Maybe the writer was thinking of Lady Caroline Lamb's description of Byron: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
Posted on 06/17/2004 11:16:30 PM PDT by AdmSmith
ISLAMABAD (CNN) -- A tribal leader accused of harboring Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's western border region was killed Thursday night in a targeted missile strike, according to Pakistan intelligence sources. The Associated Press quoted an army spokesman Friday as identifying the tribal leader as Nek Mohammed, a former Taliban fighter.
He was killed late Thursday at the home of another tribal chief, the spokesman said.
"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Still, since we know their favorite make and model, it wouldn't be difficult to track down the retailer they're buying from. Bobby trap the phones.
--Boot Hill
Maybe the writer was thinking of Lady Caroline Lamb's description of Byron: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
Here's the article from some months ago:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1090319/posts
I guess Nek didn't read the NYT.
Here it is: the fatal interview:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3818005.stm
Tribal leader's last interview
Mohammed vowed to overthrow the Pakistani and Afghan regimes
Tribal leader Nek Mohammed has been killed by the Pakistani military in an overnight raid.
Twice this week, the BBC's Imtiaz Ali interviewed the targeted militant.
Mohammed spoke to our correspondent by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Q: It is said that you are a trained fighter because you have taken part in the Afghan wars.
Yes of course, I have spent a lot of time with the Taleban in Afghanistan. I went there soon after the completion of my religious education here. I fought alongside the Taleban against the Northern Alliance and then also against US aggression.
I was based in Bagram at the time of the US invasion of Afghanistan. Thousands of tribesmen took part in the Afghan jihad. Whenever foreign forces have committed aggression against Afghanistan, tribal people have always been at the forefront in support of their Afghan brethren against foreign invaders.
Q: The Pakistani government suspects you have given shelter to foreign elements who are believed to be al-Qaeda members.
That is totally baseless. During the Afghan jihad, scores of mujahideen from around the Muslim world came to Afghanistan to help Afghans in their holy war against the Russian aggression. Since that time these people have been living in Afghanistan as well as in tribal and some other urban parts of Pakistan.
Many of them have been living in tribal areas for more than 15 years. They married locally, have built their own houses. Now under the pressure of the United States, Pakistan has launched its operation in South Waziristan against what they call al-Qaeda suspects.
It is totally wrong that al-Qaeda members are hiding here. Those foreigners who are living here are not terrorists - rather they are mujahideen who took part in the Afghan jihad.
Q: Do you admit the presence of foreign people in Waziristan?
I admit that more than three million Afghan refugees migrated to Pakistan in the wake of Russian aggression against Afghanistan. Among them people of various races are included, like Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Pashtuns and Hazaras.
Q: But the Pakistani government is talking about suspected al-Qaeda fighters who are responsible for cross-border attacks on US forces in Afghanistan and also terrorist activities in Pakistan.
So far, the Pakistani army has conducted five military operation in various parts of South Waziristan on the excuse of hunting down al-Qaeda fugitives but so far they have bitterly failed to capture a single member of al-Qaeda. It shows the government is doing it just for the pleasure of the United States.
As far as the charges of cross-border terrorism are concerned, no-one so far has proved that Waziristan's soil is being used for attacks on US forces on the other side of the border.
There are frequent attacks on US forces near border areas but then US forces are also under attack in other provinces of Afghanistan and no-one can stop these attacks.
Q: President Pervez Musharraf and other government officials have claimed the presence of al-Qaeda No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, and Uzbek militant Tahir Yaldeshive.
These are no more than rumours continuously being churned out by the Western media. I don't think that such high-profile people can hide here.
Q: The government offered you an amnesty if you helped register foreign fighters but say you violated the agreement. What happened?
The registration of foreign elements was not part of the agreement. I never agreed to this.
I announced loyalty with the government of Pakistan and committed that I and my colleagues would not do anything harmful to the interests of Pakistan.
However, the government violated the agreement and now we will teach them a lesson.
Q: Then why did you initially surrender to the government under the agreement?
I did not surrender to the government. That is totally wrong. Surrender means when you give up your mission and everything and this is not the case. I stand by my point of view and will fight till the end.
Q: It is said you have received monetary benefits from foreign people who are living in South Waziristan.
History is evident to the fact that tribal people have never accepted any monetary benefits from foreigners nor have they accepted the rule of the outsider. It is not a matter of money but it is a matter of faith.
Q: You mean you sheltered foreign elements on the basis of Islamic ideology?
It is crystal clear that these holy warriors were brought here by the successive regimes in Pakistan. Now it is not a matter of al-Qaeda, but it is a question of Islam.
Tribesmen are pure Muslims and that is why they are helping their mujahideen brothers.
Q: The government wants to once again start the political process to solve the controversy of foreign elements. Would you talk to the government about this?
No. In no way. I totally reject this process. The government has started fresh military operations and we will resist them and we will continue our struggle till achieving our goal.
Q: What is your goal?
It is very clear. We want to eradicate the US-installed puppet governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Once we overthrow them, then there will be peace and no-one will be able to harm Muslims.
Moreover, the "chips" described in your article only refer to a billing method for cell phone usage, that can be purchased anonymously. The phones themselves, still transmits a header that, I believe, includes the information I mentioned: make, model and SN of the phone.
That information is sufficient to make a bobby trapping operation a possibility.
--Boot Hill
Interesting. The fatal interview.
"I stand by my point of view and will fight till the end."
The end came sooner and faster for him than he thought.
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
There ya go!
I went back and re-read the article myself. I see what you mean about the Swisscom phones being normal cell phone chips. the article does note that OBL was reportedly heard using a satellite phone in the Tora Bora area in 2001, but that he has since moved to more secure currier communication.
One would have thought that others that run in those circles would have gotten the message that calls, whether landline, cell or satellite, can be traced. Maybe Nek thought talking with the BBC made him invulnerable.
This is one of the things that tripped up Tim McVeigh. He used "anonymous" telephone calling cards and thought that protected him. But the FBI was able to trace the calls he made with those cards and got a mountain of evidence on him. IIRC, they tracked down his purchase of those infamous blue barrels as well as his purchase of the nitro-methane.
A good example of how slow these guy are to learn, is their reliance on computers and how much we glean from the hard drives when we capture a HVT.
--Boot Hill
Yeah. Take a look at the story about the air strike against a target in Fallujah. Could Zarqawi have gotten sloppy?
Local residents say an unmanned drone, which was in the area, fired the missile at the house
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en68389&F_catID=&f_type=source
Nek buried in silence
WANA - Former Taliban commander Nek Mohammad along with other nine militants, including five close associates, was killed late Thursday night in an air strike by a number of jet fighters and gunship helicopters at one of the hideouts of foreign militants at Doog village.
According to the sources, a precision-guided missile hit the house while Nek Mohammad was giving an interview. During the last several days, he gave frequent interviews to a number of electronic media networks.
Local residents say an unmanned drone, which was in the area, fired the missile at the house, while the ISPR chief General Shukat Sultan is reported by BBC as saying: "We were tracking him down and he was killed (Thursday) night by our hand."
"A high-intensity explosive material went off with a big bang when Nek was talking on his phone inside the house," an eye-witness told The Nation.
"It was a laser-guided missile that hit the hideout at 9:40 pm," told some of the tribesmen present on the occasion.
According to reports from Kalushah, Nek Mohammad was being interviewed by a foreign media agency through a satellite phone when his hideout was attacked. He sustained serious injuries and was rushed to the headquarter hospital where he succumbed to his injuries at 2.00 am. His body was later shifted to his demolished house at Kalushah.
Nek Mohammad, who belonged to Ahmadzai Wazir tribes of South Waziristan Agency, was laid to rest Friday morning in his ancestral graveyard at village Kalushah near Azam Warsak. His Namaz-i-Janaza was attended by around 15,000 tribesmen, however, none of his top aides was present on the occasion.
Hundreds of his supporters and colleagues, known as mujahideen, were present during the funeral procession where they remained silent spectators, said sources from the area.
According to the unconfirmed reports, five of the dead are from the clans of Ahmadzai Wazir while identity of four others is yet to be ascertained. However, it is confirmed that these four are foreigners who were present in the house of one Sher Zaman where they, along with Nek Mohammad, were invited to a dinner. A number of family members of Sher Zaman are also said to have been killed in the attack.
While the ISPR said security forces killed six miscreants including Nek Mohammad and his two associates.
It is pertinent to mention that close aides of Nek Mohammad, such as his uncles Mohammad Sharif and Noor Islam along with Maulvi Abbas, Abdul Aziz, Javed, Abbas, Eida Khan and Dawar Khan, fearing attack on them, did not turn up at the village for the burial. Security forces have cordoned off the entire area including all the routes leading to it.
More such attacks were also launched at other parts of Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, Thursday night by the government security forces. Unconfirmed reports estimate over 50 casualties in these attacks, for which over 25 jet fighters and gunship helicopters landed at the Wana airport since Thursday morning.
The overall situation in Wana and its surrounding areas was quiet on Friday while the personnel of military and para-military troops were confined to their check-posts and barracks.
Nek Mohammad, who belonged to the Yargulkhel clan of Ahmadzai Wazir tribes, became popular for extending cooperation to a large number of Al-Qaeda fugitives after the Taliban regime?s collapse in Kabul in November 2001.
Nek had crossed into Afghanistan in 1997 and joined the then commander of Kargha Garrison, Maulvi Gul Mohammad who later was killed in an armed attack by the US-led coalition forces in north of Kabul.
Director General ISPR Major General Shaukat Sultan said the security forces were targeting suspected hideouts of the militants and also tracking the movements of Nek Muhammad. He said the forces targeted a house Thursday night where they suspected that Nek Muhammad and other militants were taking shelter.
He said as a result of the firing, Nek Muhammad and two of his associates were killed.
Major General Shaukat Sultan said that the government hopes that the miscreants would accept its amnesty offer in which they have been asked to surrender unconditionally and the foreign elements should get themselves registered.
He said the government has accelerated the political process and hoped that normalcy would return very soon to the area.
A drone. Good.
"Nek Mohammad along with other nine militants, including five close associates, was killed " (*were killed)
Didn't realize they got so many. Good deal. Doesn't say to whom he was giving an interview. I guess we assume the interviewer is also deceased?
"none of his top aides was present on the occasion."
hmmm.....wonder why? lol.
There are several things in this article that catch my attention. This is one of them:
"A high-intensity explosive material went off with a big bang when Nek was talking on his phone inside the house," an eye-witness told The Nation.
1. I've never heard of a high-intensity explosive material going off that DID NOT produce a big bang. :-)
2. The man couldn't leave his phone alone. That was his undoing.
3. Can you imagine what the guy on the other end of the phone thought? Is his ear still working?
I often read your comments when I see them on here - You have very good insight usually concerning the WOT -
Just like to ask - Your thoughts on UBL - dead or alive?
LoL. Whaattt? Whaattt?
On the technical capabilities I'm short on knowledge. There are more than a few people on FR that follow these things very closely, or have real experience to share. I'm not one of them.
Reminds me of the story some months ago about the guy who burned his butt when his mobile phone blew up. I came across it this morning when I was looking for a story about Swisscom phones and the tracking of al-Qaeda types.
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