Well, if there’s one thing you can say about the New York Times, it’s that they’re consistent.
In the 1930s the Times became a megaphone for Walter Duranty’s revolting campaign of apologism and denial for Stalin. In 1959, it praised Fidel Castro and claimed that “Cuba is now a happy island”.
Now, the Times is continuing its long tradition of sycophancy and apologism for bloodthirsty tyrants by publishing a self-serving op-ed by a Taliban leader – yes, that Taliban. The murderous Islamic militia currently at war with the United States.
In a column, titled “What We, the Taliban, Want” Sirajuddin Haqqani claimed, among other things, “We did not choose our war with the foreign coalition led by the United States. We were forced to defend ourselves.”
Haqqani is a designated terrorist, according to the Department of State.
The State Department’s Reward for Justice program has offered up to $10 million for information that leads directly to his arrest.
His piece made no reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington or Osama bin Laden’s Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda group.
Instead, it’s all death-to-America and peace and rainbows. Even, incredibly, the Taliban trumpeting its pussy-hatted wokeness on women’s rights.
“I am confident that, liberated from foreign domination and interference, we together will find a way to build an Islamic system in which all Afghans have equal rights, where the rights of women that are granted by Islam — from the right to education to the right to work — are protected, and where merit is the basis for equal opportunity,” he wrote.
In 1996, the Taliban decreed all women should be banned from employment, citing sharia law.
Under Taliban rule, women reportedly had their fingers cut off for wearing nail polish.
Naturally, the Afghan government is less than impressed.
“It is sad that the (New York Times) has given their platform to an individual who is on a designated terrorist list. He and his network are behind ruthless attacks against Afghans and foreigners,” Sediq Sediqqi, a palace spokesman, told Reuters.
Commenters on social media were similarly critical.
Kabir Taneja, fellow at the Observer Researcher Foundation, wrote that he was “gobsmacked” and that the Times’ decision to publish the piece reflected “a major level of tone-deafness.”
Journalist Jeryl Bier called it “just another Thursday” for The Times.
At least this time, the Times’ reporter on the ground in Afghanistan is no Duranty.
Even the Times’ senior correspondent in Afghanistan, Mujib Mashal, appeared to express surprise, tweeting that Haqqani is “no peace-maker as he paints himself” and is “behind some of the most ruthless attacks” of the war “with many civilian lives lost.”
The European Media Director of the group Human Rights Watch, Andrew Stroehlein, also questioned the decision to platform Haqqani, calling him a “notorious war crimes suspect.”
pluralist.com/new-york-times-taliban-op-ed
Yeah, but at least he isn’t Trump. The legacy media know who their real enemy is.
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