Is the ISI coming around? Taliban # 2 nabbed

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top ranking military comander of the Taliban has been captured in a joint CIA- ISI (Pakistani Intelligence Agency) raid in Karachi. The significance of this news cannot be understated. This is a big big deal on many levels.

First and foremost, Baradar is a high value target on par with Osama bin Laden. His value and influence as a commander, leader and inspiration to the rank and file Taliban is second only to Spiritual Leader Omar Mullah. He is probably the highest value target captured during our time in Afghanistan. The timing and coordination of the raid is also important. It comes during a period of increasingly worrying signs from Pakistan, that cooperation with US intelligence and military leaders was becoming strained. The Pakistanis have publicly voiced their opposition to US intelligence presence and drone strikes over the Pakistani-Afghan border and indicated that a final push into the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) was not on their agenda. Although, behind the scenes, their is ample evidence of cooperation, public opinion in Pakistan is vehemently anti American. An ongoing and public struggle between the military and civilian leadership over control of nuclear assets and military operations has tended to pander to popular opinion, causing significant concern in Washington.



The ISI has a long history of supporting jihadist networks as a counter balance to its traditional enemy, India, in both Kashmir and Afghanistan, and it has been a long uphill struggle to wean the intelligence community from their long and natural ties to the extremists. That the ISI would so openly embrace a coordinated operation in the heartland of Pakistan, far from the NWFP where the CIA presence is more common, suggests that intelligence cooperation is improving and that the Pakistanis are beginning to understand that the Taliban and jihadist networks are a threat not only to their "allies" fighting in Afghanistan, but also to Pakistani sovereignty itself.

This is an unqualified success story of intelligence cooperation and the evolution of Pakistan into what will hopefully continue to be a partner in our efforts to bring the NWFP under government control and eliminate it as a cross border safe haven for our enemies in Afghanistan. I am sure more details will arise later this week. Hopefully he is amenable to "intelligence gathering" that will help with Operation Moshtarak and efforts to locate Mullah Omar, the Taliban spiritual leader believed to also be in Pakistan. It will also be interesting to see where, if anywhere, Baradar is eventually brought to stand trial...Very unusual to capture a guy like this alive.