Dinah Lord

While I was swanning around NOLA...

While I was swanning around New Orleans like some vapid character out of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, brave soldiers were putting their a$$es on the line in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, and a whole bunch of other third world shi&holes.

I was reminded of that sobering fact when I found this in my email this morning.

Greetings,

The British Ministry of Defence canceled my embed after today's dispatch.  Please Read "Bad Medicine".

Next Stop U.S. Forces.

Your Writer,

Michael

 

Please read Mr. Yon's dispatch, Bad Medicine and thank God for our soldiers everywhere.  Contact the UK Ministry of Defense and tell them how valuable Michael Yon's reports are.  Hit his tip jar if you can. 

After a long, hot day taking Pharmacy Road.

Too good to check: Baitullah Mehsud died getting 'leg massage'?

From AFP:

Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed last week in a CIA drone attack while getting a leg massage on the roof of his father-in-law's house, CNN said Monday, citing an unnamed US official.

A US counterterrorism official told AFP, meanwhile, that "there are strong indications (Mehsud) is dead" following a drone attack.  "No one is expecting him home for dinner tonight," the official said. (Ed. Note:  Looks like he won't be down for breakfast in the a.m. either.  Bwa-ha-ha!)

US President Barack Obama is being told Mehsud was killed after a "dramatic escalation" of nine unmanned drones specifically targeting the Taliban leader in recent weeks, the US official told CNN television.

On Wednesday night, US surveillance in Pakistan spied a man on the roof of Mehsud's father-in-law's home in South Waziristan.  The description was of a "short, stocky man who was following the physical description" of Mehsud, CNN said, citing the intelligence official.

A woman was massaging the man's leg and the Central Intelligence Agency knew Mehsud had diabetes, experienced pain in his legs, and often sought relief in that way, the report said.

Officials already had authorization from Obama to strike Mehsud if they thought they had a clear shot.

"That's when the CIA decided to move in," the network said the official said.

More at the link.

An update on Pfc Bowe Bergdahl.

You haven't heard much about Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl lately so I was glad to see this in this evening's UK Telegraph.

"It was the first news of Pfc Bowe R Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban video was released on July 18.  (photo from video)

Maulvi Sangin, an insurgent commander for eastern Afghanistan, said the Taliban's governing body was awaiting a response to demands it made to the US for his return.

"The American's fate is in the hand of (leadership), which is waiting until a response from the Americans to its demands," Sangin told The Associated Press.

Sangin would not elaborate on the demands or say if any deadline had been given. A spokesman for Sangin had previously said the soldier would be killed unless the US stops air strikes in two areas of eastern Afghanistan."

The Taliban spokesman, speaking from Pakistan, refused to identify where Pfc. Bergdahl is being held and a spokesman for the U.S. Military had this to say:

"Lt Cmdr Christine Sidenstricker, a US military spokeswoman in Kabul, would not comment on the status of Bergdahl's case. "We do not want to do anything that compromises his safety or efforts to recover him," she said. "Recovery efforts remain one of the largest ongoing operations and we are doing everything we can to get him back safely.""

Amen.

 FYI - yesterday morning the Pocatello POW-MIA Awareness Rally Association teamed up to take part in the "Standing with Bowe motorcycle run.  God bless them.

The ride started in Chubbuck at the Ramada Inn and then headed west picking up riders along the way from Elko, Nevada and other cities around our area.

Hundreds of motorcyclists from throughout the state got together and rode to Hailey to show support for Bowe and his family.  Pocatello POW-MIA riders say the motorcycle run is important to let people know that Bowe is not forgotten.

They aren't the only bikers that have been riding for Bowe.   Dated July 22nd, 2009. (Warning: heartwarming video ahead.)

Afghanistan: ANOTHER girls school gets gassed.

From Reuters: 

Five young girls slipped briefly into comas and nearly 100 were taken to hospital after a gas attack on their school on Tuesday, the third in a series of such incidents north of Kabul, Afghan officials said.

The early morning mass-poisoning at Qazaaq school was likely the work of Taliban sympathizers hostile to girls' education, the head of security for Kapisa province told Reuters.

"We don't think that the Taliban have done this, but the people who collaborate with and support the Taliban have done this," said Afghan Colonel Sha Agha, who is in charge of security for the second district of Kapisa, where the school is located.  (Ed. note:  Hey Colonel, wake up and smell the poison gas!  It's the freaking Taliban, no matter how you slice it.)

"We have taken security measures to prevent such incidents happening again, and by doing more patrols, I am checking on schools during the night," he added.

The symptoms were the same as those shown by victims of suspected attacks on two girls' schools in nearby Charikar town. One poisoning took place on Monday and another on April 26. Scores of pupils were taken ill in each case.

In the latest attack more than 130 people were affected, with 98 students and 6 teachers admitted to hospital, said doctor and provincial public health head Wahid Rahim. He said five had slipped into comas but all had been revived.

Patients were vomiting, dizzy and some lost consciousness.

"There was a very bad smell in my classroom this morning and the teacher immediately told us to evacuate, but we couldn't walk to get out of the school, we were very weak, sick and dizzy. When I opened my eyes we were in hospital," said 12 year-old Leda.

"I am so sad, what went wrong with our school? I want to study," the sixth-grader said from her hospital bed in a ward of around 20 pale girls, most with drips in their arms.

"We knew about the incident in Charikar, but we didn't think such incidents would happen in our school. Right now we are very scared to continue with our education, to learn," said Aara Gul, 15, waiting for medication.

Dutch journalist: She was held hostage AND raped repeatedly

That's all?  Oh thank goodness, for a moment there I thought she was WATERBOARDED/tortured/played Marco Polo in the hotel pool! (do I really need a sarc tag here?)

Sick bastards.

The journalist, Joanie de Rijke (43), was held hostage by the Taliban for six days in November 2008 and was released after a 137,000-dollar ransom was paid.

In a new book, In the hands of the Taliban, De Rijke describes how she was repeatedly raped by Taliban commander Ghazi Gul. Gul was later killed in a bombardment.

De Rijke, who is Dutch but lives in Belgium, was on assignment in Afghanistan for the Belgian weekly P-Magazine. She wanted to talk to the group of Taliban fighters who had ambushed and killed ten French paratroopers in August 2008. But when she made contact with the group, they took her and her Afghan interpreter hostage instead.  The ransom was paid by the magazine and colleagues of De Rijke after both the Dutch and Belgian governments refused to pay.

P.S.  As a natural blonde, I feel quite entitled to say that her blonde hair rays must have driven Ghazi Gul mad.  You know it's true.

Afghanistan: Bombers take hostages in attack on government buildings.

Homicide bombers in burkas  and the US troops ride to the rescue (with an Afghan assist.)  And yes, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

From Fox News

Eleven Taliban homicide bombers attacked government buildings in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, sparking running gunbattles that killed at least 20 people and wounded three U.S. troops, officials said. U.S. and Afghan troops freed 20 hostages taken by the insurgents.

The assault began around 10 a.m. when a homicide bomber in a burqa attacked the governor's compound in Khost, an eastern city on the border with Pakistan that houses a major American base. That blast was followed soon after by a homicide car bomb explosion, said Wazir Pacha, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.

U.S. forces attending a nearby meeting responded to the attacks and killed an unknown number of militants, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

Khost residents hid from booming explosions and running street clashes that lasted until 5 p.m. At least eleven insurgents and nine others — including police and civilians — died, the Defense Ministry said.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed that 30 homicide bombers had attacked the government buildings. A U.S. spokesman summed up the chaos in the midst of battle: "A lot of stuff is going on right now."

Militants in recent months have carried out an increasing number of complex attacks that involved several assailants. Military analysts have said the increasing sophistication of attacks in Afghanistan is a result of training by Pakistani militants and Al Qaeda fighters.

The Khost attack came as President Obama sought to put his stamp on the war, appointing a former three-star general as the country's ambassador and replacing the top American military commander in Afghanistan. Karl Eikenberry presented his credentials to President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday.

The attack began with several homicide attacks on the Khost governor's compound, which drew small arms fire from nearby U.S. troops, said U.S. military spokesman Chief Brian Naranjo.

Then a team of six homicide bombers tried to attack the nearby police headquarters, but were rebuffed by security forces and entered the neighboring municipality building, Pacha said.

Three bombers detonated their explosives, the Interior Ministry said, while other militants took 20 city employees hostage, Pacha said.

A second U.S. team was sent from the nearby American base, Camp Salerno. But those troops were fired on en route, Naranjo said. A U.S. soldier and an Afghan policeman were wounded and taken to Camp Salerno for treatment where they were in stable condition, he said. A number of militants were killed, he said.

After the militants entered the municipal building, a number of explosions reverberated from within, as U.S. and Afghan forces surrounded the area, an Associated Press stringer said from within the police chief's compound.

U.S. and Afghan forces later stormed the building, freed 20 hostages and killed three insurgents, Pacha said.

Taliban and other insurgent fighters have increased their attacks the last three years and now control wide swaths of territory, and Obama is seeking to reverse their momentum.

Afghanistan gets wired. Lucky Kabul.

Courtesy of NATO.

(I can't get mobile service at my house.)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has turned Kabul, Afghanistan, into a high-speed city thanks to a new WiMAX deployment. Take that, Baltimore and Portland, Ore. (the two U.S. cities where WiMAX is available).

NATO funded the network as part of its Silk Highway project, a high-tech version of the Great Silk Road trading route that links Asia and Europe.

The virtual highway is concentrated among academic communities but is being expanded to various provinces in Afghanistan.

Video about the project can be found here.

Afghanistan: Another girls school gassed?

Or is it just a case of mass hysteria?  (No thanks.  I'll wait for the results of the labwork, before making that leap - although it is being bandied about by Afghanistan education officials as a possible cause.)

From The Star:  98 sick after gas attack on Afghan's girl school.

The Taliban and their allies among Islamic fundamentalists were accused by Afghan authorities of launching an apparent poison gas attack today that caused dozens of schoolgirls to collapse with headaches and nausea at their school in northeastern Afghanistan.

The students were gathering in the yard of Aftab Bachi school in Muhmud Raqi for a morning reading of the Qur'an when a strange odour filled the area. First one girl collapsed, then others, said the school's principal, Mossena, who fought for breath as she described the event from her hospital bed.

"I saw several students fall down on the ground," said Mossena, who like many Afghans goes by one name.

Another mass poisoning at Afghan Girls School

Now, I ask you - what kind of sick mofo does something like this?  It's the second time it has happened in the town of Charikar within a month - and it seems to be part of a larger trend.

From the National Post

Nearly 50 teenagers were admitted to hospital after a suspected mass poisoning at an Afghan girls' school, a doctor said on Monday, in the second such incident in a month.

The headmaster rushed his students out of their classrooms in the northern town of Charikar after they smelt an unusual odour and started feeling nauseous and dizzy, a 17-year-old victim told Reuters from her hospital bed.

"I am pretty sure whoever has done this is against education for girls, (Ed. note: gee, ya think?) but I strongly ask the parents not to be discouraged by such brutal action and send their children to school," said Noor Jahan, a ninth grader at Ura Jalili Girls' High School.

In another room a mother sat beside her unconscious daughter's bed, crying and rubbing the girl's forehead. Around her lay several dazed and pale schoolmates.  "I was in a lesson when suddenly two classmates lost consciousness and collapsed," said Nabila, a 21-year-old in one of the beds. Years of war and unrest mean children often finish school late in Afghanistan.  She said the room had filled with an odour like insecticide at around 11 a.m., and some girls started vomiting.

Police declined to comment. 

The incident comes barely two weeks after a mystery poisoning at another girls' school in the same town, which produced similar symptoms, although victims of the first incident said they did not remember an unusual smell.  There have been no clues as to the type of gas used in either case. Blood samples have been sent to the nearby U.S. Bagram airbase but results have not yet come back from the first incident.

In other Taliban assassination news...

Taliban execute eloping couple in Herat.

Taliban publicly executed a man and girl on Monday for eloping when she was already engaged to marry someone else, an official said, in a sign of the grip the Taliban have over parts of Afghanistan. Hashim Noorzai, head of Khash Rud district in southwestern Nimruz province, said the two were executed by gunshots in front of a crowd of villagers. He said he had no details on how the Taliban had come to be involved in passing judgement on them but that much of the mainly desert district was under their control.

Nimruz is a sparsely-populated area near the Iranian and Pakistani borders where foreign or government troops had little presence. Like much of the south of the country, it has become a stronghold for the Taliban. Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

(It sounds like it would be too much to hope for that someone got it on video and it goes viral like the Pakistani Flogging.  I doubt there's much internet in Nimruz.)