Hakimullah Mehsud, the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban, gave his inaugural press conference yesterday — The Associated Press’ Ishtiaq Mehsud reports in an understatement, “he did not appear to be a nervous fugitive in hiding from Pakistan soldiers and U.S. drones” — and apparently Hakimullah likes to keep things More…
If it’s a population-protection mission you’re after in Afghanistan, then placing U.S. troops far from the population doesn’t make much sense. And counterterrorism efforts don’t seem to be particularly sensible in these cases either. McClatchy:
“These (outposts) are costly and dangerous and not doing much to bring security to
For a different take on the Beitullah Mehsud killing, commenter Abujeeyun has a great series of observations counterbalancing my own. We got into a bit of a discussion comparing Mehsud’s death to the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Here’s Abujeeyun’s comment in full:
A long,
I’ve poked fun at State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood before, so it’s only right that I say that he strikes a pleasing tone about the reported death of Pakistani Taliban leader Beitullah Mehsud.
QUESTION: Can you talk about [what] it means if he is dead? I know
Aides to Pakistani Taliban leader Beitullah Mehsud confirm that a CIA drone strike has killed the man who inspired and led a vicious insurgency from the tribal areas into the Swat valley. Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Quraishi, said Mehsud’s death is “is almost confirmed” through an on-the-ground verification More…
As if to remind people why there was a “serious” CIA program possibly aimed at assassinating members of al-Qaeda, bin Laden lieutenant Ayman Zawahiri has a new audiotape message to the Pakistani people. It’s what you’d expect: only Zawahiri’s allies in the Pakistani Taliban represent the historic More…
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