Taliban Close In On Afghan Capital Of Kabul -- is this true?

[Emillereid]

http://www.jihadunspun.net/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=77902&list=/newsarchive/index.php&offset=25&

Are there other reports corroborating this? Wouldn't the reemergence of the Taliban put the Bushits in a pickle barrel?

Taliban Close In On Afghan Capital Of Kabul
Sep 26, 2003
By Zafir Jamaal, JUS

Taliban Mujahideen have closed in on the suburbs of Kabul, the Afghan
capital, after taking the strategic town of Sarobi in an operation that
even Afghan officials consider ?amazing?. Taliban Mujahideen are now
amassing for a classic offensive from the south and east to take Kabul.


As Taliban Mujahideen closed in on Kabul, Taliban leaders urged
government forces to lay down their arms and surrender, saying that
President Burhanuddin Rabbani was 'preparing to flee'. Commander of the
Faithful Mullah Omar offered the government forces amnesty and told
them to stay at their posts to keep order.

The Taliban have proven once again their ability to make quick and easy
military as it did when it came to power in 1994. They have two thirds
of the country wrapped up are pushing north to try to surround Kabul
and take the government's air base at Bagram, 30 miles north of Kabul.
On Wednesday, Kabul police seized 47 rockets, each loaded with 91 small
bombs that were aimed at Kabul, fused and ready to be fired. ...

<snip>

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yes it would check on Asia Times

that is where many of these stories have first come out,

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. The voting class only believes the bush regime, so it doesn't matter

what the actual realities are in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

The press in the region has been reporting advances by the Taliban for months now, but the American affluent classes believe only what the US corporate media and to an extent some UK press tells them.

More local, smaller papers in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan do not have the same considerations regarding large corporate advertisers or maintaining cordial relationships with bush regime operatives, they tend to have fewer resources, and rely on reports from local reporters who are familiar with the area and are able to obtain access to activities independently of the bush regime or its affiliates.

As is the case with many issues involving the US, the US sees one picture, most of the world sees another, but what most of the world sees or thinks is not a matter of concern either to the bush regime or the voting elite.

[dfong63]

5. sounds implausible

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. If it's any consolation, the Crusaders are killing lots of Afghans

The regime understands that although Afghanistan may not be forefront in the consciousness of most, the quiet satisfaction that Americans are slaughtering Muslims on more than one front is its greatest political asset.

[Scairp]

3. Under the circumstances

This is no surprise. The many times that my husband and I have argued over the administration's rush to invade Iraq, I answered the question he put to me about what we should have done instead of invading when we did. My fervent believe is that we should have finished what we started in Afghanistan and then, if need be, deal with Iraq. Saddam, as we now know and as the Bush people knew all along, was more or less neutralized and there was no urgent need to go in there. Afghanistan on the other hand, still had terrorists running loose, not the least of which is bin Laden himself, and there was a huge risk of a Taliban resurgence. If it does happen, I fear we no longer have the troops available to go in there and put them down for the second time in two years. If the administration had any sense whatsoever, they would to the UN and made nice and get them to help us out in Iraq so that we are not overwhelmed with the war on terror. I can tell you one thing for certain, IF the Taliban makes a comeback that will be the end of the Bushies. I think we could get Bill Clinton reelected if such a think happened the country would so turn on Bush.

[HPLeft]

12. Exactly

This one will come back to haunt us. Only the Bush Administration would have chosen to divert its assets in an Iraqi adventure before stabilizing Afghanistan (or, for that matter, solving our problem with North Korea). Their arrogance is truly astounding.

[Yupster]

4. Color me skeptical

I never heard of Jihadunspun.

Also, in searching, the only fighting I see is in the hills on the Pakistani border where it looks like the Pakistani Army is trying to at least begin to assert itself in the tribal regions. I don't doubt that there are Taliban all over the country, and there always will be, but the idea of a mass attack into Kabul just doesn't look like it's close to happening. The Taliban can't mass any troops without getting scorched by our firepower.

Also, Rabbani is mentioned as the president planning to flee. He was the nominal head of the Northern Alliance who fled Kabul when the Taliban first took over in the mid-90's. He wanted to run for president after the Taliban were kicked out and I don't know if he has any post today. I searched and only got articles from 91 or earlier.

My guess is this is copied from a story from way back in 96 and cobbled together from that.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. JihadUnspun has been around for a couple of yrs, now, lady in Canada

named Bev runs it.

They had a big fight with Azzam a while back over paying for some video. Azzam had the video, JUS wanted access, Azzam wanted $, JUS got mad, hilarity ensued.

The Jihad sites say it's a CIA front, the Crusader sites say it's a terrorist mouthpiece.

Almost all of their content are stories from other papers, some from the US, some from other places.

Sometimes they have translations of articles from papers that are not available online and/or in English.

Very occasionally they have an exclusive report from a local reporter in the region.

[Sterling]

8. During operation OIL the had first reports

on US setbacks that were confirmed days later in the US corpowhore media.

That being said I would be surprised if this were true. I can't imagine the Taliban being able to withstand US air power long enough to sustain the kind of large operation required to take and hold any ground much less a populated area.

[jiacinto]

9. Is this site credible

As I've never heard of it I would look elsewhere for confirmation.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

10. Yes & No

although there was a recent charge I read in a US newspaper that it was a CIA sponsored site in the vain of the cold-war "Congress for Cultural Freedom" propaganda outlets (& even the current "fake Mullah's" that Ron Kessler alleges the CIA has created)

Jihad-Unspun generally repeats stories from other sources -- a combination of al-Jazeera, Islam-online, the newswires & others although it does also write its own occassional article. So the "credible" stuff is from credible sources, the less credible is from questionable sources (duh!!)

As somebody has already said, "Asia Times" is by far the best concerning news from Afghanistan & Pakistan (who today test fired a nucular-capable ballistic missile?!?!?!).

**

As to this story, there has been several wire reports over the past 2 weeks of increased attacks around Kabul, as well several Western deaths (including a US soldier a few days back). And to harp on, I can't get over this extraordinary statement by Putin in his dual press conference with Bush on Saturday:

" I have never said this in public, I'm going to do it today. When counterterrorist operation began in Afghanistan, we were approached by people, through several channels, we were approached by people who intended to fight against Americans in Afghanistan. And if by that time President Bush and I had not formed appropriate relationship, as we have, so no one knows what turn would the developments in Afghanistan had taken."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030927-2.html

[0rganism]

11. Look for correlation, not necessarily confirmation

If the story is true, we'd expect

* recent reports of intense fighting in Sarobi
* some sort of open communication of distress by Rabbani or Karzai to the UN or USA

So far, I haven't seen that. I did see Karzai on C-Span last week discussing how things weren't going so well in Kabul. I'm looking through http://www.aopnews.com/ to see if they have anything, it ought to be in there, they do cover Taliban activity.