Taliban to Canada: "Afghans did not go to Canada for killing Canadians"

[The Bread Guy]

From an online forum that posts Tailban statements (in Arabic - .pdf version available via PM), with Google Translation: - anyone with better Arabic, feel free to enlighten us re:  how close Google got....

Google English:

Open letter from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the Canadian people about the killing of two followers of Canada in drag

Must realize that the Canadian people had their brothers and sisters and their children are killed today in Afghanistan, is the result of mistaken policy of the Government of Canada and falling under the influence of others, while the occupiers sent soldiers to Afghanistan.

The Canadian people while Gayoom condolences on the death of Indiana in the state of dragging in Afghanistan and crossing the stocks themselves, we must understand that the Canadian Forces orders American families get together dozens of Afghan every day, such as Rule consolation side of the men killed numbers of women and children as well.

Afghans did not go to Canada for killing Canadians, but Canadians, who came to Afghanistan for killing and torturing Afghans to satisfy the fascist regime of the U.S., if the Government take into account the national interests of Canada, and take an independent policy, sacrifice and the merits of national and international prestige for the benefit of America expressed, we have to try to Afghanistan establish good relations with you, if your government maintains a policy of reverse, Afghans killed an obligation to your citizens taking revenge for their brothers and sisters and their children, and the incident would be grateful if you would like to drag other incidents also because in Afghanistan territories to consider any kind of focused events for the benefit of Americans into the enemy.

So you convince your government to end the occupation of Afghanistan, so as not to kill the murderers of Afghans supported the mandate you hands Afghans.

Arabic Version:

رسالة مفتوحة من إمارة أفغانستان الإسلامية إلى الشعب الكندي بخصوص مقتل أثنين من اتباع كندا في لوجر

يجب أن يدرك الشعب الكندي إن كان اخوتهم واخواتهم وأولادهم يقتلون اليوم في أفغانستان ، هي نتيجة السياسة الخاطئة لحكومة كندا ووقوع تحت تأثير للآخرين، حين ارسلت جنودا محتلين إلى أفغانستان. إن الشعب الكندي حين يقيوم العزاء على مقتل كنديتين في ولاية لوجر في أفغانستان ويعبرون أنفسهم محزونون، يجب أن يفهموا بأن القوات الكندية بأوامر أمريكية يقعدون عشرات من العوائل الأفغانية كل يوم لمثل هدا العزاء وبجانب الرجال يقتلون اعدادا من النساء والأطفال أيضاً.

لم يذهب الأفغانيون إلى كندا من أجل قتل الكنديين ، بل الكنديون قدموا إلى أفغانستان لقتل وتعذيب الأفغان ارضاءاً للنظام الفاشي الأمريكي ، إذا ما تخذ حكومتكم في الحسبان المصالح الوطنية لكندا، وتتخذ سياسة مستقلة، وتضحي بحيثيتا ومكانتها الوطنية والدولية لصالح مفادات أمريكا، لابد أن أن تحاول أفغانستان اقامة العلاقات الجيدة معكم، أما إذا تداوم حكومتكم للسياسة المعكوسة ، فالأفغان مجبورون لقتل مواطنوكم أخذاً بالثأر لاخوتهم واخواتهم و أولادهم، وسوف تتكر مثل حادثة لوجر حوادث أخرى ايضاً، لأن في أفغانستان المحتلة ينظر إلى أي نوع من الفعاليات المنصبة لصالح الأمريكان بعين العدواة.

لذا عليكم اقناع حكومتكم بإنهاء احتلال أفغانستان، حتى لا يقتل الأفغان بأيديكم ولا تقتلون أنتم بأيدي الأفغان.

 

[Jarnhamar]

anyone with better Arabic, feel free to enlighten us re:  how close Google got....

Sure I'll give it a try.

Dear Canadian pig dogs.

We have just returned from bravely killing 3 unarmed aid workers and their driver. Don't feel bad please, they are women and thus not human beings.  You probably do not even think it is YOUR fault they died.
Your presense here makes it VERY hard for us to dehumanize women and rule this country with an iron fist.  Maybe if you start putting people in sea cans for a week out in the desert with no water you would have no crime yes?
We love the people of Afghanistan! Our hearts break every time we try and kill infidels and end up killing men women and children. Again this is your fault, how could it not be?
How many Afghanies must we kill before you leave? Please do not say many because then who will work in the opium fields?
Think about it.

All your bases will belong to us
Signed Evil Taliban

 

[Haggis]

:rofl:

Flawed, that's pretty good!  However don't yet claim to be fluent in Arabic.  You may have made some grammatical errors.

 

[brihard]

Sure I'll give it a try.

I can't believe you just 'All your base'd the Taliban.

You're pretty much my hero right now.

 

[vonGarvin]

Someone started a petition here.  No signatures, yet.  It seems to be a response to the Taliban's open letter.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Not exactly a response I would have predicted, but interesting how information sharing works and what it leads to, nonetheless - thanks for the link, MR.

 

[vonGarvin]

Not exactly a response I would have predicted, but interesting how information sharing works and what it leads to, nonetheless - thanks for the link, MR.

No probs.
Slight tangent, but today on Cross Country Checkup, the topic was on the Internet, and how it has changed individual lives.  I guess this is one way that it can affect people: information sharing and all that jazz. 
"The Internet: It's not just for porn anymore"

 

[Haggis]

Someone started a petition here.  No signatures, yet.  It seems to be a response to the Taliban's open letter.

Wow!  Two signatures now (neither being me), one being "Jack Layton".

 

[PuckChaser]

Its pretty great that the Taliban sent out the letter in Arabic, instead of Pashtu or Dari which makes up most of the languages in Afghanistan....

Who's really the foreign invaders? Most Afghans only learn the necessary Arabic words to recite the Koran.

 

[The Bread Guy]

And here, courtesy of the Voice of Jihad (a web page carrying Taliban statements), is the English version (.pdf attached in case link doesn't work) - MSM coverage links below:

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan address to the Canadian people in connection with killing of two of its female citizens

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

All Praise and thanks are due to Allah, the Lord of all that exists and may peace and prayers be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, companions in entirety.

To the Canadian people, whose two females nationals were killed on Wednesday midnight 13-08-08 on Kabul and Gardiz highway in Kulagar area of Poli Alam city of Logar province in Afghanistan, should understand, that it was in result of the erroneous policies of the government of Canada, which has been hijacked by America, who have force it to send its young men and women to die for the greed of the corporate mafia, under the banner of spreading democracy in Afghanistan.

The Canadian people, you should recognize, that Americans have established policies which the Canadian forces must follow, these policies include killing Afghan men, women and children every day, bombing their homes and fields all in the name of democracy.

Afghans have not invaded Canada to kill Canadians, but its the Canadians who have invaded Afghanistan for murdering, torturing and plundering of Afghans and Afghanistan, so they can satisfy the craving of the fascist mode of neo-crusaders.

If the Canadian Government takes into consideration its national interests over the interests of others and wishes to carry out independent policies for the betterment of Canada, it is thus ill-advised for it to sacrifice the blood of its citizens for the terrorists in White House, thus jeopardizing the international reputation which Canada has.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants to establish good relationships with you and your government, this is only possible when your government changes its tyrannical polices pertaining to Afghanistan and its people.

Afghans have killed your citizens, but in defence of their women, children and men who are cold bloodedly being butchered everyday, but we guess you can not hear their cries, we are not the aggressors but only reacting to what you have instigated, if you freedom loving people where put in the same predicament, your reactions would be the same, you would defend your honour and your properties from the invaders, you should not look at this incident in its isolation but look at the whole picture in trying to comprehend the atmosphere in Afghanistan in its totality, we think if you do this, you will soon come to see that carnage which your government policies have afflicted on Afghans can not be compared with loosing few of your love ones, but a loss life is a loss life, irrelevant of whose life it is, if this is the motto of Canadian people, then we request that you to advise your government to change its policies of pleasing the Americans, otherwise the bloodshed of innocent people will continue on both sides.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan requests the peace loving citizens of Canada to advocate to its government to end its occupation of Afghanistan and let Afghans govern their government with out any foreign interventions, so that serenity can be enjoyed by Afghans and Canadians. 

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

MSM coverage here, here, here and here.

 

[wannabe SF member]

but a loss life is a loss life, irrelevant of whose life it is

That is pretty rich coming from the taliban.

but a loss life is a loss life, irrelevant of whose life it is unless you talk about women

Fixed it.

 

[-Marauder-]

From the Montreal Gazette:

A letter to the Taliban

Montreal Gazette, A16

Attention Taliban. Thank you for your "open letter" of Sunday, warning Canadians that you want to kill us. Here's our response:

We appreciate the courtesy of the warning, but your message was not exactly a surprise. You've already killed almost 100 of us, after all: soldiers, a diplomat, and most recently aid workers Jackie Kirk and Shirley Case, along with two other people working for the International Rescue Committee.

In fact you seem eager to kill not only foreigners but also your own countrymen and -women. We have learned that revenge figures large in your culture, and although we Canadians are nothing if not culturally sensitive, we're confused: Is it the building of bridges and waterworks that demands revenge, or is it the construction of schools?

Some in the aid community say your strategy of murdering development workers is succeeding; some non-governmental organizations are pulling back. We get it: You have to stop the good works before ordinary people see that foreigners are not devils.

We understand, too, that hope weakens the resolve of our voters. That might work, too; some in this country don't see the point of helping a people far away. And if you can weaken the resolve of Canadian voters, then the Afghan people, seeing that you could outlast foreign support, will once again slip into your feudal grasp.

Will ordinary Afghans succumb to that despair? Or will they have the courage to stand up to your thuggery? You've heard of courage, haven't you, Taliban? Jackie Kirk and Shirley Case showed more courage than you who killed them. We think a lot of Afghans have courage, too.

Yours truly, Canada.

Good for them.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Link to the Montreal Gazette letter here

 

[a_majoor]

Peter Worthington:

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Worthington_Peter/2008/08/20/6511291-sun.php

Taliban sabre-rattling
Open letter to Canadians reveals just how desperate these bullies are

By PETER WORTHINGTON

Who'd have ever thought the Taliban in Afghanistan would try to emulate Hanoi's strategy in the latter days of the Vietnam war.

When Hanoi was losing the ground war against American soldiers in Vietnam, it switched to propaganda and capitalizing on war weariness in the U.S. itself.

After the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, when the Viet Cong staged simultaneous attacks on the Americans all over Vietnam, the U.S. media depicted it as a tremendous enemy coup when actually it was a huge military miscalculation and a disaster for the VC.

Thereafter in the war, the Viet Cong gave way to North Vietnamese regulars.

From that stage to the war's end, Hanoi directed propaganda at American civilians, creating fear, depression, loathing for the war and contempt for soldiers.

It forced Lyndon Johnson to quit after one term as president. His successor, Richard Nixon, went to China and soon implemented "peace with honour," which rationalized defeat.

How does that relate to the Taliban?

Well, the Taliban have had their butts kicked every time they've tangled on the battlefield with Canadian soldiers.

So they've decided to go after Canadians at home.

The open letter by the Taliban warning Canadians that if our troops aren't withdrawn from Afghanistan, more civilian and aid workers are going to be targeted, as were those two female Canadian aid workers, killed in a Taliban ambush last week.

Targeting aid workers reveals weakness and desperation among the Taliban, who don't give a damn about ordinary Afghans dying or being killed. They've killed enough themselves, even before 9/11 brought foreign troops into the country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't seem fazed ... yet.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay may be off base when he calls the Taliban letter "a disgusting attempt to justify the deliberate killings of innocent civilians."

True, but it's aimed more at marshalling opinion in Canada against the war, as happened in the U.S. against the Vietnam war, in hopes that it'll provoke our government to quit Afghanistan.

NDP MISSES THE POINT

Liberal Leader Stephen Dion says the letter means we should do more "to protect our civilians" working in Afghanistan. Surely that's already a given?

The NDP, as usual, misses the point. Their defence critic, MP Dawn Fraser, says the letter is reason to change policy and end counter-insurgency in Afghanistan.

There's no point in even trying to dispute the passivity of the NDP -- hopeless people, ready to opt for appeasement at the first threat, who want Canadian troops to cut and run, and to hell with the people of Afghanistan who oppose the Taliban's theocratic terrorism.

"Convince your government to put an end to the occupation ... so that Afghans are not killed by your hands, and you are not killed by Afghan hands," says the "open" Taliban letter that claims Canadian soldiers both "kill and torture."

The long-range effect of the letter on civilians is a bit dicey to predict, but its effect on soldiers should be reassurance that the enemy is in trouble.

If coalition troops at the pointed end (that is, Americans, Brits, Canadians and Dutch) weren't doing an effective job, there'd be no need for the Taliban try to mobilize civilian opposition in Canada.

If our side eventually loses in Afghanistan, it will likely be for the same reason that the U.S. lost the war in Vietnam -- lack of will at home to actually do what is necessary to win.

One hopes the prime minister realizes this and lets the Taliban know they are the ones in the bull's eye -- and no more Mr. Nice Guy from our troops on the ground.

 

[OldSolduer]

I would like to write an open letter to the Taliban. It goes something like this:

You want to kill Canadians. Well, you know where we live. To quote King Leonidas.....kind of....come and get us....if you have the guts, which you don't.

 

[tomahawk6]

Col George Petrolekas writes an open letter to the Taliban.Delete if its a repost.

You purport to speak for Afghans and Afghanistan yet your only questionable legitimacy comes from the barrel of a gun, the slaughter and intimidation of innocents supported by the profits of the opium crop that you protect. You do not answer for the night letters you send, the people you behead, or the villages you hold hostage whose only crime is that they do not agree with your views.

And yet you dare say that we come to kill your innocent, equally forgetting the deaths of thousands of innocents committed by your fellow travellers in crime; so conveniently forgetting the slaughters of Bali, Madrid, London and New York City. Your words may sound high and mighty, but your actions and deeds betray the truth of what you are: a movement committed to the enslavement and servitude of those whose voices cannot be heard. You revile America forgetting that it gave you more food, flour and wheat than any other nation while you were in power; what did you do for the Afghan people?

People you have fooled say that Afghanistan was more secure under your rule. But what is security under an institutionalized cabal that "legally" kills, amputates and disfigures those who do not agree with it?

You kill the defenceless, and those who come to give hope, simply because they are foreign, and you do so not as men, but hiding behind the disguise of women, or using women and children as shields, or using those who have lost the ability to think to carry out your crimes. And in doing so, you defile the very words of your God and his prophet. How can the prophet feel peace in the face of your cowardice? You have killed more Afghan men, women and children by your bombs and attacks than any other nations combined. While we may have killed innocents by accident, those deaths pale in comparison to the thousands you have killed by design. God may forgive us the loss of those souls; he will never forgive you.

You condone the poppy, protect it, encourage it, tax it, and sell it. Yet the damage to your own countrymen is not of importance. A country that could once feed itself now cannot, and in the wake of the opium trail there are hundreds of thousands of new addicts in Afghanistan, and greater numbers in Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and all the other republics that border you. Your selfish lust for power does not even respect those of your own religion.

You ignore the voice of the Afghan people as expressed in votes that your own intimidations could not suppress. The United Nations supervised those elections. They were more closely watched and safeguarded than almost any other elections in history; and people not only voted with their hands on a ballot, but with their feet in travelling miles for the first opportunity afforded them to at least have a voice in their affairs.

You speak of respect in the community of the world and the community of nations, yet it is you who ordained the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. These were not yours to destroy, they were the legacy of humanity and its existence on this planet, but as always, you turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to anything that does not ascribe to your views. You kill doctors, teachers and aid workers, making a mockery of the words "God the merciful and compassionate." Your deeds make you the ultimate apostates, your actions are the ultimate heresy.

And even in the face of such cowardice, lies and betrayal of the Afghan people, the hand of peace has been extended to you time and again with the simple request that you denounce violence and intimidation. But no, that does not serve your needs, which are among the vilest ever seen on this planet: simply to ply a nation back into servitude.

And so, we are in Afghanistan to give voice and protection to those whose voices cannot be heard.

If Afghans truly wish us to leave, we will do so. We are not an occupying power. We have never attempted to impose our religious or political values on your nation. We accept Afghanistan as an Islamic republic. We accept that democracy will not and may never be like the way we practise it and that freedom of speech and religion will not be like ours. But we do assist that vast majority of Afghans who believe that a girl has a right to go to school, that a village, a district, a province and a nation should allow its people to have a voice in their own affairs.

And in the face of your threats, you will also find that we are made of sterner stuff as are the Afghan people who only wish to live lives in some semblance of security. Liberty does not come freely and ours has been a steep price to pay, and that gives us no joy, but we pay that price in the fervent belief that to not do so is to consign a nation and a people to a darker fate at your hands. And thus we will continue until you are no more.

If those Afghan voices tell us that we should leave, then we will. But we will never leave them alone to face the threats and killings that so brutally demonstrate what you are, because you do not and never have spoken for the Afghan people. And with God's help, you never will.

George Petrolekas was involved in the Afghan mission from 2003 to 2007, representing Canada at NATO's operational headquarters in Afghanistan.

 

[tech2002]

I enjoy reading the open letter above, it summarizes quite of bit of information, I am wondering if that was printed to Afghani people in Afghanistan ? 

 

[armyca08]

A letter to everyone,

Some people feel martial forms are an ideal at given times based upon the needs and emotions of the circumstance, they are called militants. Currently The governments of various countries are funding militants to fight in an ongoing battle for control of the government in Afghanistan. While it is true that the US and other countries launched an invasion of the Territory of Afghanistan at a time when the Civil war was drawing near close, it is also a fact that the Taliban had been fighting a struggle, and had only gained recognition by a few governments in the world. The war has waged on for almost 7 years, although perhaps longer if you take into account the US cruise missle strikes during the Clinton Administration in direct intervention in the region, some say to spite USama bin Laden - the very rich Saudi/former saudi Director -who disapeared around that time. Currently many people are struggling in Afghanistan and not just the Taliban, but also local cheifs, not directly assosiated, as there are tribal groups in addition to the political force of the Taliban, Northern Allance or other groups. Canadian's and others part of the NATO force under ISAF are willing to kill anyone who acts out of order because they are occupying Afghanistan and have installed their own government. Thus there is war, it is fully understood and acceptable for everyone to kill each other they don't like but it is not moral, unless it is god who determines the act. None the less people are trained to kill and programmed to see it as acceptable for the cause, even if they have no clue who they are really killing beyond the prescence that is there. Sadly no one seems to be able to respect each other, because their values are different. This conflict will likely rage on because it is not in the agenda of NATO to pull back from their occupation of the region for whatever reason, and even if they did chances are fighting would continue in afghanistan because the issue with mutual respect. Only when we all see the same ideal will peace exist for us all. Short of an ideal which does not espouse militant behaviour, surrender, god appears at the threashold and only a beast remains. Only if god provides for us all will peace reign. Only when we stop enforcing laws for others and learn to cooperate to grow a better world will there be peace. Sadly with the fascist governments of the world today, those which govern by rule of force as part of their code of law, by what people deem necesity due to the characteristics of the partially civilized reality that faces the modern era and past, this can not exist.

One day we may be freed of the bounds of a material world, one day perhaps we will see values for the spirit of the acts, based on reasons for action in right rather than our view of the results of the act in the physical.

We are all free, it is a choice to live or die, nationality is a front, national socialism is an enemy militarized national socialism worse, we know the woes of fascisms, and totalitarianism, sadly that is the world we live in with the layers stripped away, people willing to confine or kill anyone who disagrees with their law. It is all fundamental just some don't see god as the actor, rather they see society in place of god - ultimately though that society has some faith, even if only expressed in law, and the creations of the Imams or Legislators.

We are the same, it is just what we value.

Although my sitation is complex regardless of my nationality anyone who feels the need to kill me I'm more than ready to die, if you can't value me as a human being here in right to better the planet or see me as a cause to do anything but increase the benefit to us all then I gladly welcome death. I only know the world that has been shown to me.

---

I'd like to state the taliban did not support opium growth, production declined dramatically under the taliban.

- A peace loving person, who is post national realist, post cultural realist


NO ONE OWNS LAND BUT GOD, although deeds can usually be obtained for the right price from the person willing most to kill for it - God doesn't always agree with the holder.

Oneworld - Onelove.
One People.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Did you write that letter for all of us to see?  Is that a letter you copied from someone else?

Whoever wrote it, it made me picture this person in an orange toga, smoking a big reefer with some girl, in an orange toga, with armpit hair, ponytails, who goes by the name of Rainbow Sunglitter, who is playing her harp as the butterflies dance across the meadow...

I am admittedly not a follower of organized religion (seeing as it worked so well in Northern Ireland), but I do believe God has many forms.  And sometimes, he takes the form of a Canadian soldier, who leaves his/her home to help a country that was being brutalized under a regime that didn't let children go to school.  Who didn't let women have an identity as a human fuckin' being.

That is a God I can believe in.   

Before I go any further, please answer yes or no, that you wrote this letter, on a day such as today, with comments such as you did. 

 

[Fishbone Jones]

A letter to everyone,

Some people feel martial forms are an ideal at given times based upon the needs and emotions of the circumstance, they are called militants. Currently The governments of various countries are funding militants to fight in an ongoing battle for control of the government in Afghanistan. While it is true ................................................................One People.

OK. No more Mister Nice Guy. If you don't start posting in a form that is understandable to someone with at least a rudimentary skill in English, you're going on the warning ladder. We've been patient and tried to guide you, more so than some. Yet you refuse to even attempt to take the advice. No more inane topics, unresearched questions or dizzying manifestos. Fin, Finito, Finished. That's it. You been warned.

Milnet.ca Staff