Senator Lindsey Graham wants permanent bases in Afghanistan:

I hope we can find an enduring relationship with Afghanistan that will make sure that country never goes back in the hands of terrorists. And the idea of putting permanent military bases on the table in 2011, I think would secure our national interest and tell the bad guys and the good guys we're not leaving, we're staying, in a responsible way if the Afghan people want us to stay.

Afghanistan never was "in the hands of terrorists". The Taliban may have had guests that turned out to be "terrorists" but the Taliban movement itself never fought outside of its country.

But that is not the main point – it just shows that Graham does not understand what he is talking about.

The Taliban have claimed all along that the U.S. is occupying Afghanistan to have permanent bases there and to steal its riches. It was one of there main propaganda point, though, up to now, not provable.

Accordingly their response to Graham is somewhat triumphant (though badly translated):

His remarks definitely lifts the curtain from the colonialist motives of America which the Islamic Emirate has been trying in the past decade to draw to them, attention of the people of the world. In fact, the invading America wants to establish her dominance over the region and the world under the so-called war on terror. Thus, they are trying to deprive the masses from their inalienable rights.

Graham has just arranged for a new successful nationalistic recruitment drive by the Taliban and for further support to them from Pakistan. Permanent U.S. bases just across the boarder is not what any of Afghanistan's big neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, want. As the Pakistani Chief of Staff Kayani explained the relation with the U.S.:

The two countries' "frames of reference" regarding regional security "can never be the same," he said, according to news accounts. Calling Pakistan America's "most bullied ally," Kayani said that the "real aim of U.S. strategy is to de-nuclearize Pakistan."

The most interesting points in the response of the Islamic Emirate to Graham's statements are their explanation of U.S. motives, an offer to China to sell natural resources and a bow to and request for support from neighboring countries:

Cont. reading: Senator Graham Confirms Taliban Propaganda

ISLAMABAD: Gunmen killed the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, in Islamabad on Tuesday, his spokesman said.
…
Interior Minister Rahman Malik told reporters that the suspect in the case had surrendered to police and told them he killed Taseer because “the governor described the blasphemy laws as a black law.”
Governor Punjab Salman Taseer killed in gun attack – Dawn

Blasphemy is the defamation of the name of God or the gods, and by extension any display of gross irreverence towards any person or thing deemed worthy of exalted esteem.
Blasphemy

There will now be an uproar about those Islamist Pakistani and the idolizers who hold free speech in exalted esteem will now declare how abhorrent, even blasphemic, it is that countries can have a law against blasphemy at all. Especially if those countries have mostly Muslim populations.

Well, many countries have such laws. Wikipedia currently lists some forty and I am sure there are many unlisted ones. Let's take a look at a few not so Islamist ones:

Austria: In Austria, Articles 188, 189 of the penal code relate to blasphemy.
Brazil: Art. 208 of the penal code states that "publicly villifying an act or object of religious worship" is a crime punishable with 1 month to a year of incarceration, or fine.
Greece: Article 199 "Blasphemy Concerning Religions" states: One who publicly and maliciously and by any means blasphemes the Greek Orthodox Church or any other religion tolerable in Greece shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years
Israel: In Israel, blasphemy is covered by Articles 170 and 173 of the penal code
United Kingdom: Blasphemy laws in the United Kingdom were specific to blasphemy against Christianity. … The last successful blasphemy prosecution (also a private prosecution) was Whitehouse v. Lemon in 1977, when Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News, was found guilty.

Blasphemy laws are dangerous if they are not neutral towards all acknowledged believes or when they can be easily abused to accuse anyone out of revenge or other personal motives.

But blasphemy laws make sense. Religion believe is often deeply held and blasphemy laws can prevent provoked strife and heart felt outrage. 

That is not to justify the murder of Salman Taeseer.  Just to think a bit about the lunatic religion of free speech absolutism and the blasphemy, inherent in the mere existance of any blasphemy law, against the  deeply felt believe and exalted esteem for the free speech religion.

The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate which stated that Iran does not have a military nuclear program has, to my best knowledge, never been publicly confirmed by the Obama administration. But two released diplomatic cables indicate that the NIE's conclusions are still considered to be correct.

In November 2007 a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluded (pdf):

• We assess with high confidence that until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons.
• We judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years. (Because of intelligence gaps discussed elsewhere in this Estimate, however, DOE and the NIC assess with only moderate confidence that the halt to those activities represents a halt to Iran's entire nuclear weapons program.)
• We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.

In an embassy cables released by WikiLeaks the Obama administration confirms the NIE conclusion and states that Iran does not have any active military nuclear program. In another cable the Turkish Defense Minister states, undisputed by Secretary of Defense Gates, that there is no evidence at all for any Iranian military nuclear program.

A November 2009 cable with official talking points on U.S. missile defense policy states:

We continue to assess that Iran, at a minimum, is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran could choose at any time to restart its nuclear weapons program and, eventually, arm its missiles with nuclear warheads.

A February 2010 cable reports on a meeting between Secretary of Defense Gates and the Turkish Defense Minister Gonul:

Turning to Iran, Gonul cited the enrichment program and acknowledged that Ankara is "concerned about the Iranian threat," but said that the international community does not yet have evidence that there is a weapons program.

There are 3,090,000 results for the search term "growing threat". There are 219 results for the search term "shrinking threat".

Why do threats always grow?

Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

America made an irreversible mistake in their choice of friends, ignoring their history with Afghanistan. The Afghan allies they chose were often warlords who had returned to Afghanistan in the wake of battle, using America and damaging the very foundations of the new Afghanistan they planned to create. Another strategic mistake was to allow Great Britain to return to the south, or Afghanistan in general.

Cont. reading: Reading Zaeef: Epilogue – Afghanistan Today

A few links and an open thread:

• Democracy's failures, 2010 – Guardian
• Why the Rich Are Getting Richer – Foreign Affairs
• End human rights imperialism now – Guardian
• How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010 – CBSnews
• STOP OPERATION CAST LEAD 2 — A New Year’s Message for 2011 – Richard Falk
• 2001. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,
  2011 seen as make-or-break year for Afghan mission – LA Times

Found this on the Boston Globe's Big Picture Afghanistan series. The caption to it says:

Taliban fighters man a checkpoint in an undisclosed location in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Dec. 13, 2010. A Taliban commander on the ground said that they were checking the traffic looking for people working for the Afghan government, for non-governmental organizations or who work at the US military bases.

Noticed the machine gun? It is a M 240 widely used by the U.S. military. Funny how that interesting little fact didn't make it into the caption …

Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

Afghanistan’s political situation is tied to the international scene, a political game in which the most disparate nations are tied together in one dishonest chain. Things are so confused you cannot tell back from front. Why don’t these people get themselves out of Afghanistan? It is all temporary anyway. Maybe they will leave sooner; maybe they will stay a bit longer. But one thing is clear: Afghanistan has the right to resist invasion. We have the right to save our honour. We have the right to take revenge on those who have spilled our blood.
…

Cont. reading: Reading Zaeef: 21. No War To Win

Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

I was astonished to read the terms listed on this piece of paper. The group of soldiers and some senior officials were recording everything with their video camera as I listened to the translator. They handed me the paper to sign it, but I threw it back at them in anger.

“I am innocent, and not a criminal,” I said. “I never have, nor will I, accept any kind of accusations. And never will I excuse or thank the Americans for releasing me. If I have committed any crime, which tribunal or court has proved me a criminal!?

Cont. reading: Reading Zaeef: 20. Getting Out

Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

Mullah Fazal was punished for forty-one days because he did not answer the questions during an interrogation. During the nights he remained chained up in the interrogation room with the air-conditioning unit on full blast. The soldiers made sure to keep him awake. During the day they forced him to walk around so he wouldn’t fall asleep. Visitors were always brought to Camp Four, and never saw the real Guantánamo, just a few metres away.

Cont. reading: Reading Zaeef: 19. Graveyard of the Living