Friday, March 02, 2007

A Very Convenient Capture

According to senior Pakistani officials - and Reuter's sources in the Taliban - Pakistan has arrested the Taliban No. 3, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund. However, there seems to be some confusion, with the head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry's Crisis Management Unit denying the arrest.

If true, then Akhund is the most senior Taliban figure arrested since 2001 - and was arrested within 10 hours of Dick Cheney telling Musharaff that the Dems would pull his aid if he didn't look more proactive in the War on (Some) Terror. Despite that, Pakistani officials say his arrest had nothing to do with Cheney's visit...

Pakistani officials also deny that the Taliban have a safe haven provided by their ISI sponsors in the town of Quetta, where Akhund was arrested. However, Afghanistan arrested a Pakistani intelligence agent a few months ago who confessed to being the Taliban's liason with the agency in Quetta and British intelligence are said to have provided the address and telephone number of Taliban leader Mullah Omar to Pakistan without result.

It's a very convenient coincidental capture for Pakistan, as hearings on the Hill are told that Musharaff is basically gaming the US, and the coincidences of timing and location would certainly seem to bear that testimony out. Observers on both right and left are smelling a rat.

Update ABC's The Blotter reports that another Taliban bigwig has been arrested...at the same hotel as the first one!
Pakistan intelligence sources say a second high-ranking Taliban leader has been taken into custody, as the country appeared to be responding to Vice President Dick Cheney's showdown meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistani officials told ABC News the new arrest also took place in Quetta, where on Monday, the former Taliban defense minister was arrested just hours after Cheney had left the country.

Pakistani officials identified him as Amir Khan Haqqani, a Taliban commander for Zabul province.

"Isn't it amazing how quickly they were able to find these men?" scoffed one intelligence source familiar with the Cheney meeting.
Pakistani officials say both men were arrested at the same Quetta hotel, Gul Pak Hotel, based on information provided by the United States.

...CIA Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes accompanied Vice President Cheney to the meeting with Musharraf and reportedly presented "compelling evidence" of the resurgence of Taliban and al Qaeda training camps inside Pakistan.

U.S. officials say Cheney and Kappes also focused on the presence of known Taliban leaders operating in Pakistani cities.

Pakistani intelligence officials say Kappes provided the whereabouts of three Taliban figures in and around Quetta, but the third person "slipped out" before authorities could arrest him.
The third was quite possibly Mullah Omar himself.

And before the rightwing gets all cocky about "look what Cheney did", remember - Afghan and British intelligence have been saying these people were being kept safe by the ISI in Quetta for a year and more now. Try putting "Pakistan ISI" into the search engine on the Newshog sidebar to see how long I've been writing about exactly that. The CIA and the White House doubtless knew about it too, but only decided to do something when the Dem controlled Congress threatened to put the pressure on. So which is stronger on national security, exactly?

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