Mullah Omar Captured?
BY Herschel Smith
14 years, 7 months ago
Has Mullah Omar been captured? Brad Thor is saying as much over at Big Government.
Through key intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I have just learned that reclusive Taliban leader and top Osama bin Laden ally, Mullah Omar has been taken into custody.
According to the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program there is a bounty of up to $10 million on Omar for sheltering Osama bin-Laden and his al-Qaeda network in the years prior to the September 11 attacks as well as the period during and immediately thereafter.
At the end of March, US Military Intelligence was informed by US operatives working in the Af/Pak theater on behalf of the D.O.D. that Omar had been detained by Pakistani authorities. One would assume that this would be passed up the chain and that the Secretary of Defense would have been alerted immediately. From what I am hearing, that may not have been the case.
This sounds too bizarre to be believed as is. There has to be more to it than the information wasn’t passed up the chain of command. But in lieu of confirmation, I’ll make three observations.
First, the insurgency will not die with the capture of Omar. While a powerful figure, his actual control over his fighters wasn’t significant. Furthermore, the inbreeding of al Qaeda ideology, Tehrik-i-Taliban radicalism and Afghan Taliban is pretty much complete. They all swim in the same waters. Second, even though this is true, it is a good thing if Mullah Omar has been captured. Third, I’ll wait on official confirmation before saying any more. This has the distinct possibility of being a ruse or a mistake. I lost track of the number of times that Baitullah Mehsud was allegedly killed. Now Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed – but wait, no he hasn’t and there is evidence of his being alive.
This is why I don’t usually cover HVT killings. In general I don’t think that they are very effective, and quite often the information is wrong. I think I’ll just wait before breaking out the champagne.
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