memeorandum: Afghanistan war logs: Task Force 373 - special forces hunting top Taliban (Nick Davies/Guardian)

7:15 AM ET, July 26, 2010

Top Items:

Pakistan Spy Service Aids Insurgents, Reports Assert — Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan's military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington …

Discussion: FP Passport, Guardian, The Politico, Weekly Standard, MyDD, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Blogs and Stories, New York Magazine, The Political Carnival, Weasel Zippers, Right Wing News and Patterico's Pontifications, more at Mediagazer »

wikileaks.org:

Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010 — 25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary (AWD), an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. — The reports, while written by soldiers …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, South Asia, The Atlantic Online, FP Passport, unbossed.com, ReadWriteWeb, Mother Jones, Threat Level and Wonkette, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan — This article was written and reported by C.J. Chivers, Carlotta Gall, Andrew W. Lehren, Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez, and Eric Schmitt, with contributions from Jacob Harris and Alan McLean.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Guardian, NO QUARTER, Blogs and Stories, Swampland, Politics Daily and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Guardian:

Massive leak of secret files exposes the real war in Afghanistan — • Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops — • Covert unit hunts leaders for ‘kill or capture’ — • Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato — • Read the Guardian's full war logs investigation

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Blogs and Stories, UNCOVERAGE.net, Commentary, Reuters, Informed Comment, Gawker, Harry's Place, Philly.com, Swampland, Truthdig, Docudharma and ThreatsWatch, more at Techmeme »

Spiegel Online:

Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It — In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents.

Discussion: New York Times, The Politico, Salon, Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Post, Newshoggers.com, Guardian, Josh Rogin's blog, The Talking Dog and Mashable!

Mike Allen / The Politico:

W.H. condemns ‘irresponsible’ leaks, dismisses stories — The White House responded swiftly and sharply to publication Sunday evening of more than 91,000 secret documents painting a bleak picture of the Afghanistan war, calling the leak “irresponsible” and saying that the source …

Discussion: Guardian, PressThink, The Atlantic Online, South Asia and Instapundit

Spencer Ackerman / Danger Room:

WikiLeaks Drops 90,000 War Docs; Fingers Pakistan as Insurgent Ally — Turns out “Collateral Murder” was just a warmup. WikiLeaks just published a trove of over 90,000 mostly-classified U.S. military documents that details a strengthening Afghan insurgency with deep ties to Pakistani intelligence.

Discussion: CNN, The Huffington Post, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Salon, No More Mister Nice Blog and Zandar Versus The Stupid, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Piecing Together the Reports, and Deciding What to Publish — The articles published today are based on thousands of United States military incident and intelligence reports — records of engagements, mishaps, intelligence on enemy activity and other events from the war in Afghanistan — that were made public on Sunday on the Internet.

Discussion: Guardian, Sweetness & Light, Mediaite and Theo Spark, more at Mediagazer »

David Leigh / Guardian:
Afghanistan war logs: Secret CIA paramilitaries' role in civilian deaths

Discussion: South Asia

msnbc.com: White House: Afghan war leaks put lives ‘at risk’

Siun / Firedoglake:
Wikileaks' Release of Secret Afghan War Archives

Discussion: Guardian, South Asia and Telegraph, more at Mediagazer »

Declan Walsh / Guardian:
Afghanistan war logs: White House attacks Pakistan over Taliban aid

Discussion: Hot Air and Jay Currie

Bridget Johnson / The Hill:
Jones lashes out at Wikileaks for putting lives at risk with Afghanistan files

Discussion: Guardian and Ben Smith's Blog

Alana Goodman / NewsBusters.org:

Oliver Stone: ‘Jewish-Dominated Media’ Prevents Hitler from Being Portrayed ‘in Context’ — Director Oliver Stone belittled the Holocaust during a shocking interview with the Sunday Times today, claiming that America's focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media.”

Discussion: The Other McCain, Big Hollywood, Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers and Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Mike Allen / The Politico:

W.H. deploys operatives to Fla. to boost spill response — BP negotiates Hayward exit - Donna Brazile, Maureen Dowd: Obama needs more outreach — Matt Miller gift to groomsmen: Johnny Cash cufflinks — Good Sunday morning. THE SHOWS, on FAST FORWARD: — ANDREW BREITBART is referred …

Discussion: Main Justice

Fox News:
Gingrich for President? Former DNC Chairman Gives His Approval

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

TheAustralian:

White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi — THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. — Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration …

Discussion: Middle East, UNCOVERAGE.net, Atlas Shrugs, Scared Monkeys, Don Surber, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool, Little Green Footballs, POWIP, Right Pundits, The Political Carnival, Patterico's Pontifications and Jihad Watch

Alexander Marlow / Big Government:

Shirley Silenced: Sherrod Shut Out of Sunday Talk-shows — She was likened to a modern day Rosa Parks or Nelson Mandela, but the former Ag official, according to the Washington Post, was not interviewed on a single major Sunday morning talk-show following a week that can only be described as a Shirley Sherrod media frenzy.

Discussion: Mediaite, Classical Values, Washington Post and Moe Lane

CNN:

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES — Did Media Jump the Gun on Shirley Sherrod Story? ; Vast Left- Wing Conspiracy? ; Race and the Media — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Let's face it. Nobody looked good in the firing of Shirley Sherrod.

Discussion: Salon, NewsBusters.org and Politics Daily

Tim Graham / NewsBusters.org:

Daily Kos: Take Legal Action to ‘End Organized, Institutionalized Religion’ — For all the daily talk on the Daily Kos that conservatives are dictatorial, their cast of bloggers isn't without grand designs for social control. Take this post: “Time to begin working for the death of religion (a rant).”

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com

Little Green Footballs:

Depressingly Familiar Tactic Watch — By now, you can predict right wing tactics almost to the letter. Whenever Fox News, a Tea Party group, or a Congressman from Texas is caught saying or doing something stupid, misogynist, racist, or kinky, the tactic is: pick out an irrelevant or minor point …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Tim Blair