"Exclusive: Another Taliban Leader Captured in Pakistan"

[Clio the Leo]

Perhaps it would be better at this point to just start a running thread of captured Taliban leaders ... dont want to waste DU bandwidth making a new OP for every dude.

Exclusive: Another Taliban Leader Captured in Pakistan
Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:35 PM

By Sami Yousafzai and Mark Hosenball

Another leader of the Afghan Taliban has been captured by authorities in Pakistan working in partnership with U.S. intelligence officials. Taliban sources in the region and a counterterrorism officials in Washington have identified the detained insurgent leader as Mullah Abdul Salam, described as the Taliban movement's "shadow governor" of Afghanistan's Kunduz province.

Taliban sources told NEWSWEEK's Sami Yousafzai that Salam was grabbed by Pakistani security forces in the city of Faisalabad about a week ago—close to the same time that Pakistani forces, again with American support, captured the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi. The Taliban sources said that Mullah Salam was arrested with three other militants.

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.

A U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Mullah Salam had been captured. "Thanks to solid intelligence work and some courageous partners in Pakistan, this hasn't been a good time for the leadership of the Afghan Taliban," said the official, who, like others cited in this story, asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information. "While these kinds of operations aren't the whole answer, you can't succeed against an enemy like this until you prove he can't win on the battlefield. Taking out top guys is part of that."

Both the Afghan and Pakistani branches of the Taliban appear to have suffered significant leadership losses recently.

more....
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/02/17/another-taliban-leader-captured-in-pakistan.aspx

Related, Cheney's not happy!


... makes "surprised prairie dog face" again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk-J4aHH9Sk

[impik]

1. Ohhh, poor Dick.

[razorman]

2. Does the Taliban actually have any followers?

It seems that everyone in the Taliban is at least a "number three" leader.

[DCBob]

3. This must be having some impact...

and combined with the assault on Marjah, the Taliban must be in complete turmoil.

[Cha]

4. "Obama's Class - And Cheney's Classlessness"

by Andrew Sullivan~

"Isn't it telling that as Cheney spent Sunday morning attacking the president for not being serious about the war on terror (by which he seems to mean solely Obama's refusal to commit war crimes), Biden must have already known about the capture of Mullah Baradar? The administration could have blown Cheney out of the water, but, of course, chose not to.

Why?

Because they are serious about national security and do not put domestic political games before it. Unlike Cheney, who never wasted an opportunity to use a war to score political points at home. In the end, I believe this president's calm and sincere and determined efforts to keep this country safe and to defuse the appeal of Islamist terror will be better understood and appreciated. And that he has done so by adhering to American values will go a long way to repair some small part of the damage Cheney inflicted."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/obamas-class-and-cheneys-classlessness.html

[Peacetrain]

5. Oh somewhere tonight there is a Cheney gnashing his or her teeth

[Phx_Dem]

6. Obama to Cheney: "Watch and learn while I show you how to fight terrorists."

:smoke:

[timeforpeace]

7. How is it we're getting announcements every time someone is captured?