Report: We Almost Got Zombie bin Laden?

This MSNBC report claims in its headline, "Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces." The only problem? Read the actual story:

One of the officials interviewed by NBC News, a general officer, admitted Tuesday that it was “possible” Bin Laden was at Tora Bora, saying, in fact, "I still don’t know if he was there."

The rest of the article goes on to detail why some in intel thought it was bin Laden, others Zawahiri. The size and make up of the security detail being the key factor in favor of bin Laden.

Color me skeptical. I'll have to disagree with my friends over at WarIntel.

Bin Laden, very unlikey. Zawahiri, maybe. Abu-Yahya Al Libi , bingo.

From what we know from OSINT on al Libi, he is the real military commander of al Qaeda these days. In fact, he's probably the only top al Qaeda leader actually involved in day-to-day operations planning. He's also seen on several videos surrounded by a "posse" of mujahideen, who I gather are his body guards.

So, if a senior commander surrounded by foreign body guards was going to cross the border in to Pakistan to coordinate with regional commanders, my best guess would be that it was al Libi, and not Zawahiri.

This doesn't rule out the possibility that it was Zawahiri, or even bin Laden. There's no reason to think Zawahiri is surrounded by more bodyguards these days then he used to be--especially if bin Laden is dead or no longer in the region.

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Pakistani Taliban Moving in to 'Civilized' Areas?

Warintel picks up on this story claiming Taliban commander Qari Hussain Ahmad is planning an offensive from Lahore. If true, this would mean the Taliban are moving out of Pakistan's 'tribal' areas and into the major cities. Not. Good.

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Video: "Fort Mujahidin" Ramadi

Ansar al-Sunnah's 48 Murder* Ramadan Extravaganza! But you can download it now at Laura Mansfield.com.

I guess that's what's supposed to be so cool about Islam the murders are like, so religious?.

UPDATE by Rusty: Worst. Jihad. Video. Ever.

They claim to have made the video in "Fort Mujahidin", ie Ramadi. Since Ramadi is now the safest place in Iraq, I think it's not an exaggeration to say these guys are full of shit.

It's really a long splicing together of old footage. And not done very well at that. What Ansar al Sunna needs is an American traitor to help them out on the technical side. Maybe as Sahab will loan out Adam Gadahn? more...

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Video: Osama bin-Laden, Come to Jihad

al-Qaeda also released a new video message from Osama bin-laden today. The Jawa Report has obtained a copy of the video. A quick review shows that this is an audio message that plays in the background of video footage of UBL in the mountains of Waziristan.

AP Via Yahoo News: CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on Pakistanis to rebel against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a new recording released Thursday, saying his military's siege of a militant mosque stronghold makes him an infidel.

The storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July "demonstrated Musharraf's insistence on continuing his loyalty, submissiveness and aid to America against the Muslims ... and makes armed rebellion against him and removing him obligatory," bin Laden said in the message.

"So when the capability is there, it is obligatory to rebel against the apostate ruler, as is the case now," he said.

Bin Laden's voice was heard over video showing previously released footage of the terror leader. The video was released Thursday on Islamic militant Web sites and first reported by Laura Mansfield, an American terrorism expert who monitors militant message traffic....

...Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a Pakistani army spokesman, said the army will continue its fight against terrorism, regardless of any threats.

"We have the aim and objective, as our national duty, to eliminate terrorists and eradicate extremism. The Pakistan army will continue to carry out its role against terrorists wherever they are found, whether in the tribal areas (of northwest Pakistan) or elsewhere."

"Such threats issued through videos or in any other way cannot deter us from fulfilling our national duty," he said.

We will make a copy of the video available shortly.

More from the AP here.

Hat Tips: allahakchew and Tribeca.

Update: Video added below the fold. more...

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Israelis Foil Syrian Nukes

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Times Online:

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.

The target was identified as a northern Syrian facility that purported to be an agricultural research centre on the Euphrates river. Israel had been monitoring it for some time, concerned that it was being used to extract uranium from phosphates.....

But intelligence sources suggested it was a highly successful Israeli raid on nuclear material supplied by North Korea.

HFS!!!

Hat tip: Jesusland Carlos

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Poll: Nearly 50% of Pakistanis Heart bin Laden

"Moderate" Pakistan, back in the news. Osama bin Laden's approval rating at 46% in Pakistan.

I see a long post in this about democracy in the Muslim world, but frankly what's the use?

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WTF, Syria Going Nuclear?!?!

I'd like to say this can't be true, but apparently it can. You'll notice the carefully worded nuclear installations phrase. What, exactly, does that mean? Are they alluding to possible Syrian possession of nuclear weapons? Or is Syria trying to build a nuclear power plant?

What exactly they mean by nuclear installations is the difference between being concerned over Syrian ambitions as a regional power with the potential to one day possess nuclear weapons to panic at the thought of a nuclear conflict erupting.

NY Times:

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.

If true, then there's really only one thing to say: this sux.

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Pali Group Wants to Behead Britney & Madonna

A spokesman for the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, Muhammad Abdel-Al, has claimed that under Islamic law Britney Spears and Madonna would receive capital punishment. The allegation is made in Aaron Klein's new book Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans to a Jew!

The snippet from the upcoming book was given to TMZ yesterday:

Abdel said, "If these two prostitutes keep doing what they will do, we of course will punish them... We can stone them and even we can kill them."

In addition, I am told the book also says that the Islamists want to "behead the whores". Under Islamic law fornication and adultery are capital offenses.

Madonna is in Israel this week.

The pair are seen as symbols of negative Western influence on traditional Muslim societies. Hell, in my book the two are far more destructive to the youth of America than the youth of Gaza. Even worse, the pair take already pop music to even lower lows.

But it's called freedom, baby!

And that's what separates the tolerant West from the intolerant Islamic world: we allow that which we do not agree with. Because without choice, there can be no morality.

A person who is forced to do good is a slave and therefore amoral because he does not choose to do good.

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Fatwa Forbids Marrying Communists

Well, I guess you can't be wrong all of the time.

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Video: Hamas Throws Fatah Leader Off Building

Ah, the Palestinians have done so well with democracy. A video showing Hamas goons throwing a Fatah officer, Mohammed Sweirki, off a building. If they'll do this to fellow Palestinians, imagine what they'll do when they get their hands on the Jews.

It was the Palestine Press Agency that released the video in an attempt to discredit Hamas. Odd because we have similar stories of Fatah murdering Hamas in the West Bank. Hypocrisy....

Elder of Ziyon uploaded the video to liveleak, but couldn't figure out how to embed it. Here it is for your enjoyment enlightenment. WARNING: It's graphic and actually shows the body landing.

Hat tip to Israel Matzav for notifying me.

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Iraqi Chemical Samples Cause Scare at UN

These are not the chemicals we're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

More here at Protein Wisdom and LGF.

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Palestinian Terrorists Murder 3 Pali Children

Cowardice? Yes, but not strong enough. Murder? That's it. I don't know what else to call it but murder when you send three children out to retrieve the rocket launchers you just used to launch a terrorist attack against Israeli civilians. As if they didn't know that Israel would try to get any one hanging around recently fired rocket launchers. But to groups like Hamas and PIJ a Palestinian child is worth more dead than alive. more...

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I'm Sorry But...

Shouldn't there be some standard on the quality of a cartoon depicting Muhammad before Muslims become outraged?

Like say maybe, the creator of the cartoon can at least draw? Getting all outraged over chicken scratch is just silly.

Via Opinion Bug

Iran is really ticked off that Nerikes Allehanda ran a sketch of the Prophet Muhammad. Lars Vilks created the sketch which depicts the prophet’s head on a dog’s body.

More here at LGF.

Since The Jawa Report is banned in Iran, that means I can post it here, right? This also means that many Iranians will never get the chance to laugh at this artist's er...uh...skillz.

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Proof the Taliban Are All Gay....and I mean flaming

Can't.....stop.....laughing........

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Taliban "Constitution": We the Taliban in order to form a more perfect Emirate...

...establish sharia, ensure domestic dhimmitude, provide for the common jihad, promote the general heroin trade, and secure the blessings of 72 virgins for ourselves and our 12 year old martyrs, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Or something like that.

Interestingly enough, while the writing of this "Constitution" began when the Taliban were in power it wasn't "passed" by the "Supreme Shura Council" until June of 2005. The Taliban have been calling themselves "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" for sometime in an effort to project a "shadow government" vibe. This Constitution-in-exile reiterates the Taliban's public stance, as put forth by Qari Youssef Mohammed and other spokespeople, that they are the "legitimate" government of Afghanistan.

Laura Mansfield has the entire document, but you have to subscribe to her Strategic Translations services for it.

I hadn't seen this before, so if you're interested, here are some highlights of the "Taliban Constitution". Note the references to jihad, prohibition of religious conversion, and sharia within the text of the Constitution itself. more...

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Turkish Hijacker Had Al Qaeda Training

No surprise here, thousands of potential jihadis came through the al Qaeda camps during the late 1990s. But what is interesting is that the hijackers wanted to go to Iran before hopping the border for jihad in Afghanistan. This suggests that the word on the jihadi streets is that Iran is definitely a player and supporting al Qaeda and the Taliban in at least some limited fashion.

What's also interesting is that they wanted to go to Afghanistan. My experience is that Turks are much more likely to try to go to the Caucuses for jihad than Afghanistan. Since Chechens are ethnically Turkish, that's the logical place to go.

The last thing worth mentioning is that they met in college. Can we please put the terrorists are the downtrodden meme to rest?

Fox News:

One of the hijackers of a Turkish plane received training at an Al Qaeda camp and wanted to be flown to Iran so he could eventually join Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported Monday, citing police.

Authorities didn't say at which Al Qaeda camp 33-year-old hijacker Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, an Egyptian of Palestinian origin, received training....

The two hijackers [Talikh and Mehmet Resat Ozlu of Turkey] had met in northern Cyprus a year ago and were living together at the same house for a month, police said. Ozlu was registered at the literature department of a university in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, Anatolia said.

Police said that during their interrogation the two suspects confessed that they wanted to divert the plane to Iran and travel to Afghanistan to join the "jihad."

Hat tip to Hot Air for the link.

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Agent France Presse Claims US Military Images as Its Own

Even worse they were apparently attempting to resell the image taken by Sgt. Brandon Aird, 173rd ABCT and posted on Centcom. Centcom's material can be distributed freely, but not resold.

Via Confederate Yankee: Fresh off of being caught trying to pass off unfired civilian ammunition as evidence of soldiers shooting into the home of an elderly Iraqi woman, the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has been caught once again in a photography scandal involving the U.S. military, this time misidentifying a U.S. military photo taken by a member of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan last month as one of their own.

Thanks to Confederate Yankee for the excuse to repost, All Your Fakes Are Belong To Us.In fact Rusty posted the very same centcom story here at TJR on the 6th.

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Taliban Jihad "How To" Manual

I'm sure Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi or Taliban webmaster Adil "Murchal" Watanmal will be placing their "how to conduct jihad" manual on their website shortly.

What's that? You say the Taliban no longer have a website to call their own? That's sooo sad.

Maybe they'll put it up at their second favorite outlet, the al Hesbah forum. What? That's down, too? Gee, that sux.

Hat tip: Larwyn

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Embedded With Terrorists

An Associated Press reporter embedded with the terrorist thugs of Hamas. Well, at least the AP is finally admitting who's side they're on.

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Shithead Can Keep His Headstone

Via Tristatehomepage.com

It's not often that Uniontown, Kentucky is mentioned on morning drive radio programs across the United States, but the fate of a departed dog and it's final resting place have sparked national interest in a debate going on in the town of just over 1000.

Eight years ago, Judy Hagan buried her dog in a plot she purchased from the city, at the center of the Uniontown City Cemetery. The plot sits beneath a flag pole put up to honor veterans.

Hagan and the city didn't hear any complaints about the dog's final resting place until about two weeks ago, when Judy took some extra cash and invested it in a headstone for the dog. That's when things became very contentious in the small town.

The reason for the controversy: the dog's name. It's first name was a vulgar term for bodily waste. It's last name was Head. That name is inscribed on the headstone.

Hat Tip: Jason.

Video here, and here. Behold the inspiration for the dog's name.

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Talibanization

Zionist Internet Spies from Egypt
Steal your PC’s location
Little girls from Korea
Dream of Jesus Christ’s quotations
And if you want to kill these Korean's dreams
It's Talibanization

It's the edge of the world
And all of eastern barbaration
The sun may rise in the East
But here is your head's final location
It's understood that al-Qaedawood
sells Talibanization.

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Taliban Spokesman MIA?

This is a first, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi "could not be reached for comment."

A prayer:

Please God, free the hostages.

Oh, and while you're at it

do me a favor and kill Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.

The slower and more painful, the better.

Amen

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Another Mass Grave that Wasn't There

Bob Owens reports.

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Pakistan Attacking Taliban Forces

It's about freaking time.

Pakistani forces attacked suspected hide-outs of pro-Taliban militants near the border with Afghanistan Tuesday, while President Pervez Musharraf warded off proposals of unilateral US military action against terrorists in the tribal region.

In the first major military assault in North Waziristan since a fragile peace deal fell apart last month, artillery and helicopter gunships struck compounds near the village of Daygan, located about 20 kilometres from the region's main town of Miranshah.

This may thwart Barack Obama's invasion plans.

On cue, locals have said that only civilians were killed. Mostly women and children. Hmmmm, where have we heard that claim before?

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Top Taliban Killed? A Taliban Execution Gone Terribly Wrong

Above is an image of Mullah Dadullah Monsoor at a "graduation ceremony" for up and coming suicide bombers. Jimbo dropped me the good news that he may have gone to meet Allah prematurely today.

And get this: the leaders were supposedly gathered to watch the Taliban hang two "spies".

Edmonton Sun:

The U.S.-led coalition said Friday it had launched an air strike on a meeting of top Taliban commanders in a militant stronghold in Afghanistan, and local officials said more than a dozen rebels and civilians had been killed.

The coalition issued a brief statement on the strike Thursday in a remote area of Baghran district in southern Helmand province, saying it targeted two Taliban commanders. It gave few other details and no word of casualties.....

An even higher-ranked leader, Dadullah Mansoor, commander of the Taliban for all of southern Afghanistan, was present at the meeting hit by the strike, but his fate was not known, Azimi said. ...

Taliban militants were hanging two local people accused of spying for the government. Other villagers had come out to watch when the bombs fell, he said.

Keep your fingers crossed....

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