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To: Sully- who wrote (77605)	2/17/2010 12:55:37 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar By: Cliff May The Corner The news of his capture in Pakistan is a pretty big deal. Among the reasons: Next to Mullah Omar, Mullah Baradar was the biggest fish. It won't be easy to replace him with someone as skilled. He probably has a lot to tell -- and the Pakistanis will not read him his Miranda rights. It's significant that the ISI, Pakistani intelligence, decided to cooperate with us and capture him. They've been ambivalent at best about the Afghan Taliban (which they separate from the Pakistani Taliban). Mullah Baradar may know where Osama bin Laden is or at least have information that could help find him. (I'm assuming the Pakistanis don't know already -- not sure that's true. I don't think Osama is living in a cave. I think he's in a quite comfortable villa. Also interesting that Baradar was captured in Karachi -- a major Pakistani city (which I visited just a few months ago -- and which is a very dangerous place). But this proves once again that it's not just the wild and wooly tribal areas that are infested with terrorists. corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (77605)	2/17/2010 1:36:32 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

A Few Cautionary Notes on the Implications of Baradar's Capture By: Jamie M. Fly The Corner As several people have pointed out, the capture last week in Pakistan of key Taliban figure Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is a coup for the United States and its allies in Afghanistan. Coming just as President Obama’s Afghan surge is beginning to bear fruit, with key operations underway in Helmand province, Baradar’s capture will hopefully lead to new intelligence that will allow Pakistan and the United States to decapitate the Taliban’s leadership in Pakistan, just as coalition forces are putting the Taliban on the run across the border in Afghanistan. That said, a few cautionary notes and thoughts about the implications of Baradar’s capture: First, although it is a positive sign that the operation was reportedly a joint U.S.-Pakistani one, we shouldn’t assume that Islamabad and Washington are on the same page about how to handle the Taliban and associated militants remaining in Pakistan. The Pakistanis made great strides in 2009 with their offensive in South Waziristan, but the takedown of one Taliban leader does not mean that they are completely committed to rooting out those that remain around Quetta and other location that pose a threat to U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as to the stability of Pakistan and the security of its nuclear stockpile. We should be wary of the Pakistanis’ motives for this sudden assistance and their long-term intentions. Second, the arrest raises some key questions for this administration about its detainee policies even as the debate over failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab continues. Over the weekend, a Washington Post article raised questions about whether the Obama administration was shying away from capturing wanted terrorists instead of killing them. Their hand may have been forced in this case by the fact that Baradar was in Karachi, beyond the zone that U.S. drones have frequented, but they are now faced with difficult questions about how he will be handled. The New York Times reports that he is in Pakistani custody but is being questioned by both Americans and Pakistanis. Why should Baradar be treated any differently than someone such as Ramzi Binalshibh, who was captured in the very same Pakistani city in 2002 and is now at Gitmo? Does the administration intend to let the Pakistani justice system run its course or do they plan to bring Baradar back to American soil for prosecution? Finally, the arrest validates the Afghan strategy pursued by President Obama despite opposition from some in his administration, such as Vice President Joe Biden, who argued that the Taliban were not the real enemy and that we should limit U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and essentially cede parts of the country to their control. Baradar and his Taliban colleagues have the blood of Americans and innocent Afghans on their hands and should be treated accordingly. We will not be successful until the Taliban is defeated and the Afghan people spared the intimidating and medieval rule of the Taliban, and this capture will hopefully help make that happen. — Jamie M. Fly is executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative. corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (77605)	2/18/2010 6:15:39 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

The Strange Case of Mullah Baradar Dana M. Perino and Bill Burck The Corner Yesterday, the New York Times broke the story that one of the Taliban’s top military commanders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been captured in Karachi during a joint raid by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the CIA. Baradar is reportedly second only to Mullah Omar in the Taliban’s loose hierarchy. The Times reported this as a huge victory, and the Obama administration took a few well-deserved bows. At first blush, and based solely on the Times’s reporting and the administration’s reaction, this did indeed appear to be a major achievement. We noticed something odd with the triumphant tone, however. The article published yesterday noted that Baradar had been one of the Taliban’s “most approachable leaders” and one of the few Taliban commanders willing to negotiate with President Karzai's government. This struck us as discordant with the dramatic raid, capture, and interrogation of Baradar initially described by the Times. Baradar was not captured in a spider hole, like Saddam Hussein was, or hiding out in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was. Instead, it appeared that his location was not much of a secret at all. At first we wrote this off as more evidence of the on-again/off-again “cooperation” we receive from the Pakistani intelligence service, and Baradar’s capture was a good sign it was on again. But, according to new reporting by the Times today, the reality is far more complicated. Today, the Times is reporting that the real story behind Baradar’s capture is that Pakistan wanted to gain a place at the table in negotiations between the U.S. and Karzai and the Taliban. Keep reading this post . . . corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (77605)	2/18/2010 6:40:41 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Another Taliban Capture Daniel Foster The Corner Newsweek reports that Pakistani forces have arrested Mullah Salam, the Taliban's "shadow" governor of Kunduz province in Afghanistan: <<< According to the Taliban sources, at the time of his capture Mullah Salam was preparing to travel to meet Mullah Baradar. Some sources suggested that the arrests of the two insurgent leaders might be linked, though this could not be confirmed in Washington. Mullah Salam was one of the Taliban's most effective commanders in northern Afghanistan and therefore one of the men most wanted by U.S. and NATO forces fighting there. Salam's soldiers are reputed to have been particularly deadly in their attacks on German troops fighting in northern Afghanistan. >>> corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (77605)	3/1/2010 3:12:36 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Obama's New Interrogation Unit Not Used on Taliban Commander By: Daniel Foster The Corner From Newsweek, via The Feed: <<< Last summer, the Obama administration announced that, as a replacement for the Bush administration’s secret CIA terrorist detention and interrogation program, it would create a SWAT-style team of interrogation experts to travel the world squeezing terrorist suspects for vital information. Administration officials say that the interrogation unit, known as the HIG (for High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group) is now operational. But for reasons that are unclear, the administration has not deployed HIG personnel to question Afghan Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arguably the most important terrorist suspect captured since the detention of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in spring of 2003. >>> corner.nationalreview.com