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Taliban Second-In-Command Captured in Pakistan
Detention of Abdul Ghani Baradar most significant breakthrough in US-led hunt for Taliban leaders in many years
Mullah Barader, the Taliban's powerful second in command, has been captured in the Pakistani city of Karachi, senior US officials have confirmed.
The arrest of the Baradar, the Taliban's number two commander, is likely to have a significant influence on the insurgency in Afghanistan. (Photograph: AFP/Getty Images) The
detention of Abdul Ghani Barader is the most significant breakthrough
in many years of the US-led hunt for the Taliban's leaders, and comes
as Nato forces continue to advance into Taliban-held areas in the
southern Afghan province of Helmand.
Barader was seized in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and US intelligence forces, according to US government officials quoted in the New York Times. Mullah Barader has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with US and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials. Though Barack Obama has banned US agencies from using forms of torture such as waterboarding, Pakistani questioning techniques are frequently brutal.
US officials later confirmed the report of Baradar's capture to the Associated Press news agency.
Barader is believed to have been born in the central Afghan province of Oruzgan. He is the most trusted lieutenant of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme leader of the Taliban, and has been ultimately responsible for the execution of the insurgents' military and political strategy since being appointed to the position in 2002. He is, in effect, chairman of the so-called Quetta Shura – the leadership council of the Taliban, named after the south-western Pakistani city near or in which it is thought to be based – and is known to be close to Osama bin Laden.
That his capture appears to have occurred in Karachi underlines the degree to which senior Afghan militants have used Pakistan as a secure base for their operations, but may also signal a very significant change in attitude on the part of the Pakistani army towards the hardline Afghan Islamist militant movement.
The Pakistani security establishment's ambivalent attitude towards the Taliban has been repeatedly cited as a major cause of the problems that have beset the western intervention in Afghanistan since then fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001.
Barader, reported to be aged between 41 and 48, may have been forced to flee more secure hiding places alongside the Afghan-Pakistani frontier by the repeated and increasingly effective strikes by unmanned drones. Karachi, a metropolis of 14 million people, was where key 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al'Shibh was seized in September 2002.
The New York Times said it had learned of Baradar's capture on Thursday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who told the newspaper making it public would end a hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort. According to the New York Times, officials said the group's leaders had been unaware of Baradar's capture, and if it became public they might become more careful about communicating with each other.
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23 Comments so far
Show AllIs Oceania winning?
I sincerely hope he doesn't have any kids that they can torture.
When I saw the headline Taliban's Number 2 Man I thought they had captured Dick Chaney! Oh well, wishful thinking.
Hey, that's great! Only 376,492 leaders to go!
q
PS I made that number up. No one in the Wesr has any idea of the actual size of the Taliban.
I think is was at Politics Daily at AOL where a article on the Assault of Marja depicted how members of the Taliban can fade so easily in and out of the city's population (as Warriors have been practicing in that region for something like 2,500 years!)...a very eerie sensation came over me in imagining what the US Troops are facing as it appears the legend of the Graveyard of Empires will grow...unless, hopefully, the MIC pulls bin Laden out of a closet somewhere, and declares victory sometime between now and summer of 2011; this will probable have to be accompanied by a new pipeline management agreement with the Taliban, which is also hopefully in the works, leading to the end of at least this latest episode of how humanity can ruin a good thing.
It has been estimated that there are 200 Taliban in Marjah. It's gonna be a tough fight for the 15,000 NATO and US troops.
The Asia Times has a better article.
www.atimes.com
'Pakistan delivers a Taliban treat'
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Taliban automatically lose their status when captured. Baradar might have some useful info, but he can't be used to negotiate with other Taliban (from Asia Times article, unmentioned in this article).
So, actually, Baradar is the former second in command.
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And, as always, note: 'Karachi...where key 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al'Shibh...'
It's all about hunting the terrorists who supported the 9/11 attackers, per Public Law 107-40.
In order to prevent future terrorism.
And that's DAFT.
The most interesting part of this is in the headline.
Here we go again, supposedly capturing the #2 guy. Theoretically, (if actually capturing anyone at all), the Western invader forces can keep capturing #2s until only one Taliban is left, according to my math.
And the other notable part of the headline is "in Pakistan", you know, the country where we aren't supposed to be, even more than we aren't supposed to be in Iraq and Afghanistan. If nothing else this unverifiable claim of capture may, as the article notes, help strengthen the faux justification for all the incursions into that country.
"help strengthen the faux justification" -- and it unfortunately works to near perfection, especially when harmonized by the MIC wheeling Cheney out during the assault on the population of Marja...eliciting the desired response of Ode To War, Oh Joyous War! -- issued this time via VP Biden. If not for the inhumane atrocities and catastrophic lost opportunity costs, one might admire the seamless timing of this US Symphony of War.
Another press release from the military PR office.
I will believe this story when there is real proof.
The military record of telling the truth is almost non-existent. Their assessments are consistent only in that they are usually misleading.
For the taliban, this (if true) could be wonderful news. Someone will be getting a "promotion" because Barader's position will be more elevated in his "honor".
Proving the capture of the man is easy (how long will we have to wait for real proof?), but proving he is/was what our imperialist military claims is another matter.
This is just a way to try to further justify unnecessary aggression.
My feelings exactly Birdbrain Alley. This is the same as during Vietnam. The government says anything - they make it up as they go along. Then the press reports it.
Joe
-" according to US government officials quoted in the New York Times. ...."
-"The New York Times said it had learned of Baradar's capture on Thursday but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials"
Glad to see the NYT is ending its reliance on US government sources and is no longer sitting on stories at the request of the US president....oooops, I read the story wrong, never mind!!
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
WOWSERS! Uh, except that the Taliban is, among other things, a cult of martyrdom and 10,000 martyr wannabes will line up to take his place. But, gee, I guess the U.S. can afford to drop $Trillions upon $Trillions of dollars on a never-ending terrorist hunt for decades to come while it ignores its own (and Israel's) root policy causes of terrorism.
I thought they were after Bin Laden. WTF.
No, remember the Sheriff decided not to bring him in dead or alive and said he doesn't think of him anymore. Also Obomba doesn't mention him, so I guess we need to change his name to Osama Bin Forgotten!
Do we have any good reasons to believe this piece of news?
Who are these alleged government officials quoted in the New York Times?
Is there any publicly verifiable evidence the man has been captured (for example, a photograph showing him in captivity)?
A People To People Proposal For Attaining Peace On Earth And Goodwill To All Living Beings
Whereas, President Obama and Congress have proven themselves incapable of giving peace a chance,
and Whereas, given the Internet, there's never been a more opportune time for people to people interaction,
It is hereby proposed that there be an online people to people gathering of peacemakers here in America and Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in South-Central Asia, the terms of which could be (1) that in exchange for an immediate truce and end to the bloodshed, the U.S. and its NATO allies withdraw all their troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and (2) that instead of the U.S. government's unconditional support for the settler-state Israel, that it demand justice for the Palestinian people. It is anticipated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership will agree to such a proposal, whereupon, the pressure will be on the Obama administration to at least consider it. By that time the peace movement will have reconstituted itself enough so as to force the President's hand, thereby giving peace a real chance.
To increase the probability that this proposal reaches its intended audience, readers are urged to circulated the proposal online as far and wide as possible.
How many "second-in-commands" have we captured now?
Someone please refresh my memory. Who the hell did kill Benazir Bhutto?
ISO, Taliban, any number of parties in the hard-line Islamic Coalition in Pakistan, her husband or any rival PPP member- take your choice. Grab a few suspects, beat the hell out of them, somebody's bound to "spill beans".
The strategy is quite simple, not even a page out of Mao's little red book: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass, the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue." And this lesson has been undoubtedly sufficiently inculcated in the minds of various regional and dispersed, small unit commanders who are actually running the resistance that the death or capture of any particular "top commander" makes no difference whatsoever. As far as negotiations go, there are always temporary tactical and even long term strategic advantages to be gained by making the enemy think that there might be an easy way out of the trap he has dug for himself.
When will our "representatives" and their "lap-dogs" in the media cut the B.S. and move on with the long awaited project of ending this futile counter-insurgency war?
"Though Barack Obama has banned US agencies from using forms of torture such as waterboarding, Pakistani questioning techniques are frequently brutal."
That's a very big problem, seeing as they're interrogating people together.