February 05, 2010
Taliban Threaten to Murder American Hostage Pfc. Bergdahl if al Qaeda Operative Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Not Released (UPDATE: Siddiqui's family working with Taliban, but, you know, she's innocent or something)
American Bowe Bergdahl in Taliban hostage video
PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently. They claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice.Quite frankly, if the Taliban have "convicted" Bergdahl they may have already murdered him. The chances of finding him alive grow smaller by the day.“Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the US court on false charges,” said a senior Afghan Taliban commander.
We continue to hope and pray he is located and freed unharmed. But these are the Taliban. They are bloodthirsty for their own Muslim people who refuse to follow them. I don't expect much mercy or fair dealing for Pfc Bergdahl.
Hat Tip: Alex
UPDATED and bumped by Rusty: Okay, let me reemphasize the seriousness of the Aafia Siddiqui case in the Muslim world. Think about the fallout of the Mohammad cartoons -- the riots, the deaths threats, the acts of terror -- and that is the scale of the outrage in the Muslim world over Siddiqui's conviction.
Muslims around the world are convinced that the US routinely kidnaps Muslim women, holds them, tortures them, and worse. Yeah, stupid and yet this is what they believe. Siddqui's conviction is "proof" of this to them.
Yet, isn't this screaming irony even while her family claims that she is innocent and is in no way an Islamist extremist (overlooking both their own ties to al Qaeda's longtime allies in the L-e-T, her marriage to Khalid Shiekh Mohammad's nephew, and KSM's admission that she is an al Qaeda agent) that they have turned to the Taliban for help?
Will protests organized by Islamist radicals in Pakistan now turn on the Taliban and demand that Bowe Bergdahl be released? Not. Freaking. Likely.
The utter hypocrisy of it all stinks to high heaven. On the one hand radical Muslims constantly praise women "mujahideen" and the wives of terrorists for their supporting roles, and yet whenever one of these women is caught red handed they deny that any Muslims woman would ever do such a thing!
