Taliban, Cuddly, Gracious Hosts — According To L.A. Times
UPDATE: 01/12/09 below
When left-leaning, terrorist-loving rags like the Los Angeles Times glorify and praise the Taliban in a “ride along”, it’s time to use this “newspaper” only as fish wrap!
Paul Watson describes his adventure, “Behind the lines with the Taliban”, in a three page article for the LAT’s Sunday’s edition. “A Times writer joins Taliban fighters in an especially dangerous part of Afghanistan. The men appear to have no fear of troops, and prove to be gracious hosts.”
A Taliban fighter's camouflage vest bulges with a bayonet and banana clips of ammunition for his AK-47.
Watson describes his travels with the Ghazni Talibs in a van “on a busy two-lane road where U.S. troops race down the middle, trying to steer clear of suicide bombers. The guerrillas drive it like they own it.
Grinning with contempt at a convoy of Polish troops trying to plow its way through traffic the other day, three Taliban fighters with guns and long knives concealed under their heavy woolen cloaks calmly eased into the other lane.”
Continuing to praise them Watson says, “In Ghazni province, at least, the Taliban militants are not frightened fighters skulking in caves, sneaking out to ambush and then scurrying off to another mountain hide-out. They live comfortably in the farming villages where many of them were born, holding territory, recruiting and training new troops, reveling in what they see as God’s gift of inevitable victory against heathen foreign occupiers.”
His hosts treated him well, “In keeping with the Pashtun custom of generous hospitality, the guerrillas served glasses of steaming hot sweet tea and a bowl of white candied almonds. In no hurry to end the conversation, they laid out bowls of chicken broth, yogurt, a shaker of salt and freshly baked flatbread for lunch.”
While Paul was savoring those candied almonds I guess he forgot about Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah being filmed brutally beheading eight men accused of spying for British and American forces in 2006. Another sequence shows Dadullah personally signing ‘tickets to heaven’ for volunteer suicide bombers guaranteeing them entry to paradise if they martyr themselves.
In May of 2007, Dadullah was killed with the help of US special forces and intelligence officers. No chance for him to get his 47 virgins.
Meanwhile Watson was schmoozing with his friends and, “the Talibs relaxed, most unwound the cloths covering their faces. One reached into a camouflaged vest bulging with a bayonet and banana clips of ammunition for his AK-47 and pulled out a small round tin to enjoy a pinch of chewing tobacco. “
Watson truly believes that the Taliban are just a bunch of poorly misunderstood Afghans. When they aren’t out killing NATO forces, the Talibs spend their off time watching Satellite TV.
Not once does he bother to explore the Taliban’s once brutal control of Afghanistan through Sharia Law and AK-47’s. Watson never addresses the fatal ambush of four humanitarian aid workers last August.
The deaths of Canadians Jackie Kirk and Shirley Case, American Nicole Dial, and their Afghan driver Mohammad Aimal brought the total death toll of aid workers in Afghanistan to 23 for 2008, eight more than died in all of 2007, according to UNICEF.
A Taliban spokesman said, “We don’t value their aid projects.”
When it held power the Taliban imposed strict rules on women and girls, closing down all schools where girls were being educated, refusing to allow women to walk in public unless in the company of a male family member, and demanding use of the blue burkha, hiding women’s bodies and faces.
Watson doesn’t have a care in the world as the Taliban escort him back to “his side” and he waxes nostalgically,
“Their passenger safely transferred, the Talibs, waving and smiling into the city, headed off toward the waiting troops.”
Since the Taliban are considered terrorists, maybe Paul Watson can be arrested and charged with treason, or at least breaching the The Logan Act.
UPDATE: Just to prove how reckless and irresponsible the Los Angeles Times is, there was this report today: 46 Die in Taliban Attack on Pakistani Troops
Posted: 0130PT 01/11/09
autone.wordpress.com
An Angeleno's View of the World 
Insanity, pure and simple treason. Admitted. I’ll stop before an obscene rant sets in.
While the writer may not take the conflict as seriously as perhaps he should (and I don’t doubt that he voted for Obama), the fact remains that whatever they have done, the Taliban are human beings and deserve to have their side understood, though not condoned.
And suggestions that this is treason are frankly statist. Journalism is supposed to show all sides of an issue.
The funny thing, is back in the late 90’s all the left were steadfast against the Taliban -amnesty international et al – for their treatment of women . . .
My how things changed
The Los Angeles Times took the article down from their website. ha ha ha. They are such idiots! I wonder what happened to those bums to cause them to take the article down?