WASHINGTON — The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.
The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.
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.
President Obama handled himself very well today on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer but man did it seem like it was an interview for GOPolitico chocked full of right wing talking points. Just a few.
Schieffer: This has really now become your war, hasn't it?
snip
Schieffer: Are you giving our commanders now in Afghanistan a green light to go after these people even if they're in what used to be safe havens in Pakistan?
Schieffer: But you're talking about going after them. Are you talking about with American boots on the ground?
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Schieffer: You campaigned on cutting taxes for the middle class.
Schieffer: And yet lately I don't see any middle-class tax cut in the version of the budget that's going through the Senate right now. You have suggested that maybe you'd let the tax cut you put for the middle class in the stimulus bill run out next year. Can you tell us, are you still pushing a middle-class tax cut? I know you said you want the Congress to follow the principles
snip
Schieffer: - a middle-class tax cut. I want to ask you also about the, these bonuses and all that on Wall Street. Congress expressed outrage. You seemed outraged. And then after the Congress, the House passed the bill to get that money back with some kind of taxes on those, on those people, you seemed to throw a little cold water on that.
Schieffer: You said we shouldn't legislate down a banker. Have you now, on reflection, decided that maybe you let that go a little too far?
I guess thats just something we will have to get used to for the next 4 to hopefully 8 years. Anyway here is the video of the interview. Enjoy.
As I have said before I am nobody's foreign policy wonk. I can't tell you the ulterior motives of X versus the political motives of Y when it comes to how many countries interact. And the truth is when it comes to the Israel/Palestinian conflict I will acknowledge that I am under informed. However I know what I feel when I see the carnage that has been unleashed by the Israeli airstrikes this morning, and that feeling is that it was wrong. I get that there have been rocket attacks into southern Israel. I get that the ceasefire wasn't extended. But in Israel you have a country with technologically advanced armaments. They have all manner of tanks and helicopters and warships. They also have an organized military with and a highly regarded civilian security apparatus. Palestine has none of those things. So my questions are these: Why is the response to unsophisticated rocket attacks, a show of overwhelming indiscriminate force? You have 155 dead and more than 200 wounded and those numbers are rising every hour and for what? How does this strike make Israel any more secure or safe? Why did they launch attacks at a time when its widely known that kids are getting out of school? How is that justified?
First of all it seems apparent that these air strikes will do nothing to curtail the rocket strikes from Gaza. Not only that it would seem that these strikes will have the effect of garnering support for the Palestinian cause from other Arab and Muslim states and countries. Secondly am I really to believe that these strikes were meant to hit the actual terrorists who were launching the rocket strikes when there was so much collateral damage?
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.[1] At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism.[2][3] Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.
Now I defy anyone to explain to me how the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip do not fit quite neatly into that definition.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day of fighting in recent memory.
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Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said "the operation will last as long as necessary," but it was not clear if it would be coupled with a ground offensive. Asked if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said, "Any Hamas target is a target."
The strikes caused widespread panic and confusion in Gaza, as black clouds of smoke rose above the territory, ruled by Hamas for the past 18 months. Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children.
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"My son is gone, my son is gone," wailed Masri, 57. The shopkeeper said he sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. "May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn," Masri moaned.
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Protests erupted in the Abbas-ruled West Bank and across the Arab world.
Several hundred angry Jordanians poured protested outside a U.N. complex in the capital Amman. "Hamas, go ahead. You are the cannon, we are the bullets," they cried, some waving the signature green Hamas banners.
In Beirut, dozens of youths hit the streets and set fire to tires. In Syria's al-Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, dozens of Palestinians protested the attack as well, vowing to continue fighting Israel.
snip
Hospitals crowded with people, civilians rushing in wounded people in cars, vans and ambulances. "We are treating people on the floor, in the corridors. We have no more space. We don't know who is here and what the priority is to treat," said a doctor at Shifa Hospital, Gaza's main treatment center. He hung up the phone before identifying himself.
Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, a Gaza Health Ministry official, said at least 145 people were killed and more than 300 wounded.
Frantic civilians drove wounded people to hospitals in their cars.
In the West Bank, Hamas' rival, Abbas, said in a statement that he "condemns this aggression" and called for restraint, according to an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Abbas, who has ruled only the West Bank since the Islamic Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, was in contact with Arab leaders, and his West Bank Cabinet convened an emergency session.
Israel has targeted Gaza in the past, but the number of simultaneous attacks was unprecedented.
Now at what point do we as the citizens of the United States of America feel it appropriate to call a spade a spade and say that wrong is wrong? At what point do we admonish Israel for these kinds of attacks which do nothing to promote peace nor security? At what point do we have the courage to say that Israel is wrong in this instance and we will not stand with them if they continue such actions? I don't think that takes a PHD in foreign policy to make that kind of declaration, honestly. In my opinion it only takes a conscious and common sense and I would think that most of us in this country still have both.
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