Celebrating The Counterterrorism Blog

The Counterterrorism Blog celebrated its first anniversary on the 4th of January. If you don’t have their site bookmarked, I suggest you do so ASAP. Besides the cogency of their posts, the sidebars offer news updates, frequently refreshed. It often carries stories you won't see elsewhere.

Today, they have a link to a news story from Yahoo in which the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, not only turns down overtures from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, but promises the usual exploding party line:

	"The Taliban attacks in Afghanistan will further intensify in this New Year, which will force Americans to leave Afghanistan very soon," he said in a message carried by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency.
	[…]
	Omar, whose whereabouts have been unknown since U.S.-led forces toppled his government in late 2001, said jihad was a religious obligation for Muslims as the United States was "the biggest enemy of Islam."
	"Muslims should stand prepared for the sacrifice of jihad on the great day of Eid al-Adha because armed jihad is the only way to safeguard the Islamic world."

This particular representative of the Religion of Peace used the three-day Muslim religious festival as the occasion to repeat his tired call for Jihad against the US -- and of course against President Karzai, that “American puppet.” What other kind of puppet is there? Don't you kind of miss the time when we were the "running dogs of imperialism"?

Meanwhile, in Kandahar, a southern province in Afghanistan which borders Pakistan, the assault against the United States Army continues. This particular phase of their miltary campaign targeting the American Army appears to involve burning down schools:

	Suspected Taliban gunmen destroyed a coed primary school in the main southern Afghan city Sunday, first tying up two security guards before setting the buildings on fire, officials said.
	The attack in Kandahar was the latest in a spate of assaults that have forced many schools to close. The insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam and they even oppose government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion.
	Suspected Taliban insurgents last Tuesday beheaded the headmaster of another coed school in the region.
	[…]
	Dozens of schools have been attacked and burned since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering terror leader Osama bin Laden. Most of the attacks have come at night and not caused fatalities.

I guess the occasional beheading doesn’t count as a fatality? Don’t the Associated Press and CNN have flair?

Meanwhile, congratulations to the Counterterrorism Blog. It is a treasure.