You've got mail! And a drone strike!

November 16, 2012 1:54 PM

Taliban accidentally CCs everyone on its mailing list.
posted by unSane (62 comments total)

Is it really that big a deal, though, if it is in fact a "PR" message and the recipients were, well, recipients of their PR? "400 journalists..." etc.
posted by cavalier at 1:57 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Is it bad that I am laughing really unbearably hard at this? I mean I guess some people will probably be in some sort of danger due to this but oh my god email incompetence is so hilarious to me. IT IS 2012 PEOPLE. COME ON.
posted by elizardbits at 1:57 PM on November 16, 2012 [10 favorites]

Someone's getting Talibanhammered.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:57 PM on November 16, 2012 [20 favorites]

It's so strange to be living in a world co-written by William Gibson and The Onion.
posted by dubold at 1:58 PM on November 16, 2012 [151 favorites]

I just checked the kitchen, no bananas! WTF!
posted by borkencode at 1:59 PM on November 16, 2012 [42 favorites]

Slow news day? It's not like this list is of any strategic importance whatsoever.
posted by mullingitover at 1:59 PM on November 16, 2012

I just have this vision of the guy's wife barging into his little cave hide-out or whatever with her iPad in her hand and asking, "So who the hell is SexyJihadistette117, hm???" And then all his other al-Qaeda buddies in the room look around at one another awkwardly, and they're like, "Uh, yeah, maybe we should bounce so you two can talk this out..."
posted by scaryblackdeath at 2:00 PM on November 16, 2012 [17 favorites]

I am surprised that I did not get a copy in my Gmail spam.
posted by Cranberry at 2:00 PM on November 16, 2012

On the CC? That's a no-flyin'
posted by zippy at 2:09 PM on November 16, 2012

Awesome!
posted by OmieWise at 2:11 PM on November 16, 2012

[MeFi Mail] IRL: New Event Near You
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:15 PM on November 16, 2012 [6 favorites]

The #talibansubjectlines is actually pretty funny on Twitter.

Man, I never thought I'd find a good use for that site. Now I want to jump in.
posted by Malice at 2:15 PM on November 16, 2012

reply-all: PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE ME FROM THIS MAILING LIST!!!!!!
posted by casarkos at 2:15 PM on November 16, 2012 [22 favorites]

faux pax

And this! This!
posted by scratch at 2:17 PM on November 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Fwd: Free bananas in the secret sanctuary in Pakistan.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:19 PM on November 16, 2012 [6 favorites]

The Taliban! They're just like us!
posted by orange swan at 2:19 PM on November 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

AOL had an 'unsend' button? How the what now?
posted by item at 2:20 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

It couldn't happen to a nicer group.
posted by bearwife at 2:23 PM on November 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Taliban! They're just like us spammers!

Wait...
posted by Mblue at 2:23 PM on November 16, 2012

I am surprised that I did not get a copy in my Gmail spam.


I was kind of disappointed actually. I mean, according to Mitt Romney I'm already an enemy of real America. How much more do I have to do to at least get some group that I don't like to actually like me?!?!?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:30 PM on November 16, 2012

I'm going to be even more disappointed if a certain Tampa socialite or her sister aren't on their list too.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:31 PM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

What a ridiculously stupid move on the part of the Taliban. Don't they realize how much spam they're exposing themselves to by revealing their email addresses publically like that? It'll be tough to coordinate their attacks against the West when they're constantly having to wade through inboxes full of those "Enlarge Your Penis With Natural Male Enhancement!" ads.
posted by wolfdreams01 at 2:32 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

AOL had an 'unsend' button? How the what now?

I vaguely remember this. I think it only worked with mail sent to other AOL users that they hadn't yet seen/read.
posted by axiom at 2:32 PM on November 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Oh, I've done this. It SUUUCKS. They must be really embarrassed.
posted by Greg Nog at 2:33 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is worse than the time their social media guy thought he was using his personal Twitter account and accidentally Tweeted something that wasn't incredibly antisemitic.
posted by PlusDistance at 2:33 PM on November 16, 2012 [20 favorites]

I was just picturing dude hunkered down in his cave getting razzed by his Taliban friends. When a buddy of mine did something similar, there was a Facebook group set up for everyone on the list to join, t-shirts made, etc. and I'm imagining what a "I'm on the Taliban's mailing list!" shirt would be like.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 2:33 PM on November 16, 2012

I'm imagining what a "I'm on the Taliban's mailing list!" shirt would be like.

*runs off to Cafe Press*
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 2:37 PM on November 16, 2012 [8 favorites]

It's been said before, and bears repeating: terrorism should be regulated to guarantee some minimum level of competence.
posted by jquinby at 2:38 PM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

I was just picturing dude hunkered down in his cave getting razzed by his Taliban friends.

In this case 'razzed' is synonymous with 'tortured and killed'.
posted by Malice at 2:43 PM on November 16, 2012

mr_crash_davis: "Someone's getting Talibanhammered."

Mine was "Someone's getting beheaded!" But I like yours hella better!
posted by symbioid at 2:44 PM on November 16, 2012

I was just picturing dude hunkered down in his cave getting razzed by his Taliban friends.

Somehow I thinking "getting razzed by your Taliban friends" is not like getting razzed by your buddies in North America. The Taliban version probably involves your Taliban buds playing buzkashi with your severed head.
posted by orange swan at 2:46 PM on November 16, 2012

The only real problem is when they start getting funding for illicit activities from dead Nigerian businessmen whose poor distraught widows can't get access to their fortunes.
posted by Samizdata at 2:51 PM on November 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

Somehow I thinking "getting razzed by your Taliban friends" is not like getting razzed by your buddies in North America.

Someone hands you a sat phone and gets you to go stand on a hill.
posted by Artw at 2:51 PM on November 16, 2012 [8 favorites]

mashup needed with that bridgestone commercial about reply all? youtube-link-to-a-commercial.
posted by th3ph17 at 2:53 PM on November 16, 2012

"But commander, the note was missing a 'z'... No, it did NOT say 'razzed'. It said 'razed' so we..."
posted by symbioid at 2:54 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

This likely took a lot of carbon paper. I'm surprised nobody noticed.
They could find out who did it by looking at his fingers.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:59 PM on November 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

This email message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee named above and may contain information that is proprietary and confidential. If you received this email message in error, please immediately notify the sender by replying to this email message or by telephone. Thank you. Death to America.
posted by 4ster at 3:00 PM on November 16, 2012 [44 favorites]

stolen from twitter:
Single Christians in Your Area Are Looking For You #talibansubjectlines
posted by jacalata at 3:21 PM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Talispam
posted by Elmore at 3:58 PM on November 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Heh, I just saw this and almost reported on it for work (had to give it up to the investigative team for confirmation). I was really hoping it was some huge thing, like "Okay secret minions, here is the next terrorism target." But it's the usual propaganda, mostly being sent to press and sympathetic types. Still funny as hell.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:18 PM on November 16, 2012

So are you coming over to the hovel tonight? Jazir says you won't but he's a big douche. We got some killer pirated VCR movies and some wicked camel shit that you have to try. Oh fuck did I just hit SEND///1
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:25 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, wow. Just decided to google my old email address. Only found an old bug report for KDE/Konqueror under Mandrake back from 2000. I am SUCH an old (in internet years) dork.
posted by Samizdata at 4:28 PM on November 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Taliban version probably involves your Taliban buds playing buzkashi with your severed head.

Son, you have a great future ahead of you in this game. Unfortunately, it's as the ball.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:45 PM on November 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

FW: fw: Fw: FWD: Pass this on to all your friends - How not to dispose of a beached whale using IEDs - MUST SEE!
posted by azpenguin at 4:52 PM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

"Taliban have included all 4 of my email addresses on the leaked distribution list," tweeted journalist Mustafa Kazemi, a prolific Kabul-based tweeter with more than 9,500 followers. "Quite reassuring to my safety."

If your safety relies on the Taliban keeping your email addresses confidential, I wouldn't worry too much about that pension plan.
posted by brokkr at 4:56 PM on November 16, 2012

.¸¸.•´¯`♥ "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the foreign devils who's blood you didn't spill than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explode. Dream. Destroy. -- Malik Twain ♥.¸¸.•´¯`
posted by orme at 5:28 PM on November 16, 2012 [10 favorites]

Look, I know we all got a laugh out of that AuthenticGibson twitter dude, but we can't keep making his quips into FPP's.
posted by eurypteris at 5:48 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Taliban Rep Literally LOLs at Petraeus Sex Scandal
posted by homunculus at 5:54 PM on November 16, 2012

FWD: >> Fwd:> Fwd:> Re: FWD:>> FWD:>> FWD:>> Fwd:> Forward this 1000 times and get a FREE SUICIDE VEST from Al-Qaeda!!!!!!!
posted by codswallop at 5:54 PM on November 16, 2012

It happens. Remember that IRA buttocks fax?
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:24 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd love to see the ads that AdSense pops up in his Gmail account.
posted by arcticseal at 7:22 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Angry Beards... Angry Dimbulb Beards
posted by y2karl at 7:23 PM on November 16, 2012

Someone totally Badriyah'd it.
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:08 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

does that gawker article have the worst mixed metaphor ever?
But the potential ice breaker soon melted
posted by jacalata at 8:41 PM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

RE: unsend. Message recall is a feature of pretty well every intranet mail package I've every used all the way back to PROFs and whatever the heck the mail package that came (or my employer purchased) for Banyan VINES. And many internet mail packages support it in some way though of course without a central server to enforce the recall it doesn't work all that well and generally only if the recipient has the same software as the sender..
posted by Mitheral at 9:01 PM on November 16, 2012

Doesn't Outlook still have an unsend function? I know it did as of around Outlook XP.
posted by Bugbread at 11:58 PM on November 16, 2012

Taliban Rep Literally LOLs at Petraeus Sex Scandal

Interesting to see that Taliban guy actually taking into account local Pasthun as well as Sharia law in describing how Petraeus should be punished -- the long slide into liberalism begins here.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:39 AM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

faux pax

And this! This!

There is a very funny pun in this somewhere.
posted by molecicco at 3:09 AM on November 17, 2012

Heh. Afghanispam.
posted by MuffinMan at 3:26 AM on November 17, 2012

y2karl: "Angry Beards... Angry Dimbulb Beards"

Why does this give me a horrible vision of a very non-politically correct game?
posted by symbioid at 6:44 AM on November 17, 2012

faux pax

And this! This!

There is a very funny pun in this somewhere.

Faux Pax Afghanistana ?
posted by y2karl at 11:40 AM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

By my reckoning, the most amusing #talibansubjectlines:

Please remove me from this jihad

For only $20 a month, you can keep a young Afghan girl from getting an education

posted by brainwane at 6:52 AM on November 23, 2012