AP – The Afghan Taliban on Saturday denied that their leader Mullah Omar had written to President Barack Obama last July.

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Taliban deny their leader sent letter to Obama
(AP)

Screenshot of the defaced law firm's website. The firm has since taken the site down until further notice.

Adding to its most recent stint of revenge on organizations like the FBI and the Boston Police Department , the hacker collective Anonymous has infiltrated the website of a law firm that defended a U.S. Marine who killed 24 Iraqi citizens in 2005. Gizmodo reports that seven years ago, then Sergeant Frank Wuterich along with other Marines killed two dozen in Haditha, Iraq, in retaliation for an IED strike. Wuterich admitted to the killings and last week was charged with “negligent dereliction of duty” but did not receive any jail time or other punishment. Now, Anonymous is fighting what it believe is an injustice by attacking  Puckett & Faraj , the firm that defended Wuterich. The firm’s website is currently dysfunctional and Anonymous threatens having a host of private information that it will be releasing. Here’s what Anonymous wrote (via Gizmod0): We went ahead and fired off some shots of our own — at the servers and personal email accounts of Puckett & Faraj. We defaced their website and dumped nearly 3GB of private email messages belonging to Neal Puckett and Haytham Faraj. The contents of these email messages include detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records pertaining to not only Frank Wuterich but also many other marines they have represented. And to add a few layers of icing to this delicious caek, we got the usual boatloads of embarrassing personal information. How do you think the world will react when they find out Neal Puckett and his marine buddies have been making crude jokes about the incident where marines have been caught on video pissing on dead bodies in Afghanistan? Or that he regularly corresponds with and receives funding from former marine Don Greenlaw who runs the racist blog http://snooper.wordpress.com? We believe it is time to release all of their private information and court evidence to the world and conduct a People’s trial of our own. Gizmodo reports that a source within the hacker collective told them that all the attacks today (Related: Read about how Anonymous hacked into the FBI’s conference call) are coordinated but have their own “particular motivations.” Anonymous has also reportedly attacked the Texas Police Association’s website, Salt Lake City police and Greece’s justice ministry. Gizmodo also states that when they called Puckett & Faraj, the firm didn’t known it had been hacked yet.

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Anonymous Hacks Law Firm That Defended Marine in Iraqi Killing Case

Reuters – The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration’s bid to broker peace in Afghanistan.

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Amid peace bid, U.S. got purported letter from Taliban
(Reuters)

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Reuters – President Barack Obama on Friday announced measures to hire Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to restore national parks and work as police and firefighters in a bid to cut veterans’ above-average unemployment rate.

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Obama plan would hire vets as cops, firefighters
(Reuters)

AP – Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar wrote to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in talks key to ending the war in Afghanistan, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

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AP sources: Taliban leader sent letter to Obama
(AP)

Reuters – The Obama administration on Thursday played down Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s comments that the United States could end its combat role in Afghanistan next year, remarks that surprised allies in Europe and Kabul, as well as U.S. lawmakers.

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U.S. seeks to play down Panetta’s Afghan comments
(Reuters)

Reuters – U.S. forces will cede the lead role in combat operations in Afghanistan next year, but will keep fighting alongside Afghan troops, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, as the Obama administration struggled to clear up confusion over its Afghan exit strategy.

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U.S. tries to ease confusion over Afghan plans
(Reuters)

Reuters – Lawmakers are steeling for a public battle against the possible transfer of Taliban detainees out of Guantanamo Bay prison, a key step in the Obama administration’s bid to broker a peace deal ending the war in Afghanistan.

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Lawmakers warn of outcry against Taliban transfer
(Reuters)

Pack them up and bring them home, no American should die on the battlefield if we’re not there to win. Via Politico: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan will end in 2013 while troops will remain in the country in a support role through 2014, The Associated Press reports. “Hopefully

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Obama To The Taliban: No More Fighting After 2013…

Great, just as the Obama administration confirmed that the U.S. will end its combat role at the end of 2013. The news is at London’s Daily Mail , ” So is it all worth it? Secret files reveal Taliban will retake control of Afghanistan when NATO troops withdraw “: The Taliban is set to return to power in Afghanistan when British and Coalition forces end their combat role in 2014, a damning leaked confidential report reveals. Despite 10 years of fighting by NATO forces and their huge sacrifices – 397 members of the British military alone have been killed and thousands wounded – the report says that in the past year there has been unprecedented interest, even from within the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban. And it points accusingly at Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan, a key ally of NATO, where powerful elements in the security and intelligence services support the Taliban and describes how insurgent leaders maintain homes within the heart of the capital Islamabad. Based on 27,000 interviews with over 4,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners, the detailed report effectively questions the Coalition’s own assessment that it is winning the war in Afghanistan. The report – The State of the Taliban – was described as ‘devastating’ yesterday (W) by former soldier Ian Sadler, whose son Jack, a 21-year-old reservist serving with the Honourable Artillery Company, died in a roadside bomb blast in Helmand in December 2007. ‘It has been a waste of time operating in the way that the British have,’ he said, ‘Hearing details of the report makes me wonder why our soldiers were sent there in the way they were and the cost that has been paid.’ The report compiled by US forces describes how weapons and vehicles given to Afghan forces have in turn been passed on to the Taliban and says that Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) is actively colluding with the insurgents by actually directing attacks. Continue reading . I can’t help but think that we’re screwed. Secretary of State Rice, upon leaving office, warned that if we wanted another 9/11, all we had to do was abandon Afghanistan. Let’s hope she was wrong. I’ll have more later.

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Taliban Ready to Seize Power in Afghanistan After NATO Pulls Out