"The government had assured the group it would release eight members of the Taliban as part of an exchange deal for the freedom of a similar number of the hostages."
"Korean hostages alive in Afghanistan, say Taliban," by Yousuf Azimy for Reuters:
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The remaining 22 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan are alive, a Taliban spokesman said on Friday, and the group will not set further deadlines as it negotiates with the government on freeing them.A government official also said the Christian volunteers, whose leader was killed two days ago by their Taliban captors, were alive, adding an Afghan delegation was in talks with the militants.
"They are alive and fine," Munir Mangal, a deputy interior minister who also heads an Afghan team trying to secure the freedom of the hostages, told reporters in Ghazni. Medicines had been sent for some of the captives who are ill, he added.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the government had assured the group it would release eight members of the Taliban as part of an exchange deal for the freedom of a similar number of the hostages.
"They are alive. The talks are going on and we are not giving further deadlines for the government has assured us that it wants to resolve the issue through talks," he told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.
Earlier, he had accused the government of "killing time and playing tricks" and had said the Taliban would kill the captives if rebel prisoners were not released by the Afghan government by Friday noon (0730 GMT).
How about instead: "We already killed 30 Taliban prisoners for the hostage you killed. Now if you kill any more, we will kill ALL remaining Taliban prisoners."
I like your solution better. This is foolish and will encourage more kidnappings
...why does anyone take taliban prisoners anyway?....
I am still waiting on U.N. Secretary-General Moon (a fellow South Korean) to speak about this hostage taking.
it's the "intelligence" you know... that's why we take them prisoners...
The astounding bravery, and also innocence of the full malevolence and menace of Islam, of the South Korean missionaries, is something that should be stressed -- stressed most of all, naturally, in South Korea itself, as well as in Japan and China. So far the Islamic threat is mostly seen as directed at the historic West -- at Europe and North America. This not only ignores all the other states, and peoples, that have been on the receiving end of Islam for a long time, including the Christians of southern Nigeria and the southern Sudan and Indonesia,, and the Hindus in India, Kashmir, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and the Buddhists in southern Thailand, as well as the small communities of Buddhists in the Chittagong Hills region of Bangladesh.
It is important that the peoples of East Asia -- that China, for example (time to recall the declaration of Jihad against the Chinese in 1930, and General Ma) -- also recognize that they are not immune, that they are Infidels and subject to the same threats, and that they, too, have a stake in preventing a Muslim takover, through Da'wa and demographic conquest, of the Western world which the Chinese, without that "three great abrahamic faith" stuff, have far more in common than do Muslims, or the world of Islam, which is always defining itself in terms of its opposition, its permanent supremacy over, and state of war (though not necessarily active warfare) with the Infidels, whether in Birmingham or Boston or Bordeaux or even Beijing.
This group of South Koreans brought this on to themselves. First, for going to Afghanistan in harms way and Second, not having any protection while traveling. It is foolish. The Afghans will never convert to Christianity. It is in their culture.
The most ridiculous thing is that the Korean protesters demonstrate against the US.
CNN in its 30 second sound blops showed Korean moonbats with signs reading 'US-Troops Out of Afghanistan'- its the same in Europe, generally. They don't blame the perpetrators, they blame the defence....
Why shouldn't they demonstrate against the US? They are fed the same hateful propaganda the leftist Western press and academics spew on a daily basis. Most of these protesters are young Koreans; the older ones are pro American.
From an AP story
"Some of the South Koreans were "not in good condition," Ahmadi said. "I don't know if the weather is not good for them, or our food. The women hostages are crying. The men and women are worried about their future.""
Gee, those Taliban guys don't miss much. Definitely must be the food or weather. Couldn't be the torture.
There is a simple way to solve the terror problem. 22 South Korean hostages? Carpet bomb 22 villages sympathetic to the Taliban, and I guarantee you that would be the end of Taliban hostage taking.
But hey, that would be cruel. So let's instead keep bending over for these Taliban guys so that we can feel "morally" superior.
Simple Solution:
Stop
Taking
Islamic
Prisoners
If they are caught and are defined as 'illegal combatants' by the Geneva Convention - execute them in the field and then make and public announcement that:
A) They were illegal combatants under the GC.
B) They were executed as allowed by the GC.
C) Their execution was compelled by the illegal actions of the Taliban in kidnapping and murdering innocent civilians.
"The most ridiculous thing is that the Korean protesters demonstrate against the US."
.....let's keep this in mind for the next time trade talks come up.....or for the next time the North Koreans or China decide to reclaim some terrority....
More proof that Muhammedanism is a mental disorder:
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/07/27/qatar-sheik-holds-up-plane-over-seating/
Greetings from Malta, Jihad Watchers:
http://sheikyermami.com/2007/07/27/malta-they-just-keep-coming/
"It is important that the peoples of East Asia -- that China, for example....also recognize that they are not immune"
Maybe, but it's still easier to blame the US. Jihadists could attack Seoul and it would be America's fault for driving them to it. The easy way out for many countries is to blame the US for even getting involved in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place and "stirring up" Muslim populations.
Of course ten years from now they would blame us if we NEVER got involved.
I thought I heard somewhere that Japan has been asking for permission to build up her military because of the Islamic threat in Southeast Asia, but I can't find it.
Anyone else hear about that? Or am I just wishfully thinking?
"Of course ten years from now they would blame us if we NEVER got involved.
Posted by: PMK "
...of course, we could make a token appearance and then leave....we could then reply..."we were there..where were you?>>>>"
"They are alive and fine," Munir Mangal, a deputy interior minister
Phew...I am glad he said that. Dont you feel better now?
Afghanis like tea.
Give the Taliban killers, now in government custody, a farewell tea party with some Russian 'sugar' (Earl Polonium Grey) added to their cups, and then cheerfully exchange them for the Koreans.
By the time the freed jihadis started dropping like flies, the Koreans would be long safe at home.
(This trick would only work once, but we shouldn't exchange prisoners with terrorists anyway, so it wouldn't be something we'd need to do again. The 9/11 boxcutters gambit for skyjacking and killing 3,000 only needed to work once, also.)
Hugh - thank you for broadening our horizons with your counsel on the need to 'wake up' East Asia - China, Japan, South Korea. To make them recognise, at gut-level, that they too are targeted by the Third Jihad. Thailand and the Philippines, of course, are already embattled - they don't need telling, though they perhaps need more information, encouragement, physical support from neighbours like Australia, to WIN THAT BATTLE, to squash the jihadists.
Japan currently has about 150 000+ Muslims, comprising legal and illegal Bangladeshi, Iranian, and Pakistani immigrants (among others), and native Japanese who have been suckered into Islam. Note the Iranian and Pakistani link - NOT good.
South Korea has some 40 000 Muslims - according to my [christian] source: "they are growing in number as a result of Islamic missionary efforts among Koreans working in Saudi Arabia. Most Korean Muslims live in Seoul. A Korean Islamic University is planned." And, in 2001, my source noted that "there is no specific Christian outreach to them, and a lack of knowledge of how to reach them". In other words, Islam in South Korea slipped in 'under the radar' of the Korean Church. I do hope this hostage-taking in Afghanistan may raise Korean awareness of the true nature of Islam, if only among the hostages' home congregations.
Oh for Japanese and Korean translations of Robert's books, and of Mark Durie's booklet comparing core teachings of Christianity and Islam! One needs, also, a booklet comparing and contrasting the core principles of Buddhism and Islam, and cataloguing Islam's ghastly mass murders of Buddhists in India and in Afghanistan during its invasion of those regions. And a comparison between Confucian and Muslim principles, between the Tao and Islam. In traditional Chinese culture, filial piety trumps all. In Islam, Islam trumps all - there are stories in the Hadith about filial piety being trampled underfoot.
Let our East Asian neighbours know that the Japanese woodcuts of exquisite courtesans, the geisha girls, sake, the Kabuki theatre and the Chinese Opera, the Thai and Cambodian and Korean women who dance in their exquisite, gorgeously decorated femininity invoking the presence of the divine, the Japanese girls in their short short skirts, the statues of the Buddha and Kwan-Yin, the temples, the delicious pork dishes, the little pet dogs, all, all are haram, jahiliyya, Darkness, in the eyes of Islam, fit only to be despised and annihilated.
As for the South Korean Christian hostages: under the Japanese occupation, there were Korean Christians whom the Japanese told - bow to the Sun Goddess, or die. They chose to die. I doubt that these people will be any less courageous than their parents' generation.
Aside, to callmeinfidel - It is not impossible for Afghans to become Christians... What about that Afghan guy we heard all about on Jihadwatch, some time ago, who had become a Christian, and was imprisoned, and tried for blasphemy/ apostasy, and sentenced to death, and only lives because foreign governments piled on the pressure and Italy agreed to take him in? As I understand it, he was quite prepared to die for his new-found faith, had no-one been able to rescue him.
Note to my fellow Australians, re Hugh's counsels above. This is OUR call. East and South-East Asia are OUR 'near north'. Our citizens, of late, have been busily intermarrying and doing business with Filipinas and Chinese - and Japanese - and Koreans. We have a large, thriving, hard-working Korean Christian population in our midst. We should be looking for ways to spread the anti-jihad meme along those business, familial and ecclesiastical networks that already exist. For instance: I need to talk to my Chinese sister-in-law and find out how much she knows about Islam, and the danger it potentially poses to her homeland, and to her family there. And if she is ignorant, I need to inform and warn her.
The task that Hugh describes is also, of course, a job for Australian media, diplomats, political leaders, and church leaders. At the moment they don't seem to be doing very much. My fellow australians, we have GOT to get our leaders 'on the ball'. They have got to get us out of our dead-end relationships with dangerous, duplicitous Islamised regimes like Indonesia and Malaysia, and start putting a LOT more work into our relationships with our natural regional allies, our civilised non-Muslim neighbours like the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Japan.
"I thought I heard somewhere that Japan has been asking for permission to build up her military because of the Islamic threat in Southeast Asia, but I can't find it."
Atheling,
Are you thinking of the nuclear threat? There was talk a while back of Japan becoming a nuclear power in order to defend itself from North Korea. It's also considered a necessary counterweight to China, but the Chinese, with their memories of Japanese occupation during WWII, deeply oppose it.
It was a bargaining chip to force China to deal with North Korea's nukes. Maybe the Islamic threat will resurrect it.
PMK:
No, that's not it. It wasn't nuclear. It was about rebuilding their military. Well, I can't find it.
I sure would like to see Japan and Korea kick Muslim ass in Asia...
korean missionaries draw fire fom home"????
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070727/wl_time/koreanmissionariesdrawfireathome
so now it's the fault of the missionaries? huh?
"Family members of the missionaries - as well as members of the Sammeul Community Church south of Seoul, which sent the mission - also issued public apologies for causing the country so much grief."
they caused afganistan grief?
am i really stupid? have i missed something here? is it because i am a "neo-fascist". i'm confused. but whenever muslims are attacked in europe it's generally the fault of the perpetrator and not the victim, and generally the muslim family back in pakistan or wherever doesn't hold a press conference to apologise to whatvever european nation said victim is attacked in.
No leon, you're not stupid. It's an Asian thing.
Here is a video on these Korean Christian nuts on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G07u0x82aQw#lcxoZELNPR8
These nuts entered the country by lying -- they claimed they are there to help, not to proselytize. They broke the law of country which prohibits proselytizer missionaries. They made Muslim children pray to their Christian god without children or their parents consent. How would Christian parents feel if I made 5-year old Christian children in an American school pray to Zeus without consent or permission of children or their Christian parents? There are other videos of Christian Korean nuts visiting mosques and graves in Afghanistan -- singing Christian songs, and then later bragging about it on how they felt praying to Jesus in mosques where no one has prayed to Jesus before. True face of missionary nuts is exposed. They give poor food if the poor and hungry parrot and pray to their Christian god.
Boy, if that's the case, then they do owe an apology.
Pure stupidity.
But its ok for Islam to spread by the sword Amir?
Typical Muslim hypocrisy.
STOP ALLOWING THE TALIBAN TO EXIST
When is the West finally going to take a scorched earth policy against these Taliban weaklings? They need to stop allowing these crickets to use their guns against innocent civilians and just bomb the evil Taliban into utter smithereens already. Problem solved. Everyone who counts is happy.
singing Christian songs, so Amir for that these "Korean Christians" deserve death? why are muslims so afraid of Christianity? Christians do not make you believe in their religion with the use of the sword, threats, or kilings? Christianity uses the the words and actions of love for your fellow human. That is what muslims fear! yeah those terrorists Christians conquer the muslim with Love! how terrible!!!
its no wonder muslim countries are swept with poverty and corruptions, their fear of the non muslims keeps them that way.
Christianity spread by torture and colonization, as in America and Africa. I don't want to debate the off-topic issues like the history and merits of Islam or Christianity. I am atheist. Islam has nothing to fear from Christianity -- no Muslim land has ever converted to Christianity in 1400 years, despite 200 years of colonization and occupation (for example) by France in Algeria
(when conversions were encouraged). My original point stands. You can brainwash your OWN children all you want, but this is not the case here. These are Muslim children made to pray to Christian god without consent of their Muslim parents or the children themselves (who have no clue what they are babbling in Korean language). These missionaries entered a FOREIGN country by lying -- they claimed they are there to help. They were there to shove their religion on children. If you have no problem with that, allow Saudis to force Christian children in American school to parrot and pray in Arabic to Allah without the permission of their Christian parents (we are talking about young 5-year children). Also, it's clear these nuts were there to satisfy their own egos (since the children didn't even understand what they are babbling in Korean). They also went to mosques and graves in Afghanistan -- singing Christian songs in Korean, and then bragging about it. Prove positive that they were there to satisfy their own egos -- nothing to do with helping people.
Amir...yeah, so what. Whatsyer point...?
"They give poor food if the poor and hungry parrot and pray to their Christian god.
Posted by: Amir "
....Muslims give bullets to the head of those who don't pray to their caravan raiding idol and a rusty knife to the throat of those who refuse Allah....and that is that....