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AP: Motive for jihad murder of U.S. two-star general by Afghan soldier remains “unclear”

Aug 6, 2014 12:20 pm By Robert Spencer

Harold GreeneFor the Associated Press, you see, jihad is an interior spiritual struggle, and only greasy Islamophobes think that it has anything to do with waging war against Infidels. AP is likewise certain that only greasy Islamophobes would ever dare to think that any Muslim would take to heart Muhammad’s dictum “War is deceit” (not that AP has ever heard of that) and join the Afghan Army with the intention of getting close enough to prize Infidels such as General Greene, and killing them. And so Rafiqullah’s motive remains unclear. Probably he and General Greene had a falling out over whether the Qur’an’s dictum to “Slay the pagans wherever you find them” (9:5) meant (when understood in proper context) “Give the pagans a lollipop” or “Drop the pagans off at the adult education class.”

“Insider who killed general hid in bathroom,” Associated Press, August 6, 2014:

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan soldier who killed a U.S. two-star general and wounded other top officers hid in a bathroom before his assault and used a NATO assault rifle in his attack, an Afghan military official said Wednesday.

The investigation into the killing of Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the highest-ranked U.S. officer to be slain in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War, focused on the Afghan soldier, who went by the single name Rafiqullah, the official said. The shooting wounded about 15 people, including a German general and two Afghan generals, before Rafiqullah was killed, the official told The Associated Press.

However, Rafiqullah’s motive for the attack remained unclear Wednesday as American officials prepared to fly Greene’s body back to the U.S. and a similar attack saw an Afghan police officer drug and shoot dead seven of his colleagues, authorities said.

Rafiqullah, in his early 20s, had joined the Afghan army more than two years ago and came from the country’s eastern Paktia province, the Afghan official said. On Tuesday, Rafiqullah had just returned from a patrol around the greater Camp Qargha, west of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The official said it appeared others on patrol with Rafiqullah had turned in their NATO-issued assault rifles on arrival, but Rafiqullah kept his and hid in a bathroom. Rafiqullah opened fire when the generals walked into view, the official said.

The Afghan official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

About half of the wounded in Tuesday’s attack at Marshal Fahim National Defense University were Americans, several of them reported to be in serious condition. There was no indication that Greene was specifically targeted, a U.S. official said. The U.S. official was not authorized to speak publicly by name about the incident and provided the information only on condition of anonymity.

The Afghan military official said there was no motive yet for Rafiqullah’s attack, though he came from a district in Paktia province known to harbor fighters from the Haqqani network, which has strong links to the Taliban and conducts attacks against U.S. forces.

In a statement, NATO said Greene’s body was being prepared Wednesday to be flown to the U.S. via Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Maj. Gen. Greene’s family, and the families of our soldiers who were injured yesterday in the tragic events that took place in Kabul,” NATO said. “These soldiers were professionals, committed to the mission.”

The German Defense Ministry identified its wounded officer Wednesday as Brig. Gen. Michael Bartscher, saying he was in stable condition at Baghram airfield and that authorities were considering bringing him back home. Defense Ministry spokesman Uew Roth told journalists in Berlin that the German government condemned the “malicious and cowardly attack.”

Camp Qargha is sometimes called “Sandhurst in the Sand”— referring to the famed British military academy — because British forces oversaw building the officer school and its training program.

The attack at underscored the tensions that persist as the U.S. and NATO troops’ combat role winds down in Afghanistan — and it wasn’t the only assault by an Afghan ally on coalition forces on Tuesday. In Paktia province, an Afghan police guard exchanged fire with NATO troops near the governor’s office, provincial police said. The guard was killed in the gunfight.

A third “insider attack” happened late Tuesday in the Uruzgan provincial capital of Tirin Kot, where an Afghan police officer killed seven of his colleagues at a checkpoint, then stole their weapons and fled in a police car, provincial spokesman Doost Mohammad Nayab said.

A doctor at a local hospital told the AP it appeared the police officer drugged his colleagues before the shooting. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to release the information. Nayab later denied that the police officers had been drugged and said the officer involved had Taliban connections, without elaborating.

Asked if the shooting was linked to the attack that killed the U.S. general, authorities in Uruzgan said they had no information about it.

So-called “insider attacks” in Afghanistan rose sharply in 2012, with more than 60 coalition troops — mostly Americans — killed in 40-plus attacks that threatened to shatter all trust between Afghan and allied forces. U.S. commanders imposed a series of precautionary tactics and the number of such attacks declined sharply last year. In 2013, there were 16 deaths in 10 separate attacks.

Such “insider attacks” are sometimes claimed by the Taliban insurgency as proof of their infiltration. Others are attributed to personal disputes or resentment by Afghans who have soured on the continued international presence in their country more than a dozen years after the fall of the Taliban’s ultra-conservative Islamic regime.

Foreign aid workers, contractors, journalists and other civilians in Afghanistan are increasingly becoming targets of violence as the U.S.-led military coalition continues a withdrawal to be complete by the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid praised in a statement the Afghan soldier who killed Greene. He did not claim his group carried out the attack, although in the past the Taliban have encouraged such actions….

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Filed Under: Afghanistan, journalistic bias, War is deceit Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Undaunted says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    I saw a CGI demonstration of how this shooting was supposed to have gone down. If it went the way it’s depicted, then the Army “Guardian Angels” screwed up, as I noted in the earlier comment I offered here. The Army Military Policemen who were on MG Greene’s security detail were either incompetent or improperly trained, as well as improperly equipped. One of the MPs had to be assigned as the Personal Security Officer for Greene. It doesn’t look like it was done that way. As PSO, that one MP was responsible for covering Greene with his body in event of such an attack; and this was an assassination, not a botched abduction. The PSO should not have been carrying an M203 (M16 with 40MM grenade launcher attached), but at most an MP5 in 9MM. In these situations the other two members of the team would engage and defeat the shooter(s) while the PSO basically threw himself on top of the General to protect him from incoming rounds. Looks like that was not done. So, yeah, some Muslim animal murdered one of our Generals, but his security sucked so it wasn’t that difficult a job.

    From another angle, I don’t see what the big deal is: in war, Generals are supposed to lead from the front. We’re expected to lose a few.

    • JeffS says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 3:43 pm

      The jihadi was hiding in the bathroom. Was Greene shot in the bathroom? Is the security detail supposed to follow their charges into the bathroom? I would suppose so, I just don’t know.

      • Undaunted says

        Aug 6, 2014 at 6:33 pm

        We catch up with facts as we go along in matters like this; I’m not sure if what I saw and mentioned above is what really happened. Had not heard the version that Green was in the latrine. But, yes, the MP PSO should have at least checked out that latrine first to make sure it was clear of threats before Greene went in. If the PSO wasn’t able to check it first, he should have gone in with Greene.

    • Undaunted says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 6:56 pm

      Thanks, PJ. Yeah, like I wrote here the other day: not unheard of for some “hosts” to demand that bodyguards be disarmed in certain situations. Not surprised at all.

    • kikorikid says

      Aug 8, 2014 at 12:44 am

      Why is there a question regarding Motive?
      You know, a priori, a Jihadis motives.

  2. Jaladhi says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    You dumb asses at AP the motive is to kill all non-Muslims. The damn motive is never clear to you when Muslims keep killing non-Muslims. Remove you r PC colored glasses from you brains and you will clearly see the motive here and all those Muslim killings!!

  3. Yaakov Holansky says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    It is unbelievable! It must be a top-down thing because I can’t believe the military is this stupid. Hey if this was WWII you had a Indigenous Japanese interpreter do the same thing would you really be looking for motive. God God sake he was able to take out Generals. What is with your thinking process. Motive is for criminal activity. This is a battlefield.

  4. nacazo says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    This was a kidnapping……. of the Religion of Peace.

    /sarc off

  5. Thinking From First Principles says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    I had the honor and privilege of knowing and working with Harry Greene on and off since he was a Lieutenant Colonel. As a soldier, Harry was exemplary as witnessed by his rise through the ranks. As an American, and as a decent human being, he was second to none. Honest, devoted to God, country, and family, a man of his word.

    We will miss you.

    • John Stefan Obeda says

      Aug 7, 2014 at 10:44 am

      Thank you for this edifying information about the general. We thank God for having blessed us with such men. God bless the general’s family and of the others too that our enemy killed. God bless our efforts to help people and may He protect us from our enemies. “Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.” (Ps.144)

  6. Angemon says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 1:17 pm

    However, Rafiqullah’s motive for the attack remained unclear Wednesday as American officials prepared to fly Greene’s body back to the U.S.

    That’s because the guys in charge refuse to acknowledge what orthodox islam says and prefer to live in their make believe world where islam means peace.

  7. gravenimage says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    AP: Motive for jihad murder of U.S. two-star general by Afghan soldier remains “unclear”
    ……………………………

    Only if you’re *willfully blind*. Islam enjoins pious Muslims to slay the unbelievers—this POS was just being a “good Muslim”.

    And even better than slaying “garden-variety” Infidels is murdering someone—a police officer, security staff, or soldier—whose job it is to *protect* Infidels. If they can take out a high-ranking protector like General Greene, as they see it so much the better.

    The pundits at KCBS were all over themselves yesterday as to whether the shooter—Rafiqullah—was real Afghan army, or had just stolen one of their weapons and uniforms.

    But this shows how meaningless that distinction is—Muslims have no real dedication to something like the Afghan army, so the fact that he turned out to be the “real thing” makes little difference—except that, foolishly, that meant that he had easier access to good Kuffars like General Greene.

    My condolences to General Greene’s family and loved ones—but the longer we continue this willful naîvité towards Muslims, the more needless casualties we are going to suffer.

  8. James Foard says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    This is definitely a case for Inspector Clouseau:
    “There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.”
    Jacques Clouseau.

    • joeb says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 4:26 pm

      I think my favourite Clouseau scene is outside the chateau in ‘A Shot in The Dark’ when they are trying to synchronize their watches. Beautiful, light-touch comedy.

  9. medina says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 4:06 pm

    The media, AP included, routinely assigns motivation and causal relationships to everything from the Trayvon Martin killing (it was racism) to hurricane activity (caused by global warming). But violence perpetrated by Muslims seems to give them collective, universal pause if not a complete denial of the facts.

    Our military and State Dept. went berserk over a FL pastor who planned to burn a qu’ran, and this clearly showed the how the highest levels of the U.S. Govt fear Muslims. So we know they are in complete fear of losing their privileges and pensions back at the pentagon, but not soldiers’ lives. And in this case a General with a security detail. Well, diversity is so much more important.

    • Jay Boo says

      Aug 7, 2014 at 9:28 am

      “The media, AP included”
      Is caught up in the thinking is that we must do all we can to prevent Muslims from feeling ‘humiliated’ or disrespected by non-Muslims so they will not have to claim being victimized.

      But then we must ask, “How do Muslims feel about us?”

      “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

  10. joeb says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    You think that’s bad? Rob Crilly in today’s London Telegraph says

    “The episode at the vast campus…had nothing to do with the Taliban.”

    Read the full delusion here. Utterly priceless:

    http://tinyurl.com/le79ash

    • Michael Copeland says

      Aug 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm

      David Cameron would doubtless agree:
      “This has nothing to do with Islam”.
      http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/5847-cameron-is-being-lied-to

      The lying tainted BBC would assure us it is buried in a complex matrix of deep psychological concerns “rooted in underlying, even subconscious, resentments that are prone to flare up”.
      http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/5171-bbc-fog-making-soldier-murder-in-afghanistan

  11. gerard says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 4:30 pm

    “unclear”
    Unclear to AP!

  12. Richie says

    Aug 6, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    The reason Muslims kill is because they are Muslim. Islam directs its followers to murder, rape, lie and steal

  13. Rhonda says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 2:51 am

    I am wondering why Obama gave no statement concerning the murder of Gen. Greene in Afghanistan? Admiral Kirby gave a statement. Philip Mudd, a CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA official made a statement. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno released a condolence statement confirming Greene’s death. White House spokesman Josh Earnest gave a statement. Even Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University gave a statement. Defense Ministry spokesman Uew Roth told journalists in Berlin that the German government condemned the “malicious and cowardly attack.” However, no condemnation from Obama. Why nothing from the Commander in Chief of our military? One can only conclude what we have known all along; that he doesn’t care about our soldiers, about our military, about our Country, about our flag, about our Constitution, and he doesn’t care about We the People.

  14. NDB says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 6:06 am

    No lesson learned from the 1842 Kabul Retreat… these are viscous animals in something of human form.

    The school doesn’t need to be there, we can just send them the box set of training DVDs. After all, according to Secretary of State Clinton, they all sit around in front of their computers watching videos all the time anyway.

  15. eib says

    Aug 7, 2014 at 6:11 am

    Betrayal and ambush.
    The hallmarks of Islam.
    Violence, dispossession, rape and murder– the heart and soul of the Ummah.

  16. Shaun says

    Aug 8, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Clearly, this is just another example of “workplace violence” and had absolutely nothing to do with Islam. To think anything other than this is racist and Islamophobic.

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