Hundreds escape in Afghan prison attack

[margotb822]

Source: MSNBC

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Nearly all of an estimated 1,150 prisoners, including some 400 Taliban inmates, fled a prison in Kandahar on Friday after Taliban insurgents blew open the main gate, officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Taliban also fired several rockets at various parts of the mud-built prison in the province, a stronghold of the ousted Taliban movement.

A suicide car bomb targeted the prison gate, followed by an attack from Taliban militants, NBC News reported.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25146271/

---

The War On Terrorism falls by the wayside for Iraq. Look at the consequences...

[sabra]

1. May's combat deaths in Afghanistan outnumber Iraq

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/13/news/Two-Wars.php

BRUSSELS, Belgium: It's a grim gauge of U.S. wars going in opposite directions: American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan passed the toll in Iraq for the first time last month.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates used the statistical comparison to dramatize his point to NATO defense ministers that they need to do more to get Afghanistan moving in a better direction. He wants more allied combat troops, more trainers and more public commitment.

More positively, the May death totals point to security improvements in Iraq that few thought likely a year ago.

But the deterioration in Afghanistan suggests a troubling additional possibility: a widening of the war to Pakistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaida have found haven.

[High Plains]

6. Why are we still in Afghanistan?

[margotb822]

7. I think we're supposed to be

fighting the actual war on terror there. At least that was why we went in.

[biermeister]

9. to capitalize on the herion & opium trade, silly

[Bush_MUST_Go]

2. Afghanistan is almost as big a failure as Iraq. Way to go bush.

[margotb822]

4. Afghanistan is a failure because of Iraq

Remind me why what Iraq had to do with 9/11? Oh yea, nothing. It's nice to know that OBL is still out there and all we have to show is 4000+ dead, two failed states and a drowning global economy...

[robinlynne]

13. don't forget the billions we piped into Pakistan, half of which went to the taliban.

[winter999]

3. I always say, Can't Escape the Grave.

[margotb822]

5. What about Zombies?

Global War on Zombie Terrorists!

:crazy:

Ok, I obviously need a break...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. "mud-built prison"

Do I even want to know how much we probably paid for Halliburton to build this thing?

[ohio2007]

10. from the...town of Bedrock...

Khandar was the Taliban stronghold. I wonder where these 400 militants will flee to ?
as for the 700 other prisoners, whatever they were locked up for you can expect a surge in those crimes to go along with the expected civilian bloodbath.

[bronxiteforever]

19. That is an easy question to answer read the Rand Report

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/09/afghanistan.pakistan.ap/index.html

Pakistan Border region

"Malik said tens of thousands of people cross each day without any documentation.

"They go without any checking -- no passport, no documentation. It's a free-for- all," he told reporters. He said the new computerized system would begin operating within two weeks."

[ohio2007]

27. Some will go back to drug running,

Just a coincidence the prison was located in the exact same area ? The Taliban nest egg was turned in on the word of a collaborator.OH what fury hath been unleashed by the hornets nest!

Massive drug bust made in Afghanistan

updated 9:23 a.m. EDT, Wed June 11, 2008
CNN) -- Afghan police this week seized a massive stockpile of hashish, a stash that weighed as much as 30 double-decker London buses, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said on Wednesday.

An Interior Ministry police unit received a tip on Monday about a drug stockpile in the Spin Buldak area of Kandahar province, and found the 236.8 metric tons (261 tons) of hash hidden in several trenches. The region is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Pakistani border.


......
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/11/afghan.hash.bust/

Another coincidence with the same area currently in New York dating back a few decades;

Afghan fighter faces drug charges in New York


.....

When Noorzai arrived in the United States in mid-2005, he was picked up at the airport and whisked off to an Embassy Suites hotel where two weeks later, after much questioning, he was arrested and accused of shipping heroin to New York.

This week, after three years in jail, Noorzai, 45, will finally have a chance to answer that charge at a federal drug trial in New York. The trial, scheduled to open Wednesday, is likely to be part Steve Coll, part Robert Stone: as much a spy tale as a dissection of U.S. policy, which some say favored befriending drug-smuggling suspects, at least temporarily, if they could help in the fight against terrorism.


.....
Before his arrest in April 2005, Noorzai was a wealthy leader of the so-called Noorzai tribe, a transnational clan with a million members in southern Afghanistan and in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. He spent his time mainly in Quetta, Pakistan, with three wives and 13 children, but he maintained other homes in Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.

In 1982, court papers say, he led a thousand-strong army in the Afghan war against the Soviets and, eight years later, according to his lawyer, he agreed to track down missing Stinger missiles provided to the Afghan resistance by the CIA. In 1996, the government says, Noorzai disarmed his forces and threw his support behind the Taliban, which had just stormed into Kabul.


....

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/08/asia/noorzai.php

Some of those 700 "also rans" from the recent breakout will be drug mules in the employ of Taliban militant wing imo;

16 Iranian police taken hostage

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=59884

Iran will say they are CIA supported infiltrators. Some in the near future may say it's the Taliban "Tet offensive".

I do see a connection on the Iran/Pakistan / Afghan borders but it isn't oil related.

Some of the true Taliban fighters that broke out will be a real pimple on the ass of the shakey Pakistani government trying to pacify the provinces of the border region. I'm wondering what Barak will have to say about all this drug related WOT .

[bronxiteforever]

28. Well curious about the barack tone- who are you voting for for POTUS?

[ohio2007]

30. I'm following the sound bytes of Obama.

You can write in Kucinich and feel comfortable to finger point the "I told you so" argument but the world isn't going to stop fighting in late Jan. 09 because of the new occupant in the Whitehouse happens to be a horse of a different party.

Let the two canidates debate foreign policy . Maybe you can change your mind and back Obama in the tradeoffs and hard decisions that must be made unless they are too scarey for you to handle;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw2XTC1V4fk&feature=related

You can't deny that close to 400 "high value" targets may be roaming the border badlands now with the latest turn of events so of course,you can knee jerk the short term setbacks and demand impeachment if you fear 'manning up' will make people around the world hate us more then they did before .

lol

on edit, speaking of DK,
here is an interesting video that may keep you guessing until the five minute mark of just where it is going

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIum0o-_LZk

the world isn't black and white.

[bronxiteforever]

31. So McCain then?I am voting for the Democratic Party Nominee

Senator Obama

[ohio2007]

32. ?

I post a JFK speach spun by Ron Paul and you assume I will vote for McSame ?

You must be a an ex hiliary troll from the bronx.

[bronxiteforever]

35. Simple Question are you voting for Obama-Yea or Nay?

[slackmaster]

11. Makes me think of a certain movie with Al Pacino

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/ffximage/pacino_wideweb__470x314,2.jpg

[ohio2007]

17. Wonder if this movie may be playing out

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY3Nzk0NzAyMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjQ0Mjc4._V1._CR0,0,216,216_SS90_.jpg
Snake Bliskin with the implant chip buried in his neck




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckvDo2JHB7o






;)
Lets see them break out of Gitmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1q3kjs0klQ&feature=related

[bluerum]

12. They bled the Soviet Union dry during the 80's. It's like no one in the

_buSHit administration remembers ANY history much less Viet Nam.

Arrogant pigs.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

14. I would imagine many do remember

seeing as the ghouls responsible for the policies that made the United States the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the 1980's are hanging around in the dark corners of the Bush administration.

[ohio2007]

15. If they were really a threat, they would have sent them to Gitmo.

moot point now.
Wonder how long it will take them to reach Quetta and thier Pakistan safe houses ?

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2251739509
Afghan Hemland province isn't the safe haven it was two years ago.

[thewiseguy]

34. Your statement is beyond belief.

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. Try this:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=afghanistan+oil+pipeline&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

[happygoluckytoyou]

18. HECK-OF-A-JOB-BUSHIE

approval rating of 25%.....

................... about the same number of adults who...... believe in the easter bunny......
........twice as many as like cheney

[Stuart G]

20. Most important story of the day...no disrespect intended..Why?

Something totally preventable, something that could cause more additional killing for killing sake, (down the road).. incompetence, failure on the part of those who were supposed to keep this from happening. Ultimately, these are the people that our soldiers are fighting and dieing for, and sadly, those who are supposed to keep the slime in jail, (that have been caught)..are unable, or unwilling to set up a system that prevents this..

[DogPoundPup]

21. Militants attack Afghan prison, free hundreds of inmates

Source: Houston Chronicle

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban militants staged a brazen bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan today, blowing down the gate and helping hundreds of suspected insurgents flee, officials said. Many police officers were reported killed.

The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from outside, setting of a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison and freed about 400 Taliban members.

Abdul Qabir, chief of the Sarposa Prison, also said hundreds of prisoners escaped, but did not provide an exact figure. He said some inmates stayed at the jail, which also held criminals.

Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai who is president of Kandahar's provincial council, said the prison held about 350 suspected Taliban fighters.

He said "all" the prisoners escaped, but also had no specific number. "There is no one left," he said.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5836235.html

[pleah]

22. So, we are winning that war, too?

[PerpetuallyDazed]

23. Gah!

From http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5836235.html : "The prison attack came just a few hours after Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that NATO members need to bolster their military effort in Afghanistan, where violence has been escalating.

Dramatizing his report, Gates said that for the first time, American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan last month had exceeded the toll in Iraq."

The middle east is falling apart and we're still "saber rattling" with Iran. Absolutely insane.

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Also on BBC, details about the same ...

Taleban militants have attacked a jail in the Afghan city of Kandahar and set hundreds of inmates free, reports say.

Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and Kandahar provincial council president, told the BBC 1,000 inmates were in the jail and all escaped.

Of the inmates, about 350 were believed to be Taleban.

There have been a number of casualties among security forces. A lorry bomb blew open the main gates of the jail and about 40 Taleban stormed inside.

A state of emergency has been declared in Kandahar city.

Police and troops are on the streets and all residents have been ordered not to leave their homes.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7454021.stm

[happygoluckytoyou]

25. did they have time to remove the GPS trackers from their buttz

[jimshoes]

26. move along people

[ohio2007]

29. Afghan official: 870 inmates escaped from prison .

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday.

The police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban prisoners were among those who fled the prison during the attack late Friday.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Prison-Attack.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

another reason to close down Gitmo

sarc

[Zhade]

33. I'm surprised Abu Ghraib is still standing.

Or have there been these kinds of attempts, but we just haven't heard about them?