Some stories folks might find interesting which probably won’t make the national news media (their too busy dealing with a Mormon Presidential candidate discussing religion in America to focus on our ongoing war efforts).

First up we are getting great news from Pakistan on the efforts to purge that country of the Ilsamo Fascist waging their last attempt at Jihad, including the taking of the compound of one of the key leaders of the Jihad:

Troops in north-west Pakistan have retaken two Swat valley towns that were strongholds of pro-Taleban cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
They have also captured the village of Imam Dehri, which was used by Maulana Fazlullah to broadcast radio messages in support of the militants.

The army says the two recaptured towns are Matta and Khawazakhela.

They say dozens of captives of the militants have been freed from a makeshift prison.

…

The Pakistani military says nearly 250 pro-Taleban fighters have been killed since an offensive in the Swat valley was launched two weeks ago.

I expect our special forces ‘trainers’ are all over that compound gathering intel on the location and strengths of other leaders and their fighters. We can only hope information leading to Bin Laden and Zawahiri and Mullah Omar will be discovered. Much more here on the fighting in Swat.

In an example of what the SWIFT program can do to track down terrorist (the same classified anti-terrorist program the liberal media exposed in an attempt to influence our Presidential elections) we have this report out on 7 individuals identified as supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq from Syria. Nice job in finding the bad guys!

It seems one of those poor souls stuck in GITMO trying to get his AMERICAN constitutional rights is the man who helped Bin Laden escape our efforts to bring him to justice right after 9-11.

And it seems Sunnis and Shiia battled in out in Baghdad today – on the soccer field:

To U.S. officers, a Sunni vs. Shiite soccer match in one of Baghdad’s most divided areas seemed more like a huge risk than a way to promote reconciliation.
“To be honest, it sounded like a ridiculous event,” says Army Capt. Rob Gillespie, 29, of Great River, N.Y., who commands U.S. forces at Combat Outpost Casino in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah.

Local Iraqis wouldn’t be swayed. “They were going to do it whether we helped or not,” says Lt. Col. Kevin Petit, who commands the U.S. battalion in Ghazaliyah. Iraqi and U.S. troops from Casino agreed to provide security and braced for violence.

The match was played Nov. 23 on a field straddling the divide between the Sunni and Shiite sides of Ghazaliyah, a 400,000-resident section of Baghdad where firefights between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents have left much of the area in rubble. One team was from the area’s Sunni southern portion; the other from the Shiite north.

The Shiites won, 2-0. A crowd of 1,500 dispersed without a fight. Referees weren’t attacked. There were no recriminations. “It seemed counterintuitive,” Gillespie says.

But this is not the only good news. The truly stunning news is how far the levels of violence have dropped in this area:

In Ghazaliyah, attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces have fallen to an average of one a day, from 25 per day in June and July, the U.S. military says. Only one roadside bomb has been found in the neighborhood during the past three months.

Shiites and Sunnis are starting to cross the line that divides their sections of Ghazaliyah. All this in a neighborhood where, less than a year ago, U.S. troops routinely would find 15 bodies a day, victims of sectarian assassinations.

I’ll do some math for those on the left and the SurrenderMedia who cannot grasp what these numbers mean. The drop from 25 attacks to only 1 a day is a 96% reduction! Amazing.