Pakistan draws a bead on Baitullah [ Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud ]

Asia Times Online ^ | Saturday, July 26, 2008 | Syed Saleem Shahzad

[SunkenCiv]

Baitullah, who operates in the South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, has frequently fallen out with the Afghan Taliban for directing his jihadis against the Pakistani security forces rather than sending them to Afghanistan...

Over the past few months, Pakistani security agencies and coalition leaders from Afghanistan have shared intelligence in an attempt to track down Baitullah and pinpoint where he gets his resources, but he remains elusive...

Mehsud called a meeting in South Waziristan of all powerful commanders from the Pakistani tribal agencies and announced that the minute any attack was mounted anywhere against militants, offensives would be launched against the Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas as well as on the federal capital, Islamabad, and on the leadership and allies of the leading party in the ruling coalition, the Pakistan People's Party.

Further, President Pervez Musharraf and his associates and anyone connected with the storming in Islamabad last year of the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), which was pro-Taliban, would also be targeted.

Subsequently, the Pakistani security agencies advised the government to immediately withdraw the forces. The reasoning was that Pakistan could withstand pressure from the United States to act against militants, but it could not win a showdown with Baitullah. A high-level meeting presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[Recon Dad]

The reasoning was that Pakistan could withstand pressure from the United States to act against militants, but it could not win a showdown with Baitullah

As one “fat ass” once said;

“no controlling legal authority”

Pakistan has kept us out of the tribal areas too long.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the close:

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With each consolidation of Baitullah's power, Islamabad, along with its Western allies, becomes all the more convinced that he has to be eliminated, otherwise there can never be any sustained military operations against militants in the tribal areas. His demise would also lead to the disintegration of the Taliban's and al-Qaeda's networks in the tribal areas, leaving only weakened stand-alone outfits.

Baitullah is well aware that he is now public enemy number one. A senior Pakistani affiliate of al-Qaeda, now close to Baitullah, told Asia Times Online, "It is not Baitullah Mehsud's style to hide when people sniff around him. He will open the floodgates of offensives and if there is a conspiracy between Islamabad and the political and military leadership, they will taste Baitullah's response."

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Time to get the Forces into place....

[Marine_Uncle]

Obviously this goon must soon be rubbed out, along with all his key personnel wherever they reside/roam. Hope it is sooner then later. The Pakistani government and military must start showing they have the power to put down radical Islamic factions regardless of their ties to any of the Pakistani government’s arms. These clowns have been as bad as the US Congress and their masters who have for to long protected to damn many Islamist. Time for some adjustments to be made.