On Feb 15, 8:12*pm, "Jonathan" wrote:


Someone seems to have untied those hands. But of course everyone knows
that Obama is so soft on terrorism and is unable to do anything in
Afghanistan. Hey, Ali, have you seen my rolladex? Or maybe Mr. Baradar
just likes to chat. Sans augment interrogation techniques. Pfffft!

February 19, 2010
In Blow to Taliban, 2 More Senior Leaders Are Arrested
By DEXTER FILKINS

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in
recent days inside Pakistan, officials said Thursday, as American and
Pakistani intelligence agents continued to press their offensive
against the group’s leadership after the capture of the insurgency’s
military commander last month.

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.

A senior United States official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said that the arrest of the two shadow governors was unrelated to Mr.
Baradar’s capture.

Even so, Muhammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz Province, said in an
interview that the two Taliban shadow governors maintained a close
working relationship with Mr. Baradar.

“Mullah Salam and Mullah Mohammed were the most merciless
individuals,” said Gen. Razaq Yaqoobi, police chief of Kunduz
Province. “Most of the terror, executions and other crimes committed
in northern Afghanistan were on their orders.”

The immediate impact of the arrests of the two Taliban governors was
unclear. In the short term, it could probably be expected to hurt the
Taliban’s operations somewhat and possibly demoralize their rank-and-
file fighters, but probably not for long. In the past the Taliban have
proved capable of quickly replacing their killed or captured leaders.

The three recent arrests — all in Pakistan — demonstrate a greater
level of cooperation by Pakistan in hunting leaders of the Afghan
Taliban than in the entire eight years of war. American officials have
complained bitterly since 2001 that the Pakistanis, while claiming to
be American allies and accepting American aid were simultaneously
providing sanctuary and assistance to Taliban fighters and leaders who
were battling the Americans across the border.

In conversations with American officials, Pakistani officials would
often claim not to know about the existence of the “Quetta Shura,” the
name given to the council of senior Taliban leaders that used the
Pakistani city of Quetta as a sanctuary for years. It was the Quetta
Shura — also known as the Supreme Council — that Mr. Baradar presided
over.

It is still far from clear, but senior commanders in Afghanistan say
they believe that the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies,
led by Gens. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Ahmed Shuja Pasha, may finally
be coming around to the belief that the Taliban — in Pakistan and
Afghanistan — constitute a threat to the existence of the Pakistani
state.

“I believe that General Kayani and his leaders have come to the
conclusion that they want us to succeed,” a senior NATO officer in
Kabul said.

Word of the arrests of the shadow governors came as American, Afghan
and British forces continue to press ahead with their largest military
operation to date, in the Afghan agricultural town of Marja. Earlier
this month, on the eve of the Marja invasion, Afghan officials also
detained Marja’s shadow governor as he tried to flee the country.

The Taliban figures are commonly referred to as “shadow governors”
because their identities are secret and because they mirror the
legitimate governors appointed by the Afghan government. The Taliban’s
shadow governors oversee all military and political operations in a
given area.

Even before the arrests in Pakistan, the American and Afghan military
and intelligence services appeared to have been enjoying a run of
success against Taliban leaders inside Afghanistan.

The senior NATO officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
American forces had detained or killed “three or four” Taliban
provincial governors in the past several weeks, including the
Taliban’s shadow governor for Laghman Province.

Another NATO officer, also speaking on the condition of anonymity,
said that Mullah Zakhir, the Taliban’s military commander for southern
Afghanistan, had been ordered back to Pakistan before the Marja
offensive.

Indeed, the capture of two Taliban governors inside Pakistan may
reflect the greater level of insecurity that all Taliban leaders are
feeling inside Afghanistan at the moment.

“The Taliban are feeling a new level of pain,” the senior NATO officer
said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/wo...gewanted=print