Have Fun Spending That $20 Million in Hell

Mullah Abdullah Jan, the Taliban commander who led the kidnappings of 23 Korean hostages in Afghanistan, was killed in an air strike by U.S. forces.  U.S. forces launched an airstrike on a house in Ghazni province where a council of Taliban commanders was meeting on Monday night, the Associated Press reported.  Twelve Taliban leaders were killed including Abdullah, the commander of Qarabagh district in Ghazni, AP said on Tuesday, citing Ghazni provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai.

Abdullah was believed to have planned and carried out the kidnappings of the Korean missionaries on July 19.  Abdullah was directly and indirectly in contact with press around the world during the hostage crisis, including Korean media.  According to the Afghan government, at least four other Taliban leaders who were involved in the kidnappings have been killed this month, including Mullah Mateen, a commander under Abdullah.  [Chosun Ilbo]

If anything can undo the damage Roh Moo Hyun did by paying ransom, it’s this.  But deterrence is also needed for those who’d pay ransom.  That’s why we should have frozen the assets of the South Korean  (and reportedly, Saudi) entities involved in these transactions  under Executive Order 12,224.  More here.

So how long before a Stockholm-afflicted hostage denounces the United States for this?  Place your bets, and feel free to add your favorite “72 virgins” comment below.

*   Related news:  “High-ranking al Qaeda operative nabbed in Afghanistan.”

*   Caught on Tape:   Politician, confronted with his own discredited rhetoric, ducks behind security guards and more rhetoric, then  flees.   If admitting a mistake is really  that hard, you’ve probably  held your job too long.   Fortunately, no  tasers were deployed.

*   But Admit it:   you enjoyed watching this.  Repeatedly.  Extra points for the Marmot’s title.

*   Iraq Updates:  In Baghdad, Reuters finds  empty hospital wards; in Ramadi, Michael Totten finds that  liberation is delayed but perhaps not denied.  The Shiite “Tet” that I had feared before Petaeus’s testimony has also failed to materialize; something like that certainly seems less likely now that the  optimal moment of political opportunity has passed.  And developments like this will make it progressively less likely if they take root.

*   Opinion Journal carries more speculation on the Syria-North Korea connection, but I don’t think it really introduces anything new of substance, and I’m not one who considers North Korea’s reaction to the raid to be of evidentiary significance.  North Korea’s words to the outside world really don’t mean anything unless they’re renouncing some obligation they’ve undertaken (in other words, further demonstrating the meaninglessness of what they say).