Taliban say kill Italian reporter's translator

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Taliban say kill Italian reporter's translator

18 minutes ago

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban killed on Sunday the Afghan translator
of an Italian journalist kidnapped last month after the government
refused to free several insurgent prisoners, a rebel official said.

"We waited a lot, but the government failed to meet our demand.
Therefore, we killed him today," a spokesman for Taliban military
chief Mullah Dadullah, Shahabuddin Aatil, told Reuters by satellite
phone.

La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was kidnapped along
with his driver and the translator early last month.

The Taliban freed the Italian after about two weeks when Kabul
released five of its senior members, but the group beheaded
Mastrogiacomo's driver and held his translator further in a bid to
secure the release of more of their men.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070408/wl_nm/afghan_hostage_dc_1

[ohio2007]

1. One small step for the Taliban

One giant leap backwards for Afghanistan

<snip>
The Taliban freed the Italian after about two weeks when Kabul released five of its senior members, but the group beheaded Mastrogiacomo's driver and held his translator further in a bid to secure the release of more of their men.

The Mastrogiacomo deal has been widely criticised in Italy and Afghanistan, with security experts warning it would trigger more abductions of foreigners.


<snip>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070408/wl_nm/afghan_hostage_dc_1

The Italians are familiar with this drill in the past.

[Igel]

2. Back in 2001 the newspapers were rife with

instructions that the people in Afghanistan were Afghans, not "Afghanis". The afghani is their currency.

The Taliban seem not to have gotten the message: For them, Afghans seem to be currency, to be traded for their fighters. Against all odds, the pious Muslims, as the Taliban like to portray themselves, make chattel slavery seem like a good thing.