Lt. Colonel Oliver North confirms Mullah Omar capture

Update on Brad Thor's "absurd" claim at Big Government that Mullah Omar had been captured in Pakistan.  From a Big Government upate today by Thor:

Late this afternoon Lt. Colonel Oliver North confirmed that Taliban leader and Osama bin Laden ally, Mullah Mohammed Omar has been captured. The exclusive news of Omar’s capture was broken by Big Government Monday evening.

According to Colonel North, Omar was picked up in Karachi on March 27th by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) who placed him under house arrest in what they call “community care.”

Per North’s sources, “[Omar] has since been transferred to a secret ISI lock-up under the Pakistani euphemism: “institutional care.”

North goes on to state, “According to several reports, all of this information was confirmed to U.S. officials by a senior Pakistani military officer ‘several weeks ago.’” A fact also broken in Monday’s Big Government exclusive.

Last weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton created a “diplomatic firestorm” when she indicted Pakistani cooperation with the U.S. in the hunt for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. Said Clinton, “I believe somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda is (sic), where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is (sic)…”

North hopes the Secretary was “dissembling,” because intelligence sources here in the U.S. and Afghanistan have informed him that Pakistani officials “know exactly where Mullah Omar is: in the hands of the ISI.” Driving the point home, North added, “This should not be news to the U.S. Secretary of State.”

So what’s at stake and why did the Pakistanis grab Omar? As I reported earlier today, and as Colonel North confirms, everything is revolving around the so-called peace jirga between the Karzai government and the Taliban. “The ISI intends to be in the driver’s seat when the ‘Peace Talks’ get underway in Afghanistan later this month,” says North. “And the ISI officers calling the shots know Mullah Omar is the best bargaining chip they have.”

Of additional note in North’s reporting are the predictions that an immediate, Vietnam-style, “cease fire” may be a pre-requisite for talks, as might a demand that Omar be granted safe haven in Saudi Arabia. The latter likely being an untenable requirement for the United States.

Yeah.  Now that Americans know he's in custody.  Thanks to Thor and Andrew Breitbart.

Breaking: Taliban top military chief captured in Karachi

The New York Times is reporting that the Taliban's top military leader has been captured :

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

The Times actually knew about the capture last week, but held the story at the request of the White House:

The New York Times learned of the operation on Thursday, but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who contended that making it public would end a hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort. The officials said that the group’s leaders had been unaware of Mullah Baradar’s capture and that if it became public they might cover their tracks and become more careful about communicating with each other.

When informed of Baradar's capture, one former CIA official told the Times that the raid constituted a "sea change in Pakistani behavior."  Let's hope Pakistan's enhanced cooperation will help the CIA shut down the Taliban, once and for all.

Kudos to the CIA for another job well done.

Pakistan state television: Taliban chief dead

Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead according to Pakistan state television.  According to a Fox News correspondent in Pakistan, intelligence sources confirm that Mehsud was injured in a U.S. drone attack around January 14th and subsequently succumbed to his injuries.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

If the latest reports of his demise prove true, it would be the second time in six months that American missiles have slain the leader of the Pakistan Taliban; Mr. Mehsud's predecessor -- Baitullah Mehsud (no relation) -- was killed in August by a U.S. drone.

Sunday's report also was not the first time Hakimullah Mehsud, who is in his late 20s or early 30s, was said to have died. For almost two months after he was named the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan movement, Pakistani and U.S. officials insisted he had been killed in a power struggle for control of the group. The rumors didn't stop circulating until he held a small press conference in the tribal areas in early October.

Mr. Mehsud has since gone on to order a series of terror attacks on Pakistan's major cities. But he has also faced an onslaught from Pakistan's army in his home base, the South Waziristan tribal area.

At the same time, he has moved up the U.S. hit list. The U.S. attempts to kill Mr. Mehsud with missile strikes increased after the release in January of a video showing him with the al Qaeda double agent who blew himself up at an American base in eastern Afghanistan in late December, killing seven agents and contractors for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA has had the difficult mission of protecting our interests abroad while simultaneously being undermined and interrogated by our own justice department, and impugned and second-guessed by the speaker of the house. The seven CIA casualties sustained in last month's homicide bomber attack in Afghanistan was second only to the eight killed in the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983.  It's been a tough year for the CIA.  Hopefully the elimination of the second Pakistan Taliban chief in six months portends a better year ahead for these brave Americans.