[jlogajan]

A former Pakistani spy master with links to the Taliban claims that al-Qaeda has captured American prisoners in eastern Afghanistan, forcing U.S. troops to end the siege of their stronghold and withdraw.

This reminds me of the Monty Python skit where a couple of low level mobsters went around to a military base and tried to threaten the camp commander -- "You don't want some of your tanks to get broke, now do ya?"

[not-an-ostrich]

I have been reading references to Mr. Hamid Gul since the Terror War started. He is an agitator supreme.

[AGAviator]

Gul has had some really poor information for an ex-intelligence chief and among other things have said the Israelis instigated the September 11 attacks. He's not really believable all the time.

[Eternal_Bear]

This is an obvious lie though i have seen our SF soldiers dressed in Afghani garb. The Germans would dress up like Tito's partisans during WW2 to infiltrate Tito's bases but i don't think it was too successful.

[SunStar]

This was reported two days ago by a Pakistani newspaper. Other than that, no corroberating reports have been established, especially in the Western media. Shame on NewsMax for running with this story without proof. It sounded like a propaganda piece two days ago, and it still sounds like one.

[wimpycat]

Talking to United Press International from his home in Islamabad, Gen. Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence,...

He's the former head of ISI. Didn't Musharref fire a bunch of those Taliban sympathizers early on after 9-11? I don't believe anything he says.

Here's how I see it. During the Kosovo action, the Serbs made many allegations (us hitting civilians) which the U.S. initially denied, but later turned out to be true. This time around, how many times have the enemy or enemy sympathizers (such as Gen. Gul) made allegations that the Pentagon has denied, but that turned out to be true?

During Kosovo, the Serb allegations about what our military was doing turned out to be mostly, if not entirely, true. The enemy-sympathizing Pakistanis' track record hasn't been as good. Their credibility record leaves a lot to be desired, and the Pentagon's credibility record gives me no reason to doubt their word now.

Therefore, I think this General Gul is full of crap!

[No Truce With Kings]

Let's see if I understand this. Al Qaeda captures U.S. troops, and the reaction of the United States is to back off and let the bad guye escape.

Does that really sound credible? We are dealing with a military that will suffer enormous casualties in order to recover a dead comrade, and that goes into afterburner to recover prisoners. Most of our casualties in both Mogadishu and in this latest Afghan battle resulted from attempts to rescue missing or downed people.

The US armed forces in Afghanistan learn that the baddies are holding some of our guys prisoner. Which reaction seems more likely

1. We tippy-toe away from the battlefield, and let the bad guys get away, as suggested in this article.

2. We go in with a reinforced brigade, three air wings, and everything short of tac nukes to rescue the prisoners.

Anyone chosing (1) needs to get somewhere where they can get more oxygen to their brain.

[Ranger]

Gul is not a friend of ours and probably not telling the truth. He has historically exaggerated or distorted his information.

There may be some truth to his statement about prisoners. There was a report this weekend from a witness who reported seeing a blonde man with a military haircut being tortured in one of the caves. The man was not identified by nationality. The fact that the Pentagon denied it doesn't mean some other agency or country has lost an agent or freelancer.

The bigger question is what does Gul have to gain by making this statement? I suspect he is trying to sell his services in one form or another.

[Campion]

Hamid Gul is very much pro-Taliban and pro-al-Qaeda and therefore anti-American.

It's a no-brainer to see that this story of his is a lie. If it were the truth, al-Qaeda would have certainly smuggled out video of their prizes and said video would have been proudly shown around the Arab world on al-Jazeera.

That this hasn't happened is proof positive that Gul is lying.