http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/16/taliban.commander.captured/index.html?hpt=T1

Quote :

"Capture may be turning point in Taliban fight Washington (CNN) -- The seizure of the Afghan Taliban's top military leader in Pakistan represents a turning point in the U.S.-led war against the militants, U.S. officials and analysts said. The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar represents the most significant Taliban capture since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a senior Obama administration official said Tuesday. Baradar has been a close associate of Osama bin Laden's and is seen as the No. 2 figure in the Afghan Taliban, behind Mullah Mohammed Omar. "If anyone would know where the senior leaders are of al Qaeda and the Taliban, then Baradar is someone who would be privy to that kind of information," said M.J. Gohel, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation. It's "major success for the CIA" and "a major blow for the Taliban," Gohel said. he United States has tried to target Baradar for years, a senior U.S. official said. The arrest also represents a "new level of cooperation" between Pakistani and American forces working to rout the Taliban, said U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-author of legislation designed to improve cooperation between Pakistan and the United States. Described as a savvy and modern military leader, Baradar was arrested in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi several days ago, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said. "

I'm glad they're making some progress. They're going to need to if we're leaving Iraq next year and starting to wrap up in Afghanistan then too.

Quote :

"CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen called Baradar's capture a "huge deal," saying he is "arguably more important than Mullah Omar from a military point of view, because Mullah Omar really is more of a religious figure than an operational commander of the Taliban." "This guy also is the No. 2 political figure in the Taliban. The fact that he was discovered in Karachi is very significant. Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan. It's a long way from where the war is being fought," Bergen said Monday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°." The capture "indicates that the Pakistani intelligence services and CIA [are] cooperating very closely on a very high-value target.""

They seem to have an unlimited supply of number 2's, sounds like this guy might be the real deal though.

2/16/2010 3:34:35 PM

2/16/2010 3:43:15 PM

I hope they read him his Miranda rights and get him a good lawyer before they question him.

2/16/2010 5:18:35 PM

I hope they read him his Miranda rights, cook him nice meals, get him better housing than I had in college, and get him a good lawyer before they question him.

2/16/2010 5:32:27 PM

I think you guys can chill out. ISI is interrogating him right now. They're not known for being, ah, gentle.

Not that it matters. Anyone else notice that we capture the "#2 bad guy" about every three months?

2/16/2010 5:42:25 PM

^not true at all. In August we killed the #1 PAKISTANI TALIBAN leader. His replacement we managed to kill in January.

2/16/2010 8:03:59 PM

and just think, in a few months we will be able to capture or kill the next replacement!!

2/16/2010 8:05:26 PM

Hopefully we can keep killing shitty people, yes.

2/16/2010 8:16:47 PM

I suppose the plan there is to make it the job that nobody wants.

Ah man I'm eligible for this promotion at work! I dunno though, it's twice the pay, but in three months I'm going to have a missile up my ass.

I guess preventing them from having stable leadership will keep them on their toes.

2/16/2010 8:18:11 PM

That would be a more reassuring sentiment if we weren't constantly being told that by now the Taliban/al Qaeda is really a loose organization with very little central command.

The news articles all describe this latest guy as a brilliant military mind, but how fucking brilliant do you have to be to say, "Oh, fuck, we don't really have a lot of guys or weapons, so set up some roadside bombs, rely on ambushes and hit-and-run attacks, and hide in the civilian population. Speaking of which, make sure to scare the shit out of any civilians who disagree with you."

I mean, my military training consists of like a year and a half of ROTC, and I could tell the Taliban fighters that much.

2/17/2010 1:39:32 AM

As I understand it, the Taliban is fairly structured, though no one cannot be replaced by someone else. AQ on the other hand is more nebulous.

Killing or capturing Taliban leaders is not they key to winning Afghanistan though. It is part of it, part that plays well in the press for being an easy to write about story, but not the key. The real turning point came where the President placed GEN McChrystal in charge.

2/17/2010 7:25:54 AM

Quote :

"They seem to have an unlimited supply of number 2's"

2/17/2010 7:26:23 AM

"I am not a number... I am a Human Being!"

2/17/2010 8:52:29 AM

This guy sounds like he ran a tight ship. He's starting to sound like a decent Timothy Geithner replacement. We should put his leadership abilities to use over here instead of spending millions on him to get probably not 'millions worth' in intel.

2/17/2010 9:15:36 AM

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

Quote :

"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."

2/17/2010 5:45:33 PM

Where oh where can we put all these terrorists for safe-keeping?

2/17/2010 10:40:27 PM

You want to keep them safe all of a sudden?

2/18/2010 12:35:22 AM

It's never good enough for some people. . . .

Quote :

"The CIA reportedly succeeded in killing the head of the Pakistani Taliban -- the most recent in a flurry of drone attacks the agency has launched in South Asia and the Middle East. Another strike in Pakistan reportedly took out one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists; another in Pakistan took out a master bomb-maker for the al Qaeda affiliate in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf; and a strike in Yemen targeted a senior military leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group behind the Christmas Day attack (his fate has yet to be determined). President Barack Obama's escalation of drone strikes is one area in the counterterrorism fight where he has earned plaudits from even his most vocal critics on the right. Hold the applause. Obama's escalation of the "Predator War" comes at the very same time he has eliminated the CIA's capability to capture senior terrorist leaders alive and interrogate them for information on new attacks. The Predator has become for President Obama what the cruise missile was to President Bill Clinton -- an easy way to appear like he is taking tough action against terrorists, when he is really shying away from the hard decisions needed to protect the United States. To be sure, unmanned drones are critical in the struggle against al Qaeda. They allow the United States to reach terrorists hiding in remote regions where it would be difficult for special operations forces to reach them, or to act on perishable intelligence when the only choice is to kill a terrorist or lose him. Constantly hovering Predator (or Reaper) drones also have a psychological effect on the enemy, forcing al Qaeda leaders to live in fear and spend time focusing on self-preservation that would otherwise be used planning the next attack. All this is for the good. The problem is that Obama is increasingly using drone strikes as a substitute for operations to bring terrorist leaders in alive for questioning -- and that is putting the country at risk. As one high-ranking CIA official explained to me, in an interview for my book Courting Disaster, "In the wake of 9/11, [the CIA] put forward a program that had a lethal component to strike back at the people who did this. But the other component was to prevent this kind of catastrophe from happening again. And for that, killing people -- especially killing senior al Qaeda leaders -- is potentially counterproductive in that we can't know or learn of future attacks. You can't kill them all, and you don't want to kill them all from an intelligence standpoint. We needed to know what they knew." In the years after the 9/11 attacks, the CIA worked with Pakistani and other intelligence services to hunt down senior terrorist leaders and take them in for interrogation. Among those captured were men like Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Riduan Isamuddin (aka "Hambali"), Bashir bin Lap, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, and others. In all, about 100 terrorists were detained and questioned by the CIA. And the information they provided helped break up terrorist cells that were planning to blow up the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and the U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti; explode seven airplanes flying across the Atlantic from London to cities in North America; and fly hijacked airplanes into Heathrow Airport, London's financial district, and the Library Tower in Los Angeles. Today, the Obama administration is no longer attempting to capture men like these alive; it is simply killing them. This may be satisfying, but it comes at a price. With every drone strike that vaporizes a senior al Qaeda leader, actionable intelligence is vaporized along with him. Dead terrorists can't tell you their plans to strike America. The recent strike on Qasim al-Raymi, a senior military leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is a case in point. After having been caught blind by this terrorist network's near success in blowing up an airplane over Detroit, why not try to capture and interrogate its senior leaders alive instead of killing them? Wouldn't it make sense to get these men to reveal whom they have trained, where they have been deployed, and what their plans are for the next attack? But the Obama administration is not even trying to do this. Obama's drone campaign is costing the United States vital intelligence, and it has also exposed him to the charge of hypocrisy. The president has claimed the moral high ground in eliminating the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, saying that he rejects the "the false choice between our security and our ideals." Yet when Obama orders a Predator or Reaper strike, he is often signing the death warrant for the women and children who will be killed alongside the target -- individuals whose only sin is that they are married to, or the children of, a terrorist. Is this not a choice between security and ideals? And why is it a morally superior choice? Is it really more in keeping with American ideals to kill a terrorist and the innocent people around him, when the United States might instead spare the innocent, capture the same terrorist alive, and get intelligence from him that could potentially save many other innocent lives as well? It is true that Obama's predecessor George W. Bush also reportedly increased the use of drone strikes against senior terrorist leaders toward the end of his term. But the Bush administration also maintained and exercised the CIA's capability to capture and interrogate such leaders. Obama has now dramatically escalated drone strikes while eliminating what is arguably the most important and successful intelligence programs in the war on terror. This is not a sign of Obama's seriousness. To the contrary, he is using drones as cover for his dangerous decision to eliminate the CIA's capability to take terrorist leaders in alive and question them effectively for actionable intelligence. That is nothing to praise. When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was located in 2003, the United States did not send a Predator to kill him. It captured him alive and got him to give up the details of the plots he had set in motion. That decision saved thousands of lives. The fact that Obama's administration no longer does this when it locates senior terrorist leaders today means the president is voluntarily sacrificing intelligence that could protect the American people -- and that the U.S. homeland is at greater risk of a terrorist attack. "

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/08/dead_terrorists_tell_no_tales?page=0,0

2/18/2010 1:31:49 AM

President Obama's increased use of drones has raised eyebrows all around, from both the left and the right.

Why is this remotely surprising though? People have differing opinions of how war non-war military action should be conducted and when you're the focal point of the decision making process, you're always going to be second-guessed.

2/18/2010 8:46:58 AM

robots have always been the future of war

it's amazing it's taken this long

2/18/2010 8:59:53 AM

well they aren't robots yet, but it is a step in that direction. I always find it ironic that "we" criticize the IED teams as cowards unwilling to stand and fight and then take them out with a Predator piloted by a 2LT in Vegas.

2/18/2010 10:41:21 AM

talk like that never would have gotten us to transition from swords to guns!

2/18/2010 11:01:59 AM

Pick your best guy and meet me at the underpass. No blades.

2/18/2010 11:05:02 AM

^^^ Isn't shit talking always a consequence when the other side uses asymmetric warfare?

2/18/2010 11:20:30 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

Quote :

"US Marines seize Taliban headquarters, IDs, photos MARJAH, Afghanistan – After a fierce gunfight, U.S. Marines seized a strongly defended compound Friday that appears to have been a Taliban headquarters — complete with photos of fighters posing with their weapons, dozens of Taliban-issued ID cards and graduation diplomas from a training camp in Pakistan."

2/19/2010 8:27:32 PM

^
Were you posting any these kind of "Atta Boy" stories when Bush was president and we were fighting in Iraq?

2/19/2010 10:44:31 PM

Speaking for myself, I never felt the need to crap on terrorist-killing news when Bush was in office, as you have now started doing since Obama entered office.

2/19/2010 10:54:30 PM

^^I am happy we are leaving Iraq next year, and starting to leave Afghanistan then. Don't mind seeing some progress before we do though.

2/20/2010 2:21:59 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/22/taliban.arrest/index.html?hpt=T1

Quote :

"Pakistan captures another Taliban leader February 22, 2010 6:08 a.m. EST STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Mullah Abdul Kabir arrested in district northwest of Islamabad * Kabir is fourth Afghan Taliban leader seized by Pakistani forces in recent weeks * Taliban spokesman denies the arrest"

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/22-Feb-2010/Pak-forces-apprehend-200-Taliban

Quote :

"Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq has said that Pakistani forces had apprehended 200 Taliban who were trying to enter Pakistan after launching of military operation against them in Afghanistan by NATO and Afghan forces.APP learnt on Monday that talking to media personnel in Mazar Sharif, a city of Afghanistan; he said that groups of Taliban were trying to enter Pakistan via Pak-Afghan border to escape from NATO operation when they were arrested."

I'm not particularly familiar with that second news source, so I don't know how legit that is. Here is what wiki has to say about the paper though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation_%28newspaper%29

Quote :

"The Nation is an English-language newspaper in Pakistan.[1] It is published by Majid Nizami and edited by Shireen M. Mazari. Mazari replaced Arif Nizami on 7 September, 2009 who was earlier sacked by his uncle and the Waqt Media Group editor-in-chief and pulisher Majid Nizami.[2]. The roots of The Nation trace back to 1940 when Nawa-i-Waqt was formed. The English paper itself was launched towards the end of 1986 by Arif Nizami. The Nation is internationally the most quoted Pakistani newspaper.[3] The Nation rivals two Karachi-based dailys, Dawn and The News International"

But it is not all good news coming out the region:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/22/afghanistan.civilian.strike/index.html?hpt=T1

Quote :

"McChrystal apologizes as airstrike kills dozens in Afghanistan STORY HIGHLIGHTS * U.S. commander in Afghanistan expresses regret over NATO airstrike * Gen. McChrystal says "extremely saddened by tragic loss of innocent lives" * 27 civilians died, 14 wounded in attack, Afghan Interior Ministry says * Afghanistan calls attack "unjustifiable"; ISAF launches investigation"

2/22/2010 11:56:07 AM

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0224/Half-of-Afghanistan-Taliban-leadership-arrested-in-Pakistan

Quote :

"Half of Afghanistan Taliban leadership arrested in Pakistan Pakistan officials told the Monitor they have arrested nearly half – 7 of 15 – members of the Afghan Taliban's senior leadership council in recent days, including the Taliban head of military operations in Afghanistan. "

I think this puts it in better perspective than "oh, the next number 2 in line was caught"

2/25/2010 12:18:21 AM

he should give Bin Laden's location, then kindly ask that curling iron be removed from his ass

2/25/2010 4:05:21 PM

Here is the president's speech in Afghanistan today:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/hat/hat,http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/share/share,http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/modules/wh_multimedia/wh_jwplayer/plugins/captions/captions&captions.file=&stretching=fill&menu=false">


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/26/cnn-poll-jump-in-optimism-on-afghanistan/?fbid=CeukDESvFZn

Quote :

"March 26, 2010 CNN Poll: Jump in optimism on Afghanistan Washington (CNN) – Americans are growing more optimistic about the war in Afghanistan and opposition to the war has dropped below the 50 percent mark for the first time in nearly a year, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday indicates that 44 percent of the public says things are going well for the U.S. in Afghanistan, with 43 percent saying things are going badly. "That's a huge 23-point jump since last November, when two-thirds thought that things were going poorly in the war," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland."

3/29/2010 4:12:20 AM