Taliban

A Taliban technology that allowed for the spread of online hate and extremism has been removed by Google. An app developed for Android smartphones which allowed the Taliban to connect with a wider digital audience was removed from Google Play store after it was branded as ‘hate speech.’ The app, named Alemarah, was part of the Taliban’s advanced technological efforts to compete with the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL who have recently made inroads into Afghanistan and Taliban territory and are better positioned in the cyber world.

Bowe Bergdahl walked off.

In the court of public opinion, this is the central fact all can agree upon—-that a 24-year-old Army private first class who had been in Afghanistan fewer than two months walked off his outpost one day and vanished.

Everything that happened between Bergdahl’s walk-off and the present moment, where he stands trial for desertion and “misbehavior before the enemy,” has formed the basis of one of the most bizarre and dramatic tales of a missing soldier in recent memory. To say this case has become a political flashpoint is an understatement.

The Afghan military sustained twice as many losses in the last year as U.S. forces killed in the entire 13 years of war in Afghanistan. And the pace of casualties is escalating, suggesting that the Taliban is stronger than the Pentagon and mainstream media have ever let on—in fact, the country is a house of cards experts say is destined to fall.

Over a dozen U.S. Army troops have been left trapped in Marjah, Afghanistan, amid enemy fire by Taliban fighters after a U.S. special operations soldier was killed earlier on.  Enemy forces surround the compound the soldiers are taking cover in, as they wait for backup over night. Foxnews.com reports: A U.S. official described the “harrowing” scene to Fox News, saying there were enemy forces surrounding the compound in which the special operations team sought refuge.

The fight to check the spread of Islamic State in Afghanistan is making for some strange bedfellows.