|
While Pak Burns Perv Releases Top Talib Murders Into The Wind
President Pervez Musharraf's newly declared state of emergency, his government has just let more than two dozen militant Islamists out of jail. Protesters might be even angrier if Musharraf disclosed the names of some of those freed militants. Taliban sources tell NEWSWEAK that the top man on the list was Mullah Obaidullah Akhund—the highest-ranking Taliban official ever captured by the Pakistanis. As one of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's closest confidants and his defense minister until the post 9-11 invasion of Afghanistan, Obaidullah was No. 3 in the group's hierarchy and a member of its ruling 10-man shura (council).His arrest on Feb. 26 seems to have been anything but a coincidence. That was the very day that Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Islamabad on an unannounced visit to demand a crackdown on Taliban operations in Pakistan. Washington was out of patience with Taliban commanders not only roaming free in Pakistan's tribal lands but even being allowed to hide in plain sight in cities like Quetta--the provincial capital near the Afghan border where Obaidullah was captured, along with the Taliban's senior Zabul province commander, Amir Khan Haqqani and another Mullah Omar confidant, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani. Obaidullah, Haqqani, Osmani and others might still be in jail if not for a Pakistani military convoy that encountered a rockslide on a highway in South Waziristan in late August. The vehicles were quickly surrounded by fighters loyal to the notorious Pakistani tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, a veteran Taliban supporter who operates training camps for suicide bombers in his territory. More than 250 government troops were in the convoy, and they all surrendered without a shot being fired. Mehsud later beheaded several of his captives before Musharraf agreed to a prisoner swap. Jumpin' Jimminy Crickical! it all sounds soo Coincedinkyical! like it 'twer prearrainged or sumthin? more Perv and ISI funnies at the linky Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-11-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=206661 |