As the security situation in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province continues to deteriorate, the Taliban are threatening to take control of Peshawar, the provincial capital. As the Taliban grow bolder, they have begun to target foreigners of all stripes. Even one of their own. Today, two reporters, one from Newsweek, were shot in western Peshawar after they dodged a kidnapping attempt. Yesterday, the Taliban successfully kidnapped an Iranian consular official, in the same region. Two days prior, a U.S. aid worker and his driver were killed in another kidnapping attempt. But the most curious kidnapping that occurred in Pakistan’s northwest has gone largely unreported. The Taliban kidnapped a Canadian journalist named Beverly Giesbrecht. CTV described Giesbrecht as “a Web magazine publisher in British Columbia who adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar after converting to Islam after 9/11.” What magazine does Giesbrecht/Qahaar write for? None other than Jihad Unspun, a pro-al Qaeda, pro-Taliban, pro-jihadi rag that describes terrorists as “Mujahideen” and Western forces as “Occupiers.” Jihad Unspun routinely posts translations of terrorist leaders. Here’s how Giesbrecht/Qahaar “reflects” on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks (read the whole thing, it is much worse than this):
Giesbrecht/Qahaar recently joined the Taliban in the Mohmand so she could “eat breath and sleep with the Taliban in order to show the true face of those America’s calls ‘terrorists.'” She describes bombings in the region as follows:
Of course, the Taliban never kill civilians. So how does CTV describe Jihad Unspun to its readers? CTV clearly never went to the website. Instead they relied on a “friend” of Giesbrecht/Qahaar, who called it “an alternative source of news on the Islamic world.” If alternative means pro-al Qaeda, then yes, that is correct. Shame on CTV for not telling its readers what kind of “publication” the kidnapped “journalist” runs.
