The German TV crew that was in the Kala Jangi fortress filmed the two CIA agents whose interrogation of prisoners there might have inspired the revolt. Newsweek has a transcript of their conversation with Johnny Jihadi, the American Taliban. It seems like they were using the standard good cop bad cop shakedown routine on the prisoners – perhaps if they were going to threaten to let the prisoners die, they should have interviewed them one at a time.
OK, here’s why we need access to Presidential documents. Declassified documents show that President Ford and Henry Kissinger gave the thumbs up for Indonesia’s bloody invasion of East Timor back in 1975. Kissinger has always denied that he knew in advance of the invasion, but the document show that not only did he give Suharto approval for the invasion, but he suggested ways to circumvent restrictions on US arms sales that would have prevented our weapons from being used in East Timor. Henry Kissinger is still advising the government on foreign policy issues today.
Today’s New York Times has a fascinating op-ed on a snippet of Pashtun history, concerning one Abdul Ghaffar Khan. He was a famous pacifist whose beliefs about jihad differed radically from those that get press today:
Ghaffar was renowned as “the frontier Gandhi.” His followers, the Servants of God, were nicknamed Red Shirts because of their brick-colored garb. All had to swear: “I shall never use violence. I shall not retaliate or take revenge, and shall forgive anyone who indulges in oppression and excesses against me.”
For two decades, Ghaffar and his Red Shirts dominated the North-West Frontier without resort to violence, enduring prison and torture. Ghaffar’s friend and mentor, Mohandas Gandhi, called his feat “a miracle.” Nevertheless, the most remarkable Pashtun of his era is forgotten, not only because his cause was lost
Anybody seen any docs on making Linux play nicely with Windows XP? If so, please send pointers.