Taliban leader Mullah Omar submitted a hand-written letter to the press this morning, claiming all “foreign” soldiers will be forced to leave Afghanistan. Like so many other Islamists before him, Omar displays a unique memory when it comes to history.

“They came to Afghanistan readily but will be fleeing against their will… It is the history of Afghanistan that all foreign invaders are eventually defeated with much humiliation,” Mullah Mohammad Omar allegedly said in the message . . .

. . . In his statement, Omar rejected a plan to hold Loya Jirgas - tribal councils proposed as a solution by Washington to end the violence in Afghanistan, which are backed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. He slammed the proposal as an evil attempt to hamper the Taliban-led struggle against foreign troops.

“Those who attacked Afghanistan want to trap us in the game of Loya Jirgas but no Muslim would agree to that…The Jirga has no representative status as all members would be nominated by the aggressors,” Mullah Omar said in the statement.

There was a group of foreign invaders who happened to stick around in Afghanistan for nearly one decade, even being embraced by the Taliban government. They were known as the Mujahideen but later part of that group became known as Al Qaida. And again, that same splinter group of the Mujahideen wishes to invade Afghanistan as well, yet Mullah Omar welcomes it. The Taliban also welcomes other partners in his war.

I realize these Islamists make these types of statements to garner a specific reaction, one of being beseiged by outside forces, but they are hollow. I only hope those who are being recruited into the ranks of jihad understand how erroneous the statements are, for it won’t do much good if those who make these statements only look like an idiot to us but not to them.

The Blotter reports a Taliban fatwa was issued calling to “target and kill all employees of non-government organizations, including workers for the United Nations and human rights organizations.” They just don’t seem to understand the human rights groups are usually on their side and can be called into support the group’s propoganda efforts.

And what does that do for journalists who wish to interview members of the Taliban? That is if they aren’t first roughed up by the Pakistani government as New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall claims she was.

Gall says the agents accused her and Soomro of trying to meet the Taliban. They identified themselves as working for Pakistan’s Special Branch, an undercover police department, but Gall said other local reporters identified them as employees from one of the country’s two powerful spy agencies: Inter-Services Intelligence or Military Intelligence.

I haven’t a clue what Gall was doing in Waziristan, but the question of whether she was trying to meet with the Taliban or not is probably pretty accurate. We’ve seen a number of stories on the Taliban, and it is the New York Times who slithered its way to find and interview a mythical figure in Iraq known as Juba the Sniper.

It is still though CNN who is offering the sniper video given to them by the Islamic Army of Iraq on Demand. Remember they had to use intermediaries as opposed to just downloading it from the IAI snuff site. Why would the Taliban wish to issue a death warrant for those who would cover their side?