# Hacking Taleban? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347 "2001-09-13T14:27:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/1 "2001-09-13T14:27:40Z")
[Here?](http://www.taleban.com) I understand the message but not the website on which it appears. In fact I didn’t know they had a website. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/2 "2001-09-13T14:37:47Z")
Well, if they did they might spell “Taliban” right. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/3 "2001-09-13T14:37:47Z")
No. The Taliban site was [here](http://www.afghan-ie.com). ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/4 "2001-09-13T14:41:18Z")
Oh dear. Another US/UK spelling situation. Our press goes for _Taleban_. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/5 "2001-09-13T14:50:15Z")
Nobody ever said you folks could spell. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NotMrKnowItAll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6bbea6/32.png) [@NotMrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotMrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/6 "2001-09-13T14:53:55Z")
I find myself wondering about the validity of that site for the following reasons: [ul] [li].com domain? Shouldn’t it be .org?[/li][li]Taliban is the correct spelling, right?[/li][li](From a Whois check), The domain [taleban.com](http://taleban.com) is registered to the “Afghan Taleban Mission to the U.N,” should that not be the “Afghanistan Taliban Mission to the U.N.,” and are they even recognized by the U.N. anyway?[/li][li]The administrative contact (whois again) is “Mujahib, Abdul Hackeem” I do not know if that is a real name, but it looks like it is derived from Mujahadeem and Hack-in.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/7 "2001-09-13T15:27:46Z")
“Taleban”/“Taliban” - whichever one it is, it’s going to be a transliteration from Arabic script, and such things often have variants (as witness Libya’s leader, Colonel Ghadaffi, Qadafi, Khadafy or numerous other variants). Such language sites as I’ve been able to track down via Google, though (it’s strange how so many Afghan websites seem to be down at the moment) use “Taliban” fairly consistently. Wouldn’t be the first time the British tabloid press got something wrong… ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacking-taleban/81347/8 "2001-09-13T15:51:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*“Taleban”/“Taliban” - …Wouldn’t be the first time the British tabloid press got something wrong… \*\* My choice of newspaper is _The Times_.