Switzerland owes a lot of its wealth to Muslim oilmen. If even a few rich Muslims end relationships with the Swiss, then we are talking about millions of Euros in profit sucked out of the secretive Swiss banking system. This very secretive nature is how terrorists, dictators and shady politicians can transfer large amounts of money around the world without being stopped much less detected.

The West has made very strong moves to regulate this shadowy banking world.  The Swiss banking system has benefited for many decades on these transaction and cannot take too much of attacks on its system. Switzerland is under great pressure from the EU, USA and the UK (who recently winked and nodded with the Colonel) so, this seemingly asinine argument only serves to damage a system which many want to bring down anyway.

The news say that Gaddafi is being a silly ass (and he probably could be), but a conspiratorial mind could suspect that DC, Paris and London could be stroking the devil to save the righteous. Libya itself has a strong role in counter terrorism (and inevitable terrorism too) so even if the European and American intelligence agencies somehow defied precedent and didn’t dirty their hands, Gaddafi and his intelligence goons could be going renegade to bring down a genuinely bad system.

The Swiss system helped several Nazis escape to live splendidly in sunny countries and it has helped fund several bloody African and Asian coups and massacres, not to mention a lot of backhanders and corporate crimes. Even if it weren’t for the terrorist organizations that use its vaults and the silly dressed guardsmen at the Vatican the Swiss system is not as benign as they pretend to be.

Is it about minaretes? Is it about a notorious son named Hannibal? That’s what the newspapers say…and we all know what newspapers are for.

Bin Laden and other rich old guys who don’t believe in blowing themselves up (hence why they are old) might have experienced a bit of a a strain lately with oil devaluing and financial institutions taking a beating. Nigeria (another place with oil) had its recent AQ related terrorist scare and Afghanistan’s insurgency is run by “ten dollar Taliban”, poor boys who are fighting to earn enough money to pay a dowry or pay off debts so yeah, maybe there’s a correlation.

Anyhow, here’s one bunch of rich guys who don’t mind sending young men to their deaths and to kill people discussing how to stop other rich guys from sending young men to their deaths and to kill people.

This is the next best thing to catching the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar himself and alive too!

Pakistan’s oft (and perhaps rightly)maligned ISI in collaboration with America’s Central Intelligence Agency caught the Taliban leader thousands of miles away from what is now the front-lines of Operation Moshtarak, proving that the Taliban are not only Pakistan based but able to freely carry out operations across both countries.

With the deaths of Baitullah Mehsud in August 2009 and Hakimullah Mehsud in January 2010, the capture of Abdul Ghani Baradar marks another -and perhaps the largest- setback for the Afghan insurgency.

With this combined show of NATO, Afghan and Pakistani strength in Afghanistan and Waziristan and the combined cunning in Pakistan’s Sindh, the ideological fence sitting Pashtun tribesmen on both sides of the border will be much more amenable to the offers of peace that the West now holds out.

While the core Taliban will undoubtedly hold out to the end, outfits like Al Qaeda are finding their support dwindle still further.

The main source is the New York Times but this has filtered through various agency and news channels.

My own personal favorite:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/taliban-second-commander-captured