Pak ISI helped Taliban supremo Mullah Omar flee

ISI helped Taliban supremo Mullah Omar flee from Quetta to Karachi



WASHINGTON: Fearing that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar might be targetted by US drones, Pakistan's ISI has helped him to flee from the border town of Quetta to the mega port city of Karachi, where he has established a new Shura council.

One-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban recently found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) assistance, the Washington Times reported quoting US intelligence officials.

"Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so far has escaped US and Pakistani counter-terrorism campaigns," the officials said.

The paper said the ISI helped Mullah Omar move from Quetta, where they felt he was exposed to attacks by unmanned US drones.

"The development reinforces suspicions that the ISI, which helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to expand Pakistani influence in Afghanistan, is working against US interests in Afghanistan as the Obama administration prepares to send more US troops to fight there," the daily said.

Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran and analyst on al Qaeda and the Taliban, confirmed that Mullah Omar had been spotted in Karachi recently, the daily said.

"Some sources claim the ISI decided to move him further from the battlefield to keep him safe" from US drone attacks, Riedel was quoted as saying.

"There are huge madrassas in Karachi where Mullah Omar could easily be kept," he said.

Riedel noted that there had been few suicide bombings in Karachi, which he attributed to the Taliban and al Qaeda not wanting to "foul their own nest".

At the same time, the daily said so far there has been no indication that the top Al Qaeda leadership too had moved to Karachi.

Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are still thought to be in the tribal region of Pakistan on Afghanistan's border, he said.

However, the newspaper said according to intelligence officials, other mid-level al Qaeda operatives who facilitate the travel and training of foreign fighters have moved to the Karachi metropolitan area, which with 18 million people is Pakistan's most populous city.

"One reason, [al Qaeda] and Taliban leaders are relocating to Karachi is because they believe US drones do not strike there," a official was quoted as saying adding that it is a densely populated urban area.

Re: Pak ISI helped Taliban supremo Mullah Omar fle

Act against Lashkar-e-Taiba or we will: Obama tells Zardari

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's double standards on jihadi groups has finally incurred US wrath, with President Barack Obama writing to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari recently that the US would no longer tolerate Islamabad's reluctance to act against Lashkar-e-Taiba and other jihadi groups.

According to a report in The Washington Post, Obama also warned Pakistan that its use of insurgent groups for policy goals "cannot continue" and called for closer collaboration against all extremist groups. He named five such groups — Al Qaida, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Tehrik-e-Taliban. "Using vague diplomatic language, he said that ambiguity in Pakistan's relationship with any of them could no longer be ignored," the report said.

In exchange for a change of tack, Pakistan has been promised better ties with the US and an offer to help with the efforts to normalise its relations with India. It is probably the first time that a US president is making India an instrument in stabilising the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. From the point of view of the US, it's a good tactic, because it eliminates the room for India to complain, while taking Pakistan's primary ``concern'' on board.

According to the Post report, US national security advisor Jim Jones recently travelled to Pakistan to deliver a blunt message — ``if Pakistan cannot deliver, the United States may be impelled to use any means at its disposal to rout insurgents based along Pakistan's western and southern borders with Afghanistan''.

The US already deploys Hellfire missiles from Predator drones, and the threat is to escalate these attacks.

In return for Pakistan changing its strategic trajectory, Obama has promised a more enhanced US-Pakistan relationship, including working on India.

While Obama's message in the two-page letter that Jones carried to Pakistan marks an interesting development, translating the tough intent into action may not be easy, according to experts.

For the immediate future, the US will find it very difficult to get Pakistan to change its strategic course, unless it becomes clear to Pakistan that the alternative is far worse. But to expect Pakistan's intelligence-military complex to give up its connections with the carefully built-up jihad factory is a tall order, particularly if Pakistan feels the loss of its "strategic depth" in Afghanistan.

The letter, hand delivered by Jones, offers Pakistan enhancement of strategic partnership if they act as wished by the US, besides additional military and economic aid. The US also promised to work to improve relations with India.

The key to Obama's Afghanistan strategy will hinge almost completely on whether US can get Pakistan to change its strategy. So far, Pakistan has lurched from crisis to political crisis, the current one threatening to claim the head of Zardari. To that extent, how effective will Obama's letter be, ask Indian analysts.

Ultimately, the carrot-stick approach can only be applied to the military, which, in turn could undermine America's declared policy of supporting the civilian government in Pakistan.

The Post said, "Obama's speech Tuesday night at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, will address primarily the Afghanistan aspects of the strategy. But despite the public and political attention focused on the number of new troops, Pakistan has been the hot core of the months-long strategy review. The long-term consequences of failure there, the review concluded, far outweigh those in Afghanistan." Senior officials are quoted as saying the US was playing a "cat-and-mouse game with Pakistan" for some time.

Pakistan realises it is vital to the successful execution of Obama's "war of necessity" and is likely to push for greater manouvering space, as it has, successfully, all these years. The US policy to Pakistan thus far was built around incentives, without anything on what would happen if Pakistan did not act.

Pakistan's role is showing up in stark form. British PM Gordon Brown, after saying some time back that 75% of terror attacks in the UK have a Pakistan connection, told a TV interviewer, "People are going to ask why, eight years after 2001, Osama bin Laden has never been near to being caught."

"Al Qaida has a base in Pakistan," Brown said in an interview with Sky News. "That base is still there, they are able to recruit from abroad. The Pakistan authorities must convince us that they are taking all the action that is necessary to deal with that threat."
Some in India see that, maybe, that could be changing.