons can be trusted?


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

 

Think what you want but spokespersons only say what is in the interest to the group they represent. It's up to you to believe them or not and that will be based on your own agenda and perception of that group.

 


Northern Shoveler
Offline
Joined: Feb 17 2011

Gee Bec no sense of humour.  Did I say I believed the report?  I thought it was obvious I was having a little fun.  Since you seem so cynical tell me what you thought of the American "tourists" who "wandered" into Iran?  Was that really just a murderous regime picking on some nice young people?


Unionist
Offline
Joined: Dec 11 2005

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Northern Shoveler wrote:

"According to the spokesperson,

Yeah, the Taliban spokesperson...Laughing

Oh, you mean like, the guy who lives there, as opposed to the guys who invaded there? Yeah, those natives, can't be trusted, they don't come from an honest truthful advanced culture like us.

Victory to the Afghan insurgency! Total defeat to the invaders and their puppets! Canada get out before you're driven out!

 


Fidel
Offline
Joined: Apr 29 2004

"Ex-Taliban" spy raking in aid money

Quote:
With his fondness for American rap music and Beyoncé, Fareed Hidayati, sporting cropped hair, a clean-shaven face and speaking in a thick British accent does not seem like a typical Taliban spy.

He drives around Kabul in the Taliban's favourite vehicle, the Toyota Corolla -- but his car is customised with 1,000-watt speakers, bright red aluminium rims and seat cushions displaying the arms of Arsenal football club.

No surprise then, that this former Taliban turned his back on his rebel brothers, and now manages contracts -- some worth more than a million dollars -- for US-funded developers rebuilding the war-torn nation.

Lots of "aid money" being pumped into Afghanistan and very little of it for poverty relief or social democracy.  The creme of the Taliban are becoming wealthy, too.


Frmrsldr
Offline
Joined: Mar 4 2009

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

You're slipping... You forgot the cool beheading video in the endWink

Just this weekend CNN had a great documentary made by Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal called "Taliban". This guy negotiated a deal where he was imbedded with a group of Taliban for a few weeks.  It was a really reveling documentary. If you can download it please watch it. This is a trailer for it...

 Taliban 

In the end one of the Taliban leaders named Omar (Omar in the trailer) invites him to his village after the group was attacked and had to break up to continue his documentary. He gets to the village and Omar ends up accusing Refsdal of being a spy as a pretext for kidnapping him and demanding ransom. It would seem making accusations of spying is standard operating procedure for justifying holding someone for random or whatever for the Taliban. That could be what's happened to this guy.

If he is a "tourist" of sorts and he dies I say we put him in for a Darwin Award.

They aren't going to kill him just yet.

They are going to try to get the money first.

What the Harper administration decides will be the fate of this person will be instructive of this administration's policy towards Canadians who find themselves in difficult situations abroad.

So far the track record is not good.

Omar Khadr

Maher Arrar

Abousfian Abdelrazik (and many others)

Versus

Brenda Martin.

So far the track record's not good.


Frmrsldr
Offline
Joined: Mar 4 2009

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Think what you want but spokespersons only say what is in the interest to the group they represent. It's up to you to believe them or not and that will be based on your own agenda and perception of that group.

We know where you're coming from. Huh, buddy?


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

Northern Shoveler wrote:

Gee Bec no sense of humour.  Did I say I believed the report?  I thought it was obvious I was having a little fun.  Since you seem so cynical tell me what you thought of the American "tourists" who "wandered" into Iran?  Was that really just a murderous regime picking on some nice young people?

 

 

Sorry if I missed the humor, I'm usually the one poking fun and getting everyone riled up... Nice one you got me.Yell

As for your question my first impression was they were pretty stupid... for spies or tourists...

Anyways: life choices, we all make them. Some are better at it than others I guess. Rich white kids: nobody cares about them.

 

 


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

Frmrsldr wrote:

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Think what you want but spokespersons only say what is in the interest to the group they represent. It's up to you to believe them or not and that will be based on your own agenda and perception of that group.

We know where you're coming from. Huh, buddy?

 

Is there something in that statement you think is false? (You lefties are getting all snippy lately... must be Libya; you're stuck between a rock and a hard place)

 


Fidel
Offline
Joined: Apr 29 2004

Bec, Taliban ideology is not really their Islam in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Millions of people were deliberately and strategically placed between a rock and hard place and not by choice. What do you think of that?


Frmrsldr
Offline
Joined: Mar 4 2009

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Frmrsldr wrote:

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Think what you want but spokespersons only say what is in the interest to the group they represent. It's up to you to believe them or not and that will be based on your own agenda and perception of that group.

We know where you're coming from. Huh, buddy?

Is there something in that statement you think is false?

No.

On the contrary,

I find your honesty and the way you wear your political views on your sleeve quite refreshing.


NDPP
Offline
Joined: Dec 28 2008

this EX taliban is precisely the kind of corrupt, mafia sellout  hustler the Western powers cultivate. His value system wouldn't be at all out of place in downtown Toronto or the ranks of some Canadian political parties.

 Have no fear,  the 'graveyard of empires' makes many more lions, who fight poor and honourably to rid their lands of just such rank corruption as this, and chase the Crusaders away.

'and the times they are a changin..'

US Invaders Airstrikes Martyr 12 Children in Kunar

http://www.shahamat.info/english/

"In Kunar's Nanglain district, as many as 12 innocent children of the villagers were brutally martyred, and two more seriously injured, in the US invading force's deadly airstrikes. Heinous terrorism. The children are said to have been collecting firewood for their family use when the barbarous America forces started bombing the area, martyring the small, innocent children who were expected to be the future of the nation and to care for their parents in their old age.."

Mar 1, IEA: American Salutes Kunar: The Proud Land of Our Mujahid Forefathers

http://www.shahamat.info/english/

..."The deep American economic woes and the Americans hate for this war is exactly what compelled the American Defense Minister to plainly tell the Karzai regime that they should look for other countries to train and fund its police and army and that they should no longer depend on American alone to fund such projects...

It looks like the Americans have understood that they can no longer sleep well in their bases as the populace has decided to avenge their blood. Therefore they decided to put an end to their illegitimate outpost in Paich. The American invading forces have saluted and decided to withdraw from the proud land of our Mujahid forefathers..."


Fidel
Offline
Joined: Apr 29 2004

Taliban?  Imagine a carbon copy of imperial Saudi Arabia except with Afghan women, children and minorities without many of the same basic rights. Always be suspicious of ISI/CIA/Saudi-backed proxies who ban dancing and rejoicing. They are faux revolutionaries.

Tariq Ali, a socialist wrote:
[Ahmed] Rashid makes clear that the Taliban could not have swept aross Afghanistan without the military and financial backing of Islamabad, sustained in turn by Washington. The top Taliban commander Mullah Omar, today the one-eyed ruler of Kabul (and bin Laden’s father-in-law), was long on the direct payroll of the Pakistani regime. The conquest of power, however, has had an intoxicating impact on the Afghan zealots. The Taliban have their own goal for the region—a Federation of Islamic Republics that would enforce a pax Talibana from Samarkand to Karachi. They now control sufficient revenues from the heroin trade to fund their land campaigns. But they want access to the sea and have made no secret of their belief that Pakistan with its nuclear arms will fall to them one day. They know they enjoy strong support at the lowest and highest levels of the Pakistan Army. Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz, Chief of the General Staff, and Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, the Director of the ISI, the two senior commanders who currently flank Pakistan’s more secular-minded military dictator, Pervaiz Musharraf, are well-known for their Taliban sympathies. The sad and squalid story of the wreckage of Afghanistan is told well by Cooley and Rashid, but the tragedy is far from over.

Khaled Ahmed wrote:
Afghanistan is unlucky in the sense that the "Taliban Islam" they got was not really their Islam. Now that Karzai is in power, he has suspended all the Taliban laws, saying, "They are not our laws at all." Which meant that this new thinking, extremist Islamic thinking, went from Pakistani seminaries, seminaries of High Church, Deobandi brand, which could not be implemented in Pakistan, but found fertile ground in Kabul and Kandahar. Now that Pakistanis complain of "Talibanization," they should realize that the new stringent laws against women and against the minorities actually went from our seminaries.

Afghanistan and Pakistan not very lucky according to London based Pakistani news journalist. Violent misogyny and extreme intolerance was never indigenous to either country. Introduction of Taliban religious extremism was introduced to Pakistan and Afghanistan by General Zia, Saudi princes and the CIA in the latter half of the 20th century.


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

LOL NDPP you're posting for Jihadie/Taliban websites now?

That's golden... 


M. Spector
Offline
Joined: Feb 19 2005

NDPP wrote:

US Invaders Airstrikes Martyr 12 Children in Kunar

http://www.shahamat.info/english/

"In Kunar's Nanglain district, as many as 12 innocent children of the villagers were brutally martyred, and two more seriously injured, in the US invading force's deadly airstrikes. Heinous terrorism. The children are said to have been collecting firewood for their family use when the barbarous America forces started bombing the area, martyring the small, innocent children who were expected to be the future of the nation and to care for their parents in their old age.."

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

LOL NDPP you're posting for Jihadie/Taliban websites now?

Maybe that's because the US media don't report stories like that until someone decides to apologize for the mass murders.


VanGoghs Ear
Offline
Joined: Mar 8 2010

M. Spector wrote:

NDPP wrote:

US Invaders Airstrikes Martyr 12 Children in Kunar

http://www.shahamat.info/english/

"In Kunar's Nanglain district, as many as 12 innocent children of the villagers were brutally martyred, and two more seriously injured, in the US invading force's deadly airstrikes. Heinous terrorism. The children are said to have been collecting firewood for their family use when the barbarous America forces started bombing the area, martyring the small, innocent children who were expected to be the future of the nation and to care for their parents in their old age.."

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

LOL NDPP you're posting for Jihadie/Taliban websites now?

Maybe that's because the US media don't report stories like that until someone decides to apologize for the mass murders.

the fact is maybe it didn't take place or maybe it did but you have no idea - your distrust of NATO sources is understandable but your trust in Taliban source is foolish at best. 

the tone of certainty by some posters as to what is the truth and what isn't makes this whole thread feel like a sick joke 


NDPP
Offline
Joined: Dec 28 2008

It took place, Petraeus had to apologize to Karzai. I make no claim everything I post is 'truth', unlike the lapdog corporate MSM. I post from all sides, of which this is one. I leave you to decide what the 'truth' is.


Fidel
Offline
Joined: Apr 29 2004

Yeah it's pretty difficult to know who is reporting the truth. I tend to like lefty sources, but that's not to say that Fox or CNN are 100% lies all of the time either. Sometimes the truth can be hidden in plain view by a bodyguard of lies, or something like that. Most MSM sources, though, will write about the Taliban and al-CIA'da like they are totally new enemies of the US and civilized world. The truth is that those groups and more have been on the US taxpayer's payroll for a long time. This is not a real war on terror. They lie to us and sometimes qualify the lies with just enough truth to make it believable. But the official lies and deception are constant and pervasive as a general rule.

When the CIA and Brits produced reports years ago that they expected an increase in conspiracy theorism as a result of proliferation of internet communications, they knew why. They knew then that certain large percentages of people would figure out that their version of truth and the other version of truth are two different things.


VanGoghs Ear
Offline
Joined: Mar 8 2010

NDPP wrote:

It took place, Petraeus had to apologize to Karzai. I make no claim everything I post is 'truth', unlike the lapdog corporate MSM. I post from all sides, of which this is one. I leave you to decide what the 'truth' is.

I agree that you do that.


M. Spector
Offline
Joined: Feb 19 2005

VanGoghs Ear wrote:

the fact is maybe it didn't take place or maybe it did but you have no idea - your distrust of NATO sources is understandable but your trust in Taliban source is foolish at best. 

the tone of certainty by some posters as to what is the truth and what isn't makes this whole thread feel like a sick joke

Do you really think Obama would apologize for killing 9 children who were out gathering firewood if he wasn't pretty damn sure it had actually happened?

The ignorance of some posters makes this thread feel like a sick joke.


NDPP
Offline
Joined: Dec 28 2008

Here is the Al Jazeera report. Appended to the end of the video curiously, is a completely unrelated story/footage, clearly identified as  being from a bank robbery in Jalallabad, Pakistan. Presumably it is necessary to alleviate the outrage over NATO with this clumsy propganda of 'equivalency'

Apology For Afghan Child Deaths (and vid)

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia/2011/03/2011339502683263.html

"Locals angered by deadly air raid in Kunar province'


Rebecca West
Offline
Joined: Nov 28 2001

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

LOL NDPP you're posting for Jihadie/Taliban websites now?

That's golden...Laughing

 

 

Putting a smiley face next to a nasty personal jab doesn't make it less nasty.  Think you could argue your position without it? Thanks.


Bec.De.Corbin
Offline
Joined: Mar 17 2010

Rebecca West wrote:

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

LOL NDPP you're posting for Jihadie/Taliban websites now?

That's golden...Laughing

 

 Putting a smiley face next to a nasty personal jab doesn't make it less nasty.  Think you could argue your position without it? Thanks.

 

Actually that wasn't a personnel jab; it was a friendly nudge... no nastiness was intended at all. NDPP, a few others here and I go a long way back in this thread, well Afghanistan ones anyways. We know each other's positions on this, we know nobody is going to change but we can still respect each other's positions (at least I can). That's not to say we don't spar with each other here, I get my fair share of doinks here as well, but I don't think anybody here takes things too personnel. I guess we sometimes forget the rest of the world's watching us in here. I actually read NDPP's web links and even explore around on the sites... On the web site I commented on for example, while the reference to the air strike was based on fact, they also claim to have destroyed about 20 or so "tanks" in the last few weeks... NATO doesn't even have 20 tanks in Afghanistan... not to mention the amount of US killed they claim, it's just crazy. (That's what I really was teasing NDPP over) I guess I should have elaborated a bit more, dam my laziness.

Anyways, offending smiley removed.

Thanks for the time you spent keeping me/us straight.

 


NDPP
Offline
Joined: Dec 28 2008

Thanks Rebecca, but I'm quite up to handling any and all here especially that oneCool @ Bec: CAW CAW!

PS - Of course it's propaganda, but so is most of this stuff, for somebody or other - actually I think when they say 'tanks' they may actually mean APCs..


Merowe
Offline
Joined: Apr 16 2003

I've not a whit of sympathy for the purported spy. It signifies that DFAIT have clammed up tight on this one. I hope his captors squeeze every last drop of intelligence out of him then use him as a hostage - say, to trade against Predator strikes on wedding parties or something.

It's 'Great Game' fantasists like this criminal who foul the pitch for all who follow. As an obviously western white male of about the age and build of the American murderer/spy recently captured in Pakistan I'll be an obvious suspect for some of the unfriendlier civil agencies when I head into Syria in a couple of days. Thanks MUCH, asshole.

Not to mention it shows such towering contempt for the peoples and cultures they do their dirty business in. 

 


NDPP
Offline
Joined: Dec 28 2008

It's a region that's certainly 'jumpin'. Have a good one Merowe, stay safe and send us news..


Merowe
Offline
Joined: Apr 16 2003

Heh...so far so good. Thought it would be warmer. People super nice and the streets full of the smell of roasting coffee and baking cinnamon. Working up some notes. Aleikum salaam.


A_J
Offline
Joined: Aug 12 2008

Merowe wrote:

As an obviously western white male of about the age and build of the American murderer/spy recently captured in Pakistan I'll be an obvious suspect for some of the unfriendlier civil agencies when I head into Syria in a couple of days. Thanks MUCH, asshole.

Who is to say the same thing didn't happen to Mackenzie? Seeing how no one knows much about this alleged spy, what makes you - a tourist in Syria - so much different than him?

But have a safe trip - I'd tell you to take lots of pictures, but that might get you arrested as a spy.


Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Login or register to post comments