|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
|| [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Ian Murray
|| On November 6, 2001, the BBC showed the Pentagon spokesman as claiming
|| that the carpet bombing by the USA's B-52s had inflicted serious
|| damage on the Taliban formations in the North. As proof of this, the
|| spokesman claimed that for the previous two days the Taliban
|| formations were no longer returning the fire.
||
|| The BBC then went live to its correspondent in Northern Afghanistan,
|| who contradicted the Pentagon spokesman and said that the Taliban had
|| been returning the fire as always.
||
|| How to judge the "progress" claimed by Mr. Blair when there are no
|| palpable results on the ground?
||
|| Whom to believe?
||
They could be all telling the truth, or everybody could be lying. Consider the following:
1- Paki radar probably picks up the B-52's, or if the planes come from Diego, the guys in Kandhar see them, so the Talibs in Mazar get early warning and they duck into their tunnels. While they're in the tunnels, they're not shooting, obviously, hence they are not returning fire :) 2- The Northern bastards aren't shooting very much in the first place, since there's no dope money or plunder in sight. Maybe the Pentagon guy looked in when they took a break for a soccer match.
3- At other times, shooting continues.
|| Not one of the experts from the Islamic world was prepared to accept
|| that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda was responsible for the September 11
|| terrorist strikes. They strongly suspected that either the Central
|| Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
|| (FBI) were misleading the Bush Administration or the latter was
|| misleading the public of the US and the rest of the world.
||
Never! They only misled the world about Iran-Contra, Pinochet, Mossadegh, Phoenix, Guatemala, and a few hundred other things that have regrettably been made public, but they sure as hell telling the TRUTH now.
||
|| Not one of these experts was prepared to accept that the Taliban was a
|| terrorist organisation.
||
They don't follow the news. Taliban weren't terrorists YESTERDAY. Now they're terrorists. Maybe they won't be next week. You gotta stay informed.
Hakki