Afghanistan-US Pact Means US Presence In Afghanistan For Foreseeable Future

Despite claims that US forces will be leaving Afghanistan by 2014, the fact is that the US will continue to maintain a presence in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future - a decade or longer.

The reasons have as much to do with geography as they do politics.

Afghanistan is vital not only because the US needs to continue to deny al Qaeda a breeding ground in the country that played host to al Qaeda in the runup to the 9/11 attacks, but because it is adjacent to the current breeding grounds for al Qaeda and its affiliated terror groups in Pakistan.

Details of the pact have yet to be released. But over the past year, top generals and Pentagon officials have sketched — in congressional testimony, interviews and forum discussions — an outline of how the U.S. will operate after the accord takes effect, following the departure of most U.S. troops in 2014. U.S. and Afghan troops will live together on joint bases formally operated by the Afghans. The U.S. mission for training Afghan soldiers and police will continue until 2017 or so, although for financial reasons, the size of those Afghan troops under U.S. mentorship will shrink after 2014. Starting immediately, Afghans will have significant if incomplete influence over U.S. commando raids.

But these mentorship missions will not be the most important ones the U.S. executes in Afghanistan after 2014. They’re merely the visible ones. And they’re the cost of getting to the missions the U.S. considers most important.


To be blunt: Afghanistan is valuable to the United States because it’s the most logical place from which to conduct a war in Pakistan that’s primarily fought by armed drones and occasionally special operations forces. It’s not really valuable in and of itself. The U.S. interests in Afghanistan, as defined by the Obama administration, are to keep Afghanistan from internal collapse so al-Qaida doesn’t return. President Hamid Karzai’s government is corrupt? Yawn. Dealing with that is an expensive diversion from the core issue.

The core issue, as the Obama team sees it, is that there’s a residual al-Qaida presence next door, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Because Pakistan won’t let U.S. troops overtly operate on its territory, the U.S. basically needs to rent some nearby property. Afghanistan doesn’t have much to offer the rest of the world — minerals, maybe? — but it has a lot of land abutting Pakistan.

That's right.

It's about maintaining forces close to Pakistani territory. Pakistan, which is nominally a US ally in the war on terror is itself the territory targeted with this deal so that the US can continue to target and eliminate al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists in the frontier provinces that Pakistan's government lacks the ability to contain.

The frontier provinces, including the NWFP and Waziristan, are a hotbed of terrorist activities, and cross-border attacks are all too common. Pakistan maintains nominal control over the territories, which operates autonomously and when Pakistan has sent in military forces to quell the terrorist activities, they've gotten savaged.

In the past three years, the frontier provinces have been increasingly targeted by American UAV airstrikes - hitting high value targets and tracking down links between various terrorists operating there, including the Mehsud clan and Haqqani network.

Those raids, along with the successful raid to eliminate Osama bin Laden, have caused tremendous friction between the US and Pakistani government and the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI). The Administration appears to be accepting the fact that relations with Pakistan will continue to be rocky, but there may be a tacit deal in place to allow the US to use Afghanistan as a staging area for its UAV strikes to go after targets that Pakistan deems inconvenient - the Islamic terror groups like al Qaeda and those other terror groups. Such a deal would give the Pakistani government the maneuvering space to decry UAV airstrikes, but give silent assent to those successful strikes that eliminate threats to Pakistani security as well. After all, the Haqqani network is as much a threat to Pakistan's government as it is to Afghanistan (or the US).

A Vaccination Ruse To Catch Bin Laden; Drone Program Now In Doubt Over Ongoing Rift

You have to give the CIA credit. They were more than willing to try unconventional means to track down Osama bin Laden and to gain intel they believed necessary to confirm whether they got their man.

The CIA apparently ran a vaccination ruse to obtain DNA information. But perhaps more importantly, the fallout from the bin Laden raid continues to affect the security situation in Afghanistan and the frontier provinces in Pakistan. The drone program and military aid programs to Pakistan are in doubt as the Pakistanis continue to seethe over the raid:

The vaccination program was set up as the C.I.A. was struggling to learn whether Bin Laden was hiding in the compound, and adds a new twist to the months of spy games that preceded the nighttime raid in early May that killed the Qaeda chief.

It has also aggravated already strained tensions between the United States and Pakistan. The operation was run by a Pakistan doctor, Shakil Afridi, whom Pakistani spies have since arrested for his suspected collaboration with the Americans. Dr. Afridi remains in Pakistani custody, the American official said.

Getting DNA evidence from the people hiding in the Abbottabad compound would have been a significant coup, because it would have allowed the C.I.A. to match the samples with DNA from other members of the Bin Laden family that are on file at the C.I.A. — providing the first hard evidence in years of his whereabouts.

The American official said that the doctor managed to temporarily gain access to the compound, but that he never saw Bin Laden and was not successful in getting DNA samples from any Bin Laden family members. Obama administration officials have said publicly they were not sure whether Bin Laden was in Abbottabad when dozens of Navy Seals commandos stormed the house in May.

The existence of the vaccination program was first reported by a British newspaper, The Guardian. A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.

It is unclear how the C.I.A. first recruited Dr. Afridi to work for the United States. The Guardian reported that he used a team of nurses and other health workers to administer Hepatitis B vaccinations throughout Abbottabad, even starting the program on poor fringes of the town to maintain a low profile.

Pakistani military and intelligence operatives were furious about the American raid that killed Bin Laden, and relations between the United States and Pakistan have only plummeted since. Pakistani officials have suggested that they might use troops to repel another incursion into Pakistan, and many American officials believe that Pakistan seems more concerned with hunting C.I.A. informants than with finding Qaeda operatives.

American officials said they planned to suspend as much as $800 million worth of military aid to Pakistan — a move partly designed to chasten Islamabad for expelling American military trainers — and several influential American lawmakers have suggested attaching more strings to the billions of dollars sent each year to Pakistan.

Also at stake is the C.I.A.’s armed drone program, which has carried out hundreds of strikes in Pakistan in recent years and has killed several senior operatives from Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has threatened to expel C.I.A. operatives working on the drone program from a base in southern Pakistan, and the C.I.A. has set up contingency plans to run more flights from a base in eastern Afghanistan.

It is interesting that the Pakistanis seem to be more interested in catching those who may have provided intel to the CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden than they are in going after other terrorists hiding in their midst.

Drone airstrikes continue, including one that killed 38 people, and the Pakistanis continue to express their displeasure about those ongoing airstrikes. They threaten to stop US operations from airbases inside Pakistan, and the CIA and US military are contemplating carrying those operations from bases inside Afghanistan.

At the same time, Pakistan is also threatening to reduce/eliminate troops from along its border with Afghanistan, which would enable the Taliban to expand operations on both sides of the border, if the US suspends $800 million in aid.

Pakistan is also looking towards China for military aid, equipment, and assistance.


The Pakistanis are currently engaged in military operations against certain Taliban elements, but they aren't willing to eliminate those Taliban factions because the Pakistani ISI has long used the Taliban to influence events in Afghanistan. They aren't going to suddenly reverse course and no longer seek to influence the outcome in their neighbor.

Pakistan is seeking to preserve ties with the Taliban and other militants that it has used for decades to gain political influence in Afghanistan, according to Imtiaz Gul, director of Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies.

The reliance on guerrillas to project power across Pakistan’s borders is part of an effort to compensate for its smaller size compared with arch-foe India, against which it has fought three wars since the countries separated at independence from the U.K.

Any army offensive “is not going to give satisfaction to the Americans, because Pakistan wants to keep a relationship with some of the groups there,” including the one led by Afghan tribal leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, said Gul.

The U.S., which is withdrawing some troops and planning to end its combat role in Afghanistan by 2014, is pushing Pakistan to crush the Taliban in its territory while helping bring its leaders to peace talks. The U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan describe Haqqani as a major enemy.

Things in South Asia are getting a whole lot more dangerous because Pakistan's ongoing limited actions to deal with the Islamists and Taliban who seek to destabilize the region results from the refusal to cut longstanding ties with those elements.

Pakistan Still Cultivating Terrorists

Despite their claims that they aren't supporting militant groups and terrorists, the fact remains that the Pakistani military and security services are constantly in contact with a wide array of groups, including those that operate in the frontier provinces with Afghanistan and in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistanis are double dealing when it comes to the US, NATO, and claims that they're doing all they can to stop terrorists from operating within their territory.

The former commander said that he was supported by the Pakistani military for 15 years as a fighter, leader and trainer of insurgents until he quit a few years ago. Well known in militant circles but accustomed to a covert existence, he gave an interview to The New York Times on the condition that his name, location and other personal details not be revealed.

Militant groups, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen and Hizbul Mujahedeen, are run by religious leaders, with the Pakistani military providing training, strategic planning and protection. That system was still functioning, he said.

The former commander’s account belies years of assurances by Pakistan to American officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that it has ceased supporting militant groups in its territory. The United States has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid over the past decade for its help with counterterrorism operations. Still, the former commander said, Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment has not abandoned its policy of supporting the militant groups as tools in Pakistan’s dispute with India over the border territory of Kashmir and in Afghanistan to drive out American and NATO forces.

“There are two bodies running these affairs: mullahs and retired generals,” he said. He named a number of former military officials involved in the program, including former chiefs of the intelligence service and other former generals. “These people have a very big role still,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam Abbasi, a former intelligence officer who was convicted of attempting a coup against the government of Benazir Bhutto in 1995 and who is now dead, was one of the most active supporters of the militant groups in the years after Sept. 11, the former commander said.

He said he saw General Abbasi several times: once at a meeting of Taliban and Pakistani militant leaders in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province as they planned how to confront the American military in Afghanistan; and twice in Mir Ali, which became the center for foreign militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, including members of Al Qaeda.

There were about 60 people at the Taliban meeting in late 2001, soon after the Taliban government fell, the former commander said. Pakistani militant leaders were present, as were the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, and Muhammad Haqqani, a member of the Haqqani network.

Several retired officials of Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, were also there, he said, including a man known as Colonel Imam but who was actually Brig. Sultan Amir, a well-known trainer and mentor of militants, and General Abbasi. The militant groups divided Afghanistan into separate areas of operations and discussed how to “trip up America,” he said.

The Pakistani military still supports the Afghan Taliban in their fight to force out American and NATO forces from Afghanistan, he said, adding that he thought they would be successful.

Some Pakistanis will say that these kinds of linkages were severed and these groups are no longer operating with the sanction of the government, but that's highly suspect.

Pakistan's Government Deals With Fallout From Bin Laden Raid

Around the world, people are trying to figure out exactly how Osama bin Laden was able to live and thrive in the shadow of Pakistan's military academy for years without anyone in the Pakistani government knowing. Many suggest that the government was either incompetent or complicit in bin Laden avoiding capture for all these years.

Statements from bin Laden's wife suggests complicity with at least some members of the Pakistani security services such that while the government at its highest levels may not have known that bin Laden was in their country, others who did were doing their best to keep the government in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts.



The US raid has raised the ire among both Pakistani Islamists and nationalists - each of whom have taken exception with the US and the Pakistani government. The US acted as though the Pakistani government was penetrated and could not be trusted. That could be seen as lack of faith in the Pakistani government, or that it provides the Pakistani government an out - allowing the Prime Minister to claim that the US acted alone to avoid the appearance of collusion in going after bin Laden that could raise the ire of the Islamists.

Prime Minister Gilani rejects the claims of incompetence or collusion, but those are pretty much empty statements without more evidence to suggest otherwise.

Gilani acknowledges Pakistan's "intelligence failures" over the bin Laden case, but says all the world's intelligence agencies also failed in the inability to track down the terrorist leader.

Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: In an address to Pakistan, he rejected the "blame game" in attempts to point the finger at Pakistan's military and intelligence agency, known as ISI.

"Yes, there has been an intelligence failure," Gilani says. "It is not only ours, but all intelligence agencies of the world. The al Qaeda chief, along with other al Qaeda operatives, have managed to elude other intelligence agencies for a long time."

He says, in fact, that ISI was responsible for a tip that helped lead the CIA to bin Laden's hideout in a compound in Abbottabad, 35 miles from Islamabad.

"It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or the state institutions of Pakistan, including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in cahoots with al Aqaeda," he says.

He concedes that the issue of how bin Laden could hide in plain site is a source of concern in Pakistan, but says an investigation has been ordered to get to the bottom of it.

"Let's not rush to judgment," he says. "Charges of incompetence or complicity are absurd. We emphatically reject such speculation."

The problem is that the CIA and US officials both state that Pakistani intel services were in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts and that they didn't consult with the Pakistanis before the raid, lest they tip off bin Laden as to the impending raid. While the Prime Minister claims full confidence in the Pakistani military and ISI, the behind the scenes situation is likely to be full of recriminations and demands for answers in how the government could have been left in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts for so long.

The Pakistani government has to walk a fine line between dealing the Islamists a blow and nationalists who might side with the Islamists over the hard feelings created by the US raid to take out bin Laden with the government apparently in the dark about the raid until after the raid was already underway.

So, why did bin Laden choose Abbottabad? Well, it was central to Pakistan with easy access to Islamabad and a quick getaway to the frontier provinces should bin Laden be tipped off. Building a walled compound wouldn't be out of character, and the area was a frequent destination of vacationers and Pakistanis from all over the country.

I suspect that the military academy was another reason that bin Laden chose the town; it could provide a source for recruiting future jihadis.

It also appears that the compound wasn't nearly as militarized as one could have expected; there weren't escape tunnels, hidden weapons caches, or other accoutrements that one could expect around a terror master like bin Laden. Perhaps he grew complacent in the fact that he was hiding in plain sight and that his security measures were sufficient to avoid detection by the Pakistanis or that he wasn't expecting the US to carry out a raid against his compound.

Don't expect other al Qaeda terror masters like Awlaki or Zawahiri to make that same mistake. Both are more likely to take additional security precautions in light of how the US carried out the raid in Pakistan.

Pakistan Still Playing Both Sides In Afghanistan

The Washington Post has reported that Pakistan's ISI (its intelligence service) has managed to provide medical assistance to Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban that controlled Afghanistan and gave shelter to Osama bin Laden before 9/11. Of course, the Pakistani government and the ISI deny the report:

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was treated in hospital with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency after suffering a heart attack earlier this month, the Washington Post reported.

Citing "The Eclipse Group," a private network run by ex-CIA, State Department and military officials, the newspaper said the elusive Taliban chief spent several days at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

Most of the senior members of the Afghan Taliban, including Mullah Omar, fled to neighboring Pakistan when U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled their strict Islamist regime in late 2001.

'Some brain damage'
The firm said its source was a doctor, who was not identified. According to the report, Mullah Omar was "rushed" to hospital by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on Jan. 7.

"While I was not personally in the operating theater, my evaluation based on what I have heard and seeing the patient in the hospital is that Mullah Omar had a cardiac catheter complication resulting in either bleeding or a small cerebral vascular incident, or both," the Post quoted the doctor as saying.

"After the operation, there seemed to be some brain damage with Mullah Omar having slurred speech," he added.

The Eclipse Group's report said that "after 3-4 days of post-operative care in the hospital, he was released to the ISI and ordered to take absolute bed rest when at home for at least several days."

It said that Mullah Omar was staying at "an ISI 'guest house' in Karachi under ISI guard."

Pakistan continues to play the US for foreign assistance and military aid despite continuing to provide safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. They utilize the frontier provinces with impunity and carry out attacks inside Afghanistan and repeatedly threaten US and ISAF supply lines inside Pakistan.

Big Fish Alert: More Taliban Thugs and Al Qaeda Terrorists Captured In Ongoing Operations In Afghanistan and Pakistan

While no one is saying for sure whether the latest arrest of two more Taliban leaders was the result of the capture of Mullah Baradar, the hits keep coming for the Taliban struggling from a multi-pronged attack by the US, Afghan, and Pakistani forces on multiple fronts, including intel operations, UAV airstrikes, and direct assaults on Taliban-infested territories.

The "shadow governors" of two Afghan provinces were captured.

Afghan officials said the Taliban’s “shadow governors” for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had been detained in Pakistan by officials there. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s leader in Kunduz, was detained in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad, and Mullah Mir Mohammed of Baghlan Province was also captured in an undisclosed Pakistani city, they said.

The arrests come on the heels of the capture of Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s military commander and the deputy to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the movement’s founder. Mr. Baradar was arrested in a joint operation by the C.I.A. and the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency.

The arrests were made by Pakistani officials, the Afghans said, but it seemed probable that C.I.A. officers accompanied them, as they did in the arrest of Mr. Baradar. Pakistani officials declined to comment.

Together, the three arrests mark the most significant blow to the Taliban’s leadership since the American-backed war began eight years ago. They also demonstrate the extent to which the Taliban’s senior leaders have been able to use Pakistan as a sanctuary to plan and mount attacks in Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear if the arrests of the Taliban shadow governors were made possible by intelligence taken from Mr. Baradar. But it seemed likely. In the days after Mr. Baradar’s arrest, American officials said they managed to keep his detention a secret from many Taliban leaders, and that they were determined to roll up as much of the Taliban’s leadership as they could.

The Pakistanis arrested nine al Qaeda affiliated thugs in Karachi. Officials in that instance say the arrests were not related to Baradar's capture, but the report indicates that one among those captured was identified as "...Ameer Muawiya, who the officials said was in charge of foreign al-Qaida militants operating in Pakistan's tribal regions near Afghanistan and was an associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden."

If that pans out, that is a major hit against al Qaeda operations in the region, and could lead to additional arrests and airstrikes on both sides of the Afghan/Pakistani border.

That's on the heels of additional UAV airstrikes that took out terrorists in Waziristan.

Taliban Commander Baradar Providing Useful Information

While the Taliban continue to claim that this is all a ruse and their military commander is still free, US and Pakistani officials say that Taliban thug Bahadar is providing useful information:

The captured No. 2 Taliban commander, in the hands of none-too-gentle Pakistani intelligence agents, is already giving up "useful information," U.S. and Afghan sources said Tuesday.

"It's certainly a breakthrough and I think it could be a turning point" in the Afghan war, James Dobbins, former U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, said of last week's arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Pakistan.

"This is a major terrorist who has been at the core of Taliban operations for years" as a friend since boyhood of Taliban chieftain Mullah Mohammed Omar, a U.S. counterterror official said of Baradar, who also oversaw the Taliban's drug and protection rackets.

The importance of his capture, in a joint operation by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA, was underlined by the Taliban's insistence it never happened.

"We totally deny this rumor," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by telephone.

The Pakistani military confirms that he was captured and The Dawn reports that several other people were captured and are being interrogated. With the ISI in the lead, it is quite possible that they are using harsh interrogation techniques to obtain that information. It is also important to note that some information that Baradar has is of a time sensitive nature; whereabouts of key individuals, plans for terror operations and military operations, etc. as well as long term strategic objectives and doctrinal goals. Getting at the time sensitive information in a prompt fashion - and relaying that information to those who can act on that information is key to disrupting Taliban operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Yet, capturing a major commander like Baradar doesn't mean that others can't take his place or that terror operations could continue without interruption in Pakistan or Afghanistan. We've seen the Mehsud clan continue terror operations despite the targeted airstrikes that first took out Baitullah and later Hakimullah Mehsud. Taliban operations will continue, but the more insight we have into the inner workings of the group, the more we can build on prior successes and take out the group and its capabilities to strike. As the Washington Post notes, Taliban thugs are still trying to carry out attacks, and one Taliban thug was captured this week and admitted to recruiting a new class of suicide bombers - young girls.

UPDATE:
Bill Roggio reports that Taliban leaders in Afghanistan admit that Baradar was captured, but that he was captured in Helmand Province and not in Karachi as had been claimed by the US/Pakistani sources. They say he and several of his cohorts were picked up in the course of operations in Marja.

That makes some sense for the Taliban to make that claim. They have a vested interest in trying to show that their leaders are actually leading the battle from the front, rather than exhorting on their minions from the cozy confines of a Pakistani city where they can live in relative luxury compared to the hardships faced on the battlefield where they face death from all angles.

Yet a major Pakistani leader threw some cold water on claims that Baradar was captured in a joint CIA/ISI operation.

The Pakistani government has denied that the Afghan Taliban are based in Pakistan, and said the Quetta Shura does not exist. Baradar's capture in Karachi has cast further doubts on the Pakistani government's claims.

Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, has called the report of Baradar's capture "propaganda" and said no joint operation between the ISI and the CIA took place. He stopped short of denying that Baradar was in Pakistani custody, however.

"We are verifying all those we have arrested," Malik told Dawn. If there is any big target, I will show the nation."

"If the New York Times gives information, it is not a divine truth, it can be wrong," Malik continued. The New York Times broke the story of Baradar's capture.

Major Score: CIA/ISI Capture Taliban Bigwig Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

Most people have never heard of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, but he was considered one of Mullah Omar's top thugs. He was likened to being Omar's consiglieri. In fact, he's a major domo in his own right and is directing the Taliban efforts throughout the region. Actually, I should say that he was directing the Taliban efforts.

The Pakistani ISI and US CIA operatives managed to capture him at some point in the past two weeks and have been busy interrogating him.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials. Most immediately, they hope he will provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader.

Disclosure of Mullah Baradar’s capture came as American and Afghan forces were in the midst of a major offensive in southern Afghanistan.

His capture could cripple the Taliban’s military operations, at least in the short term, said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer who last spring led the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policy review.

Details of the raid remain murky, but officials said that it had been carried out by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and that C.I.A. operatives had accompanied the Pakistanis.

The New York Times learned of the operation on Thursday, but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who contended that making it public would end a hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort. The officials said that the group’s leaders had been unaware of Mullah Baradar’s capture and that if it became public they might cover their tracks and become more careful about communicating with each other.

The Times is publishing the news now because White House officials acknowledged that the capture of Mullah Baradar was becoming widely known in the region.

Several American government officials gave details about the raid on the condition that they not be named, because the operation was classified.

American officials believe that besides running the Taliban’s military operations, Mullah Baradar runs the group’s leadership council, often called the Quetta Shura because its leaders for years have been thought to be hiding near Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan.

The ISI appears to be the lead on this, and it is more than likely that the ISI had known where he'd been for years and only recently decided to put the screws to the Taliban and its various factions.

For its part, the Taliban are denying that he was picked up and they're saying that the US notification is mere propaganda.

A Taliban spokesman denied on Tuesday that the insurgents’ second-most important leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been captured in Pakistan.

Reached by cellphone, the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that Mullah Baradar was not under arrest. “He is safe and free, and he is in Afghanistan,” he claimed.

United States officials confirmed the arrest to The New York Times last Thursday but asked the newspaper to withhold the information until Monday because it would impede intelligence operations. They described him as the most significant Taliban figure yet arrested, head of their military operations and second in importance only to the Taliban “emir of Afghanistan,” Mullah Omar. Mullah Baradar was arrested in a joint raid by Pakistani intelligence agents with C.I.A. agents accompanying them, U.S. officials said.

“He is safe and free, and he leads the command and he is in Afghanistan,” Mr. Mujahid claimed. “This is a false rumor spread by foreigners in order to weaken the morale of the Taliban because they are facing big problems in Marja.”

There's no word on whether Baradar is talking or not, and we can only speculate as to whether harsh interrogation techniques are being used. If the ISI is in the lead, it is quite likely harsh interrogation methods are being used, even if the CIA is in the room; President Obama's executive order restricting such methods doesn't extend to other governments (which can prove quite convenient in such joint operations).

Developing: US Officials Say Top Al Qaeda Terrorist Killed In Airstrike

The US says that they've killed a high ranking al Qaeda terrorist somewhere in Pakistan via a UAV airstrike. Pakistan denies that any such event took place. The officials wont confirm who was killed, but only that it wasn't Osama bin Laden.

A “high-ranking” al-Qaida figure was killed Thursday in an attack by a drone aircraft, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The officials did not identify who was killed, except to say that it was not al-Qaida’s supreme leader, Osama bin Laden. If the report is confirmed, it would be the first time coalition forces had killed a top al-Qaida figure in almost a year.

The officials said the killing was the result of stepped-up operations targeting al-Qaida leaders in recent weeks.

Bill Roggio at Long War Journal confirmed that the strike did take place, and that the Pakistani denials of several other strikes were inaccurate. No word on who the target was, but it was the first strikes in South Waziristan since Pakistani forces began their operations to root out Taliban elements who have been wreaking havoc in Pakistan via terror attacks against marketplaces and even against military and intel targets.

The Pakistani denials may be part of trying to maintain morale among Pakistani forces who have not yet achieved their goals along with undermining US efforts to go after top leadership in the past year in a stepped-up UAV airstrike campaign.

Suicide Bomber Strikes Indian Embassy In Kabul

Look for India to blame the ISI and the Taliban for this.

A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the busy center of Afghanistan's capital on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding nearly 80 in the second major attack in the city in less than a month.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the 8:30 a.m. assault and said the embassy was the target.

The blast occurred a day after the Afghanistan war reached its eighth anniversary and as President Barack Obama considered a request for between 10,000 and 40,000 additional troops prepared by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

A suicide bomber targeted the Indian embassy in Kabul. The Taliban took responsibility for the blast. This isn't the first time either, and this latest bombing comes on the heels of a report in an Indian newspaper that the ISI was trying to convince the Taliban to go after India in Jammu and Kashmir across the Line of Control instead of going after Pakistanis.

The "jail or jihad" option offered to the Taliban seems a useful diversion for ISI. The Pakistan military establishment has had to fight the Taliban, once its close allies in Afghanistan, but is looking to turn the situation to its advantage.

Apprehensions in Indian security circles that the crackdown by the Pakistan army on Taliban — seen as a last resort after the jihadis turned their guns on the Pakistani state — could mean trouble in Kashmir are being proved correct. Not only have infiltration attempts by regular jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba gone up, the presence of Taliban poses a new threat.

Highly placed sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the next 15 to 20 days.

"Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter," said a senior official. The infiltration is closely controlled and monitored by the ISI and Pakistan army which is often involved in the crossings.

The tension between India and Pakistan just got ratcheted up another notch.

Is He Evil? Yes He Is, Says Osama's Son

Osama bin Laden's son Omar has released a new memoir in which he says pointedly that his father is evil.

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S son Omar first realized the depth of his father's evil when his beloved dogs were taken away and gassed in a chemical warfare experiment, he says in a new memoir.

Omar also confirms what U.S. officials have long believed - that his father was tipped off to a 1998 U.S. attempt to kill him.

He writes that Bin Laden got a secret communication and fled his Afghan camp two hours before cruise missiles struck it.

He does not identify the source of the tip, which the U.S. suspects was Pakistani intelligence.

Omar's book, "Growing Up Bin Laden," written with his mother, Najwa - the Al Qaeda leader's first wife - describes the ultimate dysfunctional family.

Note that Pakistan's President Zardari has only recently admitted that his country has created and nurtured Islamic terrorists. The ISI was deeply involved in those endeavors, and Osama bin Laden benefited from that relationship. Omar must know that he's putting his own life in danger from badmouthing his father and his father's goons.