I have a cover story in in this week’s edition of The Weekly Standard. Titled “The Taliban in My Inbox,” the story details the surreal encounter with the Taliban on May 2. I’ve had quite a few questions on how the release of the Taliban tapes went down, and this article will hopefully answer those questions. Here is an excerpt:
Normally I have a couple of dozen messages in my inbox: notes from readers, an occasional tip or link to a news story, and some spam. But something I found sitting in my inbox that morning made me catch my breath: an email from someone claiming to be a representative of the Pakistani Taliban, who was notifying me that one of their top leaders had released a tape claiming responsibility for the attempt to murder U.S. citizens in Times Square.
The email had been sent at 2:37 a.m., just eight hours after the bomb was discovered. The emailer’s handle was Taliban News and the subject line read: “Qari Hussain Mehsud from Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan accepts the responsibility of recent Attack on Times Square Newyork USA.”
“You’re the first one to know” the cryptic email stated.
