I've known Claudio a while, he tried the same thing I was doing on Hamza et al with Bakri's posse and met one of the British suicide bombers who did the Tel Aviv "Jakes place" attack.
Here is an article of his about the Taliban.
Hamid said the Afghans and the Arabs have a common enemy, but don't necessarily like each other. He described the Arabs as firebrand Islamists who don't obey orders and are obsessed with martyrdom. "They won't stop shooting even when they are told to. And they always write messages home before a battle -- they get ready to die. I know them well, and I don't like them; they just don't trust Afghans."
The fighters are confident about the conflict's outcome. "The American troops move slowly, they carry pounds of body armor and equipment," Hamid said. "You can't win if you can't move on these mountains. Their helicopters are the only real danger for us, but we have learned how to hit them, even without Stingers...
...He would not answer questions on the presence of al Qaeda's leaders in the region. But the Konar-Nuristan triangle, including the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, is thought to be the most likely hideout for bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a number of other key figures.
"You must understand," Musa Khan said, "that one Arab is worth 10 Afghans in terms of religious zeal. They truly hate the West and all Westerners, without exception. They would never allow the press on these mountains. They are not fighting our war, but their own personal jihad. Protecting their own people and achieving martyrdom are their first priority."
Claudo invited me to go with him to Afghanistan a while back but I'm just not up for any of this warzone stuff. Its interesting seeing the (long standing) difference between Afghans and Al-Qaeda Saudi's. The only people I ever got any real hassle from in Finsbury park were Saudi's.
I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle last night. Hilarious. I'm off out to buy a 4X4 now. No seriously I spent a lot of time slagging my Republican buddies when they used to go on about this. I thought the people they interviewed were very interesting and they explained everything well. No one I was watching it with could wait till it finished to start debating about it so I have no idea what I reckon about it all.
2 comments:
Thanks for link to the BBC special. Its past time for a principled stand against the ignorance and greed of the Global Warming mob. I chose Reason over Mysticism.
sunspots eh? who'd have thought it. Doesn't change the fact that burning excessive fossil fuels polutes the environment though. Interesting film.
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