Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.
This is VERY BAD NEWS...no sugar coating...BAD BEYOND WORDS.
Posted on 08/20/2007 1:25:17 PM PDT by Dog
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan let free as the government continues to press for peace in the Northwest Frontier Province
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.
As the Taliban fights the Pakistani military in an undeclared insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, the Pakistani government continues to sue for peace, and in the process, has released a senior al Qaeda operative. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, an al Qaeda operative and computer expert who “acted as a link between top al-Qaeda leaders and operational cells,” was released from Pakistani custody. Khan was captured in July of 2004 in the city of Lahore. An email chain recovered on Khan’s computer allowed Western intelligence agents to capture Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al Qaeda operative who was involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya & Tanzania.
The release of Khan from custody is an ominous sign. The Pakistani government released over 2,500 Taliban, al Qaeda, and associated Pakistani jihadis during the signing of the Waziristan Accord in September of 2006. Currently, the government is seeking to revive the North and South Waziristan Accords, which have been negated by Pakistani Taliban commanders. Baitullah Mehsud, the powerful Taliban commander in South Waziristan, called off the South Waziristan Accord over the weekend. The Pakistani government has sent several delegations to negotiate with the Taliban to maintain the North Waziristan Accord.
The government is pressing for negotiations as heated battles between Taliban and government military forces rage throughout North and South Waziristan. In the latest round of fighting, four soldiers were killed in suicide attacks and ambushes in North Waziristan, while military helicopters killed 15 "miscreants" in a strike on a compound. Fifteen Pakistani soldiers remain unaccounted for after being kidnapped in South Waziristan, while one of the soldiers was found beheaded. Over the weekend, the body of a beheaded religious leader was found in South Waziristan. Upwards of 300 police, paramilitary, and regular army soldiers have been killed throughout the Northwest Frontier Province since fighting intensified in mid-July.
Recently, 28 of the 29 Taliban and al Qaeda training camps in North and South Waziristan emptied out for reasons as of yet unknown to the Western intelligence community.
The Taliban, meanwhile, continue to grow in strength across the Northwest Frontier Province. The Pakistani government seeks to negotiate a deal with the Taliban in Darra Adamkhel. The Taliban are on a rampage ““to eliminate social evils from society after the local administration and jirga system have failed on this front.” The Taliban have kept the paramilitary forces pinned down at checkpoints as they hunt and kill “criminals” in the settled district.
Pakistan has also cut deals with the Taliban in the Bajaur agency, while the Taliban have de facto control over Bannu and Tank, and maintain a strong influence in the remaining tribal agencies and settled districts throughout the Northwest Frontier Province.
Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.
This is VERY BAD NEWS...no sugar coating...BAD BEYOND WORDS.
Check this out..
L
Check out this stunner.
Hmmm.
1. As the article states, part of the ongoing, though hush hush, reconciliation efforts under way, despite the fighting in many parts.
2. Would they release him without US approval?
3. If approval was given, is there more to this story than the surface details?
To the effect that Khan is.was turned? Or always was an official asset.....but then again, so much of that crowd always was in the hip pockets of the ISI....so where does the line lie.....
SNAFU. Clear as mud.
I hope they implanted a GPS transmitter along with a nice explosive device way up in one of his body cavities.
they may very well have done exactly that !!! Leads us to bin Laden and we can cook them all simultaniously.
IF they didn’t plant a tracking device...they should have just killed him
Very Bad.
And....”The Pakistani government released over 2,500 Taliban, al Qaeda, and associated Pakistani jihadis during the signing of the Waziristan Accord in September of 2006.”
WTF. NO wonder things got worse in Afghanistan.
Roggio got some bad Intel somewhere along the way. First of all, Pakistan isn't going to go suing for peace on bended knee after losing a mere 4 Pakistani soldiers to suicide attacks.
How quickly Bill forgets that Pakistan ate a Million casualties against India without so much as blinking.
Likewise, Roggio's repeated claims that somehow the Taliban has "gained strength" in NW Pakistan are disputed by the Taliban's inability to take any part of their anti-Musharaff war into any major Pakistani city.
In contrast, Musharaff just **CRUSHED** a hardline urban cleric, for instance. It is Musharaff who has grown stronger, not the Taliban.
...and if you want to watch a world news media and leadership in pure confusion, keep in mind that if Musharaff *was* really in trouble, that he could nuke those terrorists in his own country without any geopolitical fallout (heck, he could call it a simple nuclear "test" if he didn't want to publicize such an attack).
He's got nukes. They are on his territory. Thus, it is Musharaff who is in a position of strength. Commercial jets from all over the world fly into Hyderabad, Karachi, and Islamabad every day...yet neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda can commander so much as a single one to ram into any of Musharaff's Presidential palaces.
Frankly, one could make a case that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are weaker today in Pakistan than they were in the U.S. in 2001.
So I'm not sure where Roggio ran off the rails, but he's gotten way off track from the factual lines available to us today.
He claims that the Taliban/Al Qaeda are stronger...evidence shows that they are weaker.
Bill needs to regroup.
Pak releases Mohammed Noor Khan.
They don't have much time for a formal military putsch but plenty of time for terror campaigns. This one's ugly.
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