Afghanistan: Voter intimidation, Taliban-style

This video report is worth checking out, courtesy of Mandy Clark at CBS News. (My attempts to embed the video failed, so please click to see what I’m talking about.) Pretty intense stuff from the province of Nuristan: one American and 10 insurgents killed. But besides the bang-bang, there’s an interesting moment about 88 voter registration cards that were found on the body of one of the insurgents. The national elections are coming up next month, and the Taliban aren’t too wild about it. So they’re forcing villagers to give up their voting cards. Says Capt. Michael Harrison from the ever depolying 10th Mountain Division: “The Taliban has made a concerted effort in the last month, specifically targeting the voting, the voting sites…They are trying to marginalize the government, trying to ensure that they can’t participate in the election.”