By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--August 16, 2021
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Twitter and the Taliban are singing from the same choir book known as Social Media.
Today’s Fox News headline: ‘Trump barred from Twitter, but Taliban spokesman tweets away.’ (Fox News, Aug. 16, 2021)
This isn’t a time for cutesy headlines, Fox folk. Nor is it a good time for game playing.“Twitter’s standards were called into question on Sunday after users pointed out that a key Taliban spokesman has been using the platform to give updates about the group’s advance within the country while former President Trump’s account remains permanently suspended.(Fox News) “Zabihullah Mujahid’s account is not verified but has nearly 280,000 followers and is regularly cited by major news outlets. He recently tweeted an update on "military units" entering Kabul. He wrote that their "advance is continuing normally.”Why did it take a French politician to call out that Twitter is now the playbook of the Taliban?
“Jerome Riviere, the French politician, took to Twitter and posted: "Freedom and democracy are not doing well when #Twitter continues to ban #Trump’s account but relays the #Taliban spokesperson’s without any second thoughts.” (Fox News)But it’s It’s not just Donald Trump who’s been banned from Twitter but thousands upon thousands of conservatives—basically anyone Jack Dorsey’s Twitter considers as ‘the enemy on the other side’. D.C. Democrats have been playing footsies with the bloodthirsty Taliban for some time. It was then President Barack Obama who released five Taliban leaders from Gitmo back in 2014. “President Obama authorized the release of five Guantánamo Bay detainees over the weekend in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier and prisoner of war held in eastern Afghanistan for nearly five years. (WNYC Studios, June 3, 2014) Related: Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama “Bergdahl, who had been held in Taliban custody since 2009 when he wandered off a U.S. army base, was given a dishonorable discharge last year and fined $1,000 on charges of desertion and misbehavior.(Military Times, Oct. 30, 2018)
“The five former prisoners, all former Taliban officials, will be held in Qatar's custody. The prisoners were supposed to be held at Guantánamo indefinitely, with no release date in sight, until President Obama used his executive authority for the prisoner swap over the weekend.” (WNYC Studios)In point of fact it was the one and the same Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who now “tweets away” on Twitter, who announced in 2014 that the five Obama-released Taliban leaders had joined the insurgent group’s “political office in Qatar”.
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“Carol Rosenberg, reporter from the Miami Herald, has covered Guantánamo Bay for more than a decade. She profiles the five released prisoners and discusses their potential future in Qatar. (WNYC Studios) “Before this deal, Rosenberg says that these five prisoners had no hope of ever leaving Guantánamo Bay. "They were on the list of indefinite detainees—'forever prisoners,' as we call them," she says. "In 2009, the Obama Administration said that these are people who we can't try because we don't have any Guantánamo war court specific war crimes to charge them with. But we also can't let them go, because we just think that they're too dangerous to be let go. So they were indefinite detainees. That was their status on Saturday when they got on that plane and left.”
"We have heard for years that the Obama Administration was talking to the Taliban about trading them for Bowe Bergdahl," she says. "It shouldn't have been that surprising that they got it together.” “According to Rosenberg, before the men were released they were "cooperative captives," and lived in a communal space with other people who were not considered a threat to the Guantánamo prison guards. "They ate together, prayed together, did sports together—you could see them in the rec yards of the communal camps because they were well behaved," says Rosenberg. "They were doing their time as POWs waiting for, frankly, this deal.”Laughable that Fox ended their story today with the line: “Twitter did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News seeking comment.” IF and when Twitter does respond it will be with the same gobbledygook with which they respond to all who ask them why they are being banned. One has to ask why Fox didn’t ask Twitter for their response on Twitter? What gives in a tumultuous world where darkness has descended?
“On Jan. 8, Twitter announced on its blog that Trump’s account, which had over 80 million followers, was permanently suspended. The reasoning was that keeping the @realDonaldTrump account active would increase the risk of "further incitement of violence.” (Fox News)So Trump was Twitter banned because of the risk of "further incitement of violence,” while the Taliban can have at it?
“The decision came after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Twitter pointed to a twee from the former president on Jan. 8 that read: "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!”(Fox News)Why is Joe Biden hiding out when Afghanistan is falling? One member of Congress said on foreign affairs committee call: "We’ve heard more from the Taliban than we’ve heard from Biden.”
“The Biden administration has been under criticism for appearing to miscalculate the speed in which Taliban fighters were able to take over the country. Biden's critics also blame the White House for remaining relatively quiet while the country fell.” (Fox News)As CFP pundit Paul Bush notes: “Republicans tell you we’re under attack from China. Democrats tell you we’re under attack from Russia. The truth is we’re under attack from Washington DC.” Related: Biden to address the nation on Taliban takeover in Afghanistan (NY Post)President Biden will address the nation about the dramatic fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban at 3:45 PM, Monday afternoon. Biden cut short his vacation at Camp David as pressure mounts over his silence since insurgents captured Kabul.
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