Girls in Afghanistan are still struggling to get an education, despite U.S. assistance.

Girls in Afghanistan are still struggling to get an education, despite U.S. assistance. https://t.co/OGtpJfrE1D

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) October 18, 2017

Shocking News From Afghanistan — We're Denying Air Support in the Fight Against the Taliban

Shocking News From Afghanistan — We're Denying Air Support in the Fight Against the Taliban https://t.co/VrGEAkND3B pic.twitter.com/gNw32TI14p

— National Review (@NRO) January 16, 2016

Muslim barred from visiting Disneyland listed THIS as his job on Facebook: ‘supervisor at Taliban and leader at al-Qaeda’.

Muslim barred from visiting Disneyland listed THIS as his job description on Facebook https://t.co/VkztUXNbpL pic.twitter.com/M3RZpigxx3

— Allen West (@AllenWest) December 26, 2015

◼ With Donald Trump proposing a ban on Muslims entering the UK, the left is desperate for sob stories like this. Except this one backfired rather quickly, as the Daily Mail reported: - The Analytical Economist/Allen West

However, it has since emerged that a Facebook page claiming links to radical Islamist groups was set up by someone who has lived at the family’s postal address, according to ITV News.

The account, which includes information suggesting it may have been published as a joke, was in the name of Hamza Hussain – a first name shared by Mr Mahmood’s 18-year-old son. It reportedly lists the job titles ‘supervisor at Taliban and leader at al-Qaeda’.

When asked about the account, Mr Mahmood believed hackers may have been to blame, adding: ‘That could be anything, maybe a mistake.’

...It has also been suggested the move by US authorities could be due to Mr Mahmood’s brother having been refused entry to Israel eight years ago, but no official explanation has been given by the US Embassy.

Ed Straker at The American Thinker pointed out that the Facebook account in question also posted a photo of an FBI logo with the phrase “Federal Bureau of Islam” underneath it. It seems unlikely that someone would be oblivious to a hacker uploading photos on their Facebook account.

That’s not the only suspicious thing about Mahmood’s family, as reported by Breitbart:

It has now been revealed that his relative in California, Muhammad Mahmood, prayed at the same mosque as U.S.-born terrorist Syed Farook and his Pakistani born wife Tashfeen – believed to be the Tablighi Jamaat-run Dar Al Uloom Islamiyah mosque....

Bowe Bergdahl reveals in new "Serial" podcast that Taliban wanted to know if Obama is "gay"

Bergdahl: Taliban asked me if Obama was gay https://t.co/4pArxEneXo pic.twitter.com/woj5TbC98E

— The Hill (@thehill) December 26, 2015

Bowe Bergdahl reveals in new "Serial" podcast that Taliban wanted to know if Obama is "gay" https://t.co/i0AZ5q3cd4

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) December 26, 2015

Another massive Obama failure ==> Afghanistan is falling to the Taliban

Another massive Obama failure ==> Afghanistan is falling to the Taliban http://t.co/YjUC4DgABE

— Progressives Today (@ProgsToday) September 6, 2015

The giant Buddhas of Bamiyan are back

Giant Buddhas of #Bamiyan, destroyed by Taliban,rise again w 3D light projection http://t.co/LGfTxcAQSc… pic.twitter.com/0SRK3ge6Uh v @LionsRoar

— Raza Rumi (@Razarumi) June 13, 2015

Destroyed by the Taliban, but now the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan have returned with 3-D light projection http://t.co/D4p4uyRwwK

— Suzanne Schroeder (@SuzanneSues57) June 11, 2015

UN OFFICIAL: ISIS FORCES GIRLS TO UNDERGO VIRGINITY SURGERIES, MARRY THEM OFF 20 TIMES

◼ “Women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives,” she explained, adding that the threats lurk behind them “every step of the way… in the midst of active conflict, in areas under control of armed actors, at check-points and border crossings, and in detention facilities.” - Breitbart

“Girls are literally being stripped naked and examined in slave bazaars,” she claimed and said they were “categorized and shipped naked off to Dohuk or Mosul or other locations to be distributed among ISIL leadership and fighters.”

In November, a video on YouTube showed ISIS militants laughing and joking while purchasing Yazidi slaves. The men acted like they were bidding on an object, not a human being. One man explained to the camera eye color makes a difference on the price and the female must have all her teeth.

Boko Haram captives tell of sex, slavery, rape, and forced conversions http://t.co/BlcEISZ7Oy

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 8, 2015

Video: New NCIS Info Reveals That Bergdahl Was a Man With a Plan

◼ On the O’Reilly Factor, Monday night, Fox News contributor Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer divulged disturbing new information about Bowe Bergdahl’s activities in Afghanistan that led to his disappearance and explains why he was charged with “misbehavior toward the enemy.” - Nice Deb

...According to Shaffer, the 2009 NCIS investigation into Bergdahl’s activities, revealed that there is clear evidence that Bergdahl was “going over to the other side with a deliberate plan.”

Shaffer said two senior sources who were part of the investigation, told him that a forensic review of his computer showed that Bergdahl intended to travel to Uzbekistan.

“He was going to go off to Uzbekistan,” Shaffer told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. “He had made contact with local Afghans and wanted to be moved to Uzbekistan and then made contact with the Russians because he wanted to talk to Russian organized crime…”

Shaffer continued, “clearly he was not all there relating to what he was doing. I think we’re going to see more and more, as this report is made public that there were a number of disconcerting things within Bergdahl.”

A Glimpse Into Evil of the Taliban: ’We Have Killed All the Children… What Do We Do Now?’

Depraved: The Taliban gunmen who slaughtered 148 innocent people, including 132 children, are pictured just hours before the massacre. The white banner they pose in front of is the flag of the Pakistani Taliban and reads: 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah's Messenger'

◼ After terrorists invaded a Pakistan high school and slaughtered more than 130 students, one of the Taliban militants reportedly had one of his last conversations with his handler. The chilling transcripts of the conversation were apparently provided to local newspapers by law enforcement officials. - The Blaze

“We have killed all the children in the auditorium. What do we do now?” one of the terrorists reportedly told his handler.

“Wait for the army people, kill them before blowing yourself,” the handler responded.

◼ 'We have killed all the children, now what do we do?': Taliban death squad's frantic request for instructions after slaughtering 132 innocents... as military airstrikes kill 57 in hunt for 'Radio Mullah' who ordered massacre - JOHN HALL FOR MAILONLINE

◼ No distinction between good Taliban and bad Taliban: Sharif - Times Of India

PESHAWAR: Rattled by the Peshawar attack, Pakistan's squabbling political parties showed rare unity on Wednesday, pledging to fight the killers of the Army Public School's children by making no distinction between good Taliban and bad Taliban. The Pakistan government also announced the end of moratorium on the death sentence, in effect since 2010 to facilitate talks with Pakistan Taliban.

"We announce that there will be no differentiation between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban, and resolve to continue the war against terrorism till the last terrorist is eliminated," said Sharif, marking the end of any hope of talks with the terrorist organization.

Hearbreaking Quote of the Day ​"The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry,"

◼ Said Pakistan's defense minister Khawaja Asif, as funerals began for the 132 child victims of Tuesday's Taliban attack.

TALIBAN SLAUGHTERS 132 SCHOOL CHILDREN IN PAKISTAN UPDATED

◼ Pakistani Taliban kill over 140 schoolchildren and teachers - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

There has been another outrageously evil attack in which Islamist terrorists target children, this time in Pakistan:

Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say.

Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army.

Gunman methodically went from room to room and shot most of the victims in the head. The terrorists are reported to have been wearing suicide vests, and this article indicates that some of those vests were set off after Pakistani security forces came to the scene.

◼ Pakistan School Attack: Taliban Militants Kill 126 in Peshawar - NBC News

Taliban militants laid siege to a Pakistan high school in a brazen hours-long attack on Tuesday, killing more than 100 children in an atrocity condemned by the White House as "heinous" and "horrific."

More than eight hours after uniformed militants struck the school, the Pakistani military confirmed the assault was over. Officials said that at least 126 lives were lost — and most of the victims were children.

"The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one," a student who was in the Army Public School in Peshawar at the time told local media.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which Pakistani officials said appeared to be aimed at the children of senior military personnel. Heartbreaking scenes played out in the streets around the school, as parents rushed to a nearby hospital for news of their children.

◼ Vicar of Baghdad: ISIS Beheaded 4 Christian Children; They Said, 'We Love [Jesus]'

Reverend Canon Andrew White, head of the only Anglican church in Iraq, described in a recent interview some of the atrocities committed against Iraqi Christians by the Islamic State, including the beheading of four children who refused to convert to Islam and told their killers, “We love Yeshua [Jesus], we have always loved Yeshua.”

A Pakistani girl, who was injured in the attack, is rushed to a hospital in Peshawar

◼ 'I folded my tie into my mouth so I wouldn't scream': Teenage survivor shot in both legs by Taliban gunmen reveals how he played dead under a bench as insurgents hunted for children to kill - Ted Thornhill for MailOnline and Imtiaz Hussain In Peshawar For Mailonline and Aamir Iqbal and Aoun Sahi and Steph Cockroft for MailOnline and David Williams for the Daily Mail

• Shahrukh Khan was in school auditorium when four gunmen stormed in
• 16-year-old heard one say: 'There are so many children... go and get them'
• Schoolboy played dead as gunman 'pumped bullets' into students' bodies
• Said: 'I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again'
• 10-year-old also described how he saw two classmates shot in front of him
• Muhammad Muneeb: 'I saw my own brother die, he was shot in the throat'
• One said: 'There are dead bodies everywhere. This city is filled with dead bodies'
• Gunmen in Peshawar entered school and started shooting at random
• One terrorist blew himself up in a classroom containing 60 children
• Taliban accepted responsibility for the attack, claiming it 'was just a trailer'

At first, the children thought it was just a drill. Then the screaming began. As the pupils poring over their books realised the bangs they could hear were the sounds of guns fired in anger, panic spread....

Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the Lady Reading Hospital, Shahrukh described how the gunmen shouted 'Allah-o-Akbar' before opening fire.

Obama Refuses To Say "Taliban" In Condemnation Of Pakistan Attack http://t.co/MzRssAG8tl

— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) December 16, 2014

Are the Orcs Winning?

◼ In the 21st century we are often lectured that such simplistic, one-dimensional evil is long gone.... - Victor Davis Hanson/PJMedia

But then suddenly along comes the limb-lopping, child-snatching, and mutilating Nigerian-based Boko Haram. What conceivable Dark Age atrocity have they omitted? Not suicide bombing, mass murder, or random torture. They are absolutely unapologetic for their barbarity. They are ready to convert or kill preteens as their mood determines for the crime of being Christian. In response, the Nigerian government is powerless, while the United States is reduced to our first lady holding up Twitter hashtags, begging for the release of the latest batch of girls....

Now we are glued on ISIS, the Mesopotamian killers who are beheading on video streams American journalists, as they murder, rape, and mutilate their way from Syria to central Iraq. One of the beheaders, Jihadi John, has a British accent, and seems to enjoy shocking Westerners with the fact that he is more familiarly savage than his fellow Arab-speaking masochists. Apparently his family immigrated from the Muslim world to the affluence and freedom of the United Kingdom for a more civilized life so that their pampered son could one day leave it to seek to destroy all that had enabled him — and thereby find “meaning.”

We can stop the roll call of global orcs here, with the assumption that we all know the nature of the lunatic North Korea nuclear regime, what the Iranians are planning for the children of the Holocaust, or who the sinister sort who run Pakistani military intelligence and fund terrorists in Afghanistan are. As state powers, they all have ways of incinerating tens of thousands rather than beheading hundreds.

Evil is ancient, unchanging, and with us always. The more postmodern the West becomes — affluent, leisured, nursed on moral equivalence, utopian pacifism, and multicultural relativism — the more premodern the evil among us seems to arise in nihilistic response, whether it is from the primordial Tsarnaev brothers or Jihadi John. We have invented dozens of new ways to explain away our indifference, our enemies hundreds of new ways of reminding us of our impotence. I suppose we who enjoy the good life don’t want to lose any of it for anything — and will understandably do any amount of appeasing, explaining, and contextualizing to avoid an existential war against the beheaders and mutilators, a fact well-known to our enemies.

The Europeans are shrugging that Ukraine is lost and will soon sigh that the Baltic states are a far-off place not worth risking the coffee shops of Amsterdam to defend. Westerners lament beheadings but then privately mutter that journalists know just what they are getting into when they visit the Middle East. Murdering and abusing a U.S. ambassador on video is not such a big deal anymore and is worth only a second or so mention on Google News.

So we wait behind our suburban Maginot Lines, arguing over our quarter- and half-measure responses, refighting Iraq and Afghanistan as if they were the Somme and Verdun, assured that we can distract ourselves from the horrors abroad with psychodramas about Ferguson, the president’s golfing, his lectures on fairness, and which naked celebrity photo was hacked on the Internet.

Meanwhile the orcs are busy and growing and nearing the ramparts…

Current Events Quiz...

◼ RICK McKEE . . .

MAIN STREAM MEDIA FINALLY REALIZES THAT ISLAM IS REALLY, REALLY SCARY

◼ After years of terrorism that resulted in, among other things, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers, Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, murder of Americans in Benghazi, and the brutal hacking death of off-duty soldier, Lee Rigby in London, the main stream media is finally sounding the alarm on the religion President Obama claims America “shares common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” - Teresa Mull/HUMAN EVENTS

From a beheading in Iraq to the hard-line repression of religious freedoms in Sudan, a string of extremist acts in recent weeks have raised the worrying spectre of a new era of Islamic fundamentalism spreading across the world.

Over the last month, the world’s media has been awash with gruesome images of barbarism – pulled into sharp focus in recent days with the barrage of horrific videos and hate-filled messages pouring onto the internet from Sunni militants in Iraq.

◼ Could ISIS now be twice as powerful? Membership of extreme group may double in size as it merges with al Qaeda's 15,000-strong Syrian offshoot on border with Iraq - DAILY MAIL

◼ White House to Congress: We Did Not See (ISIS)/ISIL Coming - WASHINGTON FREE BEACON

Senior Obama administration officials’ closed-door briefing to senators Tuesday night revealed that the White House did not anticipate and was not prepared for the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), which has wreaked havoc in Iraq and seized many key cities in recent weeks.

"Few governments of the modern era have ever been so actively engaged in a real war on women as has the Taliban, and Barack Obama has just given them a green light to once again rule Afghanistan."

◼ This is Taliban “justice” imposed on the women of Afghanistan. This killing was one of many that took place on the same day inside of a soccer stadium, allowing thousands more to watch. Some women were hung from the goalposts, their bodies flailing for hours before finally dying. - Ulsterman

◼ California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier hastened to explain away the controversy surrounding the Obama administration’s release of five dangerous Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, claiming that the Taliban aren’t “terrorists,” but rather “part of the fabric of Afghanistan.” - Daily Caller

Amen, Joe Scarborough

◼ Brilliant Joe, brilliant. You are so right. - No Quarter

TALIBAN: WE'RE INSPIRED TO KIDNAP MORE!

◼ Behind the Scenes of Bowe Bergdahl’s Release - TIME

Some members wanted a ransom payment for Bergdahl, in addition to the release of the Guantanamo detainees. But the leadership prevailed. “We told them that these five men are more important than millions of dollars to us,” he says. He was more tolerant of complaints from Taliban foot soldiers that pointed out that for all the celebrations surrounding the officials’ release, there was no reward or recognition for the Taliban fighters who captured Bergdahl in 2009. But that’s not likely to get in the way of future attempts to kidnap American soldiers, across all ranks.

Asked whether the Taliban would be inspired by the exchange to kidnap others, he laughed. “Definitely,” he says. “It’s better to kidnap one person like Bergdahl than kidnapping hundreds of useless people. It has encouraged our people. Now everybody will work hard to capture such an important bird.”

◼ Hagel faces House grilling on legality of Bergdahl-Taliban swap - Washington Times
◼ USA sees 'substantial progress' in freeing more Gitmo detainees this year - Yahoo
◼ 'NO APOLOGIES' - Mail.uk

◼ Obama makes 'absolutely no apologies' for Bergdahl terror trade and claims POW would have been KILLED by Taliban if he had told Congress
◼ Obama appeared in Brussels alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron during a G7 meeting in Brussels
◼ He insisted that 'we had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated,' despite a fit-looking Bergdahl who appeared in a Taliban video during Saturday's hostage hand-over
◼ Administration officials reportedly told U.S. senators Wednesday that they weer kept in the dark because the Taliban threatened to kill Bergdahl if a prison-swap plan was leaked to the public
◼ But Congress was advised in 2011 and 2012 of two separate plans to make a similar deal, and nothing was leaked despite unanimous opposition
◼ Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that giving Congress 30 days' notice, as federal law requires, 'would have seriously imperiled us ever getting him out'

◼ 'IMPEACHMENT' IF HE DOES IT AGAIN - The Hill
◼ Taliban Commanders Say Found Bergdahl Cursing Countrymen - NBC
◼ Declared jihad in '10, secret docs show - FOX
◼ HOMETOWN WELCOME CANCELED - Reuters
◼ Growing fury in Congress - LA Times



◼ Reid on Notification: 'What difference does it make?' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

◼ WILL: When a president goes rogue

Obama says his agents “consulted with Congress for quite some time” about prisoner exchanges with the Taliban. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, says there have been no consultations since 2011. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) says “I don’t like it when the White House says the intelligence committees were briefed. Because we weren’t.” He says Obama is “referring to . . . 2011-2012, when I was still in grade school.”

◼ Detainee Release Rattles Afghans - Wall St. Journal

Some Recall Scorched-Earth Offensive Led by One of the Freed Prisoners...

The villages of Shomali were once the orchard of central Afghanistan, and the plain's carefully tended vineyards were famous for their grapes....When the Taliban seized control of this area from their Northern Alliance rivals in 1999, they systematically demolished entire villages, blowing up houses, burning fields and seeding the land with mines, according to two comprehensive studies of war crimes and atrocities during wars in Afghanistan and human rights reports. Mr. Fazl played a major role in the destruction.

"There was not a single undamaged house or garden," said Masjidi Fatehzada, a shopkeeper in Mir Bacha Kot, the district center. "My entire shop was burned to the ground. There was nothing left."

“It’s very disappointing that there was not a level of trust sufficient to justify alerting us.”

◼ Feinstein Latest To Question Growing Stink Around Bergdahl/Taliban Swap - PJM

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein took at shot at the Obama administration on Tuesday for failing to give lawmakers 30 days’ notice about a deal to release five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only POW from America’s war in Afghanistan.

THE BERGDAHL SWAP: A FULL-BLOWN OBAMA SCANDAL IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS

◼ Two days after President Obama broke the law to arrange an insanely reckless swap of five incredibly dangerous Taliban terrorists for captive American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, virtually every aspect of the deal has blown up in Obama’s face, and the whole thing has soured into another five-star scandal for an Administration riddled with them. - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Maybe it’s the accumulated weight of Obama fatigue, or the sheer stupidity and arrogance the President displayed in this particular abuse of power, but even people who stood by him through Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and the IRS scandal are asking: What the hell was he thinking? What did the White House think was going to happen here?

I think the Administration’s crucial error was expecting the military to shut up and let them write the story. That didn’t happen. Troops who served with Bergdahl have been speaking out, and they’re not mincing words....

◼ Mainstream Media Not Happy With Bergdahl Deal - Washington Free Beacon

◼ “White House Overrode Internal Objections To Taliban Prisoner Release” - Protein Wisdom

This was a deal made with identified terrorists for a deserter.

◼ Exclusive: The story you haven’t yet heard about Bowe Bergdahl’s desertion - Michelle Malkin

Michelle's latest explosive column reveals how traitorous Bowe Bergdahl's abandonment of post led to the deaths of 8 American soldiers, not 6 as the rest of the media is reporting....

◼ FNC reports Bergdahl renounced US citizenship - Twitchy

Lawless

Jay Carney, 2013: No Decisions About Bergdahl-Detainee Deal 'Without Consulting With Congress' http://t.co/CIKSr29y7Q

— The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) June 2, 2014

Susan Rice Claims Bergdahl Served in the Military with ‘Honor and Distinction.’ Intel Community Disagrees. http://t.co/B6INTEkVnz #tcot

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) June 2, 2014

If we have been negotiating with the Taliban for several years over Bergdahl, why not give Congress notice? http://t.co/LdoPXfFZvz

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 2, 2014

Senator: U.S. is ‘less safe’ due to Obama release of top terrorists http://t.co/mfFznkbpHi

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) June 2, 2014

Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero http://t.co/UBfQt3Sdsk via @cnn

— Red Alert Politics (@RedAlert) June 2, 2014