I'm sorry, reader, but I'm just not discerning evil from these alleged terrorists up in the hills.
I detect evil when I see (as yesterday) the rabid ramblings of George W. Bush, the Third Anti-Christ!
"Taliban Will Release Hostages, South Korea Says" by Choe Sang-Hun and David Rohde/New York Times August 29, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 28 — The Taliban agreed Tuesday to release 19 South Korean church volunteers held captive in Afghanistan since mid-July, the South Korean government announced, signaling an end to a wrenching hostage crisis that had gripped the country for almost six weeks.
Cheon Ho-seon, a spokesman for President Roh Moo-hyun: “Together with the families of the hostages and with all South Korean people, we welcome the agreement to release 19 South Koreans.”
Mr. Roh, who steps down in February, has been under intense domestic pressure to win the safe return of the hostages, most of them women in their 20s and 30s.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan, said Tuesday all 19 hostages would be released over the next several days: “We will release them in groups.”
Mr. Cheon said that in return for their release, South Korea had agreed to keep to its earlier plan to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and to stop all evangelical activities by Christian groups from South Korea in Afghanistan.
Mr. Cheon said there had been no other Taliban conditions. The Taliban appeared to have dropped their central demand, which was the release of eight of their imprisoned members.
[You know, I was told by my government and MSM that the Taliban were a bunch of bloodthirsty, beheading terrorists.
So WTF?]
Why the Taliban had agreed to the release was unclear. But the holding of female hostages is widely frowned upon in Afghan culture, and the group may have decided that continuing to hold the Koreans would undermine its public standing. The Taliban have also released hostages in the past after receiving ransom payments.
[The Islamics respecting women? Say it ain't so!
Not from the wife-whipping Taliban, certainly not!
And since when did Islamofascists care about public standing?
They just whip you, then kill you from what I heard]
Afghan officials cautioned that none of the hostages had been released so far, but said they were hopeful that the Taliban would abide by the agreement.
Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the police chief of Ghazni Province, said: “We are all optimistic that this agreement will be implemented.”
[No problem, as the Taliban holds true to its word.
As opposed to AmeriKa, the most lying, double-crossing, duplicitous nation the world has ever seen!]
A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said Tuesday that the United States wanted the Koreans returned to their families, The Associated Press reported.
[How about returning the hundreds, if not thousands, of the guys we are torturing in secret gulags then, State Department asshole!
You can start with that torture chamber at Bagram Air Base!]
During the talks, which were mediated in the central city of Ghazni by two Indonesian government officials, two members of the Afghan Red Crescent and a local elder, the South Korean government repeatedly noted that its troops had already been scheduled to leave this year.
As for the Taliban prisoners, South Korea appealed to the Afghan and United States governments to show “flexibility.” Both responded that they could not compromise on their opposition to meeting terrorists’ demands.
Mr. Cheon said the South Korean government had explained to the Taliban:
“We had engaged in sincere talks with the Afghan government over the release of prisoners, but it really was outside our authority and ability. Our explanations have worked.”
[How about those unreasonable, crazed Talibans, huh?
Here's an idea: WHY NOT TALK TO THEM, rather than DROP BOMBS on their heads?
How about that, huh?]
"Bomber Kills 3 Americans" by the New York Times August 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 28 — A suicide bomber killed three NATO soldiers, all Americans, and wounded six others in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, NATO and Afghan officials announced. Afghan officials said the soldiers were building a bridge in the Jaji Aryob district of Paktia Province.
In a separate announcement, American military officials said that coalition troops killed more than 100 Taliban fighters on Tuesday in fighting in the southern province of Kandahar."
[What was that last bit? Holy crap!
O' May God forgive America for its mass-murder of innocent people that NEVER DID ANYTHING TO US!
And the Times reports it as an unimportant afterthought?]
"Some 100 Afghan rebels die in air strikes, battles; Suicide bomber hits NATO troops, kills 3 US soldiers" by Fisnik Abrashi/Associated Press August 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan -- US-led and Afghan troops battled suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan yesterday in ground clashes and air strikes that left more than 100 militants dead, the coalition said.
In eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping to build a bridge, killing three American soldiers.
The battle in southern Kandahar Province's Shah Wali Kot district started after the joint force was ambushed by a large group of insurgents who tried to overrun their position several times, before being strafed by air strikes, the statement from the coalition said.
[We are losing, folks!
MSM won't tell you, but we are losing in Afghanistan]
More than 100 suspected insurgents and an Afghan soldier were killed, coalition said. The casualty figures could not be independently verified because of the remoteness of the area.
["Suspected insurgents?" Were they insurgents or not?
And if not, WHO DO WE MURDER NOW?]
Meanwhile, South Korean negotiators and Taliban leaders have reached an agreement that will allow for the release of 19 hostages from a South Korean church who have been held captive by Afghan insurgents for nearly six weeks.
Cheon Ho Sun, South Korean presidential spokesman, explained the terms of the hostage deal:
"The two sides reached agreement on the release of all 19 Korean hostages on condition that the Korean government withdraws its troops in Afghanistan by the end of this year and bans missionary work by Korean Christians in Afghanistan."
[I'm glad the situation has been resolved, since I was tired of the Zionist-controlled press using the Christian/Muslim tensions as a wedge.
Maybe they will start cover our wholesale slaughter of innocent Afghanis, although I doubt it. The track record is poor!]
