Free Republic

Yes, you could argue, were you so inclined, that Benazir Bhutto might well be alive today if only Washington had not leaned on her to return to Pakistan for the sake of a U.S.-brokered political deal that was perhaps not in her personal best interest. More to the point, you could argue that Benazir Bhutto might well be alive today if only Abdullah Mehsud had not been let loose from Guantanamo, where he plainly belonged, regardless of what the bleaters and hand-wringers thought about that. But, as our Washington man James Gordon Meek today reports, Mehsud convinced somebody in charge...

Calling him a "senior Taliban commander," The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Abdullah Mehsud blew himself up at his hide-out in the town of Zhob in southwestern Baluchistan Province in Pakistan, rather than surrender to government forces. But what was he doing commanding Taliban troops in the first place? Mehsud had been captured by American forces in northern Afghanistan in December 2001 and sent to the Guantanamo Detention Center. The reason he was able to resume his duties as a Taliban commander is because we released him from Guantanamo in March 2004. The Times reported that "upon his...

Abdullah Mehsud dead: spokesman Staff Report PESHAWAR: A spokesman for wanted tribal militant Abdullah Mehsud claimed on Sunday that the kidnapper of two Chinese engineers “died of his wounds” after a bullet pierced his chest in an Army commandos-led operation in North Waziristan Agency on March 5. Abdullah died of his wounds on Thursday (March 10) at an unknown location, the spokesman told tribal journalist Sailab Mehsud who “Abdullah wished to be called first to give the news of his martyrdom.” The spokesman for the one-legged militant, former Guantanamo Bay inmate, said the 28-year-old Abdullah was hit by bullets in...

WANA, Pakistan - Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships poured artillery and mortar fire at al-Qaida-linked militants led by a former Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prisoner hiding in a mountainous village near the Afghan border, officials said. Led by Abdullah Mehsud, the former prisoner, the militants returned fire at the troops. The rebels also fired rockets Thursday at a nearby army base, but they landed in an open field, causing no harm, said an official in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. Authorities say hundreds of Central Asian, Afghan and Arab militants suspected of having links with al-Qaida are in...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will hunt down a former Guantanamo Bay inmate who masterminded the abduction of two Chinese engineers, one of whom died after a rescue operation in which five kidnappers were killed, officials said Friday. Al Qaeda-linked tribesman Abdullah Mehsud directed the six-day hostage drama -- which caused consternation in key ally China -- from a hideout in the hills of the South Waziristan tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, they said. After Pakistani commandos killed the kidnappers in the nearby Chagmalai area Thursday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf promised Chinese President Hu Jintao the masterminds would be...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Chinese engineer held hostage by al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan was killed on Thursday but his colleague rescued in a commando assault that killed their five kidnappers, officials said. Chinese engineers Wang Ende and Wang Peng were heading to work on a dam project in the remote South Waziristan tribal region when they were kidnapped on Saturday by Uzbek and Pakistani militants led by a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. Wang Peng, who had worked as a surveyor on the project, was critically hurt by gunfire from the kidnappers and later died, said Pakistani military spokesman...