"ABDUL RAHMAN TO BE RELEASED" -- if they can't get him killed first? (Scroll for updates)

Michelle Malkin has the best summary I've seen of the latest development in this case, on which I commented previously.

So, the judge is saying that there's "insufficient evidence" to convict him of conversion? Sounds like a very poor waffle-job, to ease international pressure. But it gets a bit worse. "Earlier Sunday he was moved to a notorious maximum-security prison outside Kabul that is also home to hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaida militants." Okay, now, correct me if I'm wrong -- but doesn't that mean he's been put in the middle of criminals compared to whom his would-be executioners are "moderates"?

So they can't convict him, but they don't release him. Instead, they put Rahman in with hardcores who think that the men who were going to behead him are lightweights.

It sure sounds to me as if the government is hoping that the prisoners will kill Rahman for them, and solve their little problem. Leave him in the yard with the others, guards turn their backs for five minutes then pick up the body, government expresses regret, US money and aid continue to pour in. Am I getting any part of this wrong?

Either way, there's no reform visibly going on.

Not upping my optimism-quotient.

Then note this sad observation: "...Rahman had also been begging his guards to provide him with a Bible."

Surely the media, who were all over the (false) story of American Koran-abuse, will be all over this denial.

Right.

"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body" (Hebrews 13:3).

Do join me in praying that my fears are proven dead-wrong. Pray with me that this man's faith holds strong, that God's hand of blessing be on him and his testimony, that those about him be turned to Christ through it, and that he be released soon. God grant that we see His glory in this situation.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn clears his throat more eloquently than I write, and he has written on this (h-t Michelle, linked above).

UPDATE II: And now he's out, and he's vanished. I hope he's protected, and being hustled out of the country. Which brings us to another not-a-proud-moment-to-be-an-American:

Asked whether the U.S. government was doing anything to secure Rahman's safety after his release, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that where he goes after being freed is "up to Mr. Rahman."

I can only hope this wimpy, waffly, spineless talking masks a whole lot of doing that we'll find out about later.

Meanwhile, Italy (whom we Americans have often mocked) offered him asylum. Did we do even that much? I haven't read so.