CIA bomber shown on TV with Hakimullah Mehsud
[Dawn] A Pakistan television station showed on Saturday what it said was the suicide bomber double agent who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan sitting with the Pakistani Taliban leader, and reported he shared US and Jordanian state secrets with militants.
The Pak Taliban are operated by al-Qaeda. I'm not sure whether they're a wholly owned subsidiary, like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but I suspect they are.
Private television station AAJ showed a video of the bomber, speaking in English but hardly audible, with Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud beside him. 'Jordanian and American intelligence had offered him millions of dollars in exchange for spying on the mujahideen (holy warriors). But he rejected wealth and joined the mujahideen,' said AAJ of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian.
The channel quoted him by his online persona Abu Dujana al-Khorasani as saying that he 'shared all secrets of Jordanian and American intelligence with his fellow (militants)'.
If the video is authentic, it points to huge intelligence failures for the United States and its key Middle East ally Jordan.
Pakistan would also feel the heat. It is struggling against Mehsud's growing insurgency while facing relentless US pressure to eliminate militant groups that cross its borders to fight in Afghanistan.
Official sources said that he came to Pakistan with a fake name and later he traveled to tribal areas with his local Taliban guide from where he reportedly entered Afghanistan's Paktia province.
Posted by: Fred 2010-01-10 |