Dick Cheney Wins the Day in Pakistan

The left may call him Darth Cheney but we on the right love him. Seems Vice President Cheney may have flexed a little muscle on his recent trip to Pakistan. Following is the full text of an ABCNEWS.com story and the link to the same.

Major Taliban Leader Arrested; Cheney Pakistan Trip Credited
March 01, 2007 4:00 PM

Brian Ross and Martha Raddatz Report:

The reported arrest of at least one top Taliban leader in Quetta, Pakistan may be the first sign that Vice President Dick Cheney's trip there this week worked.

Pakistani officials identified one of the men as Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, considered the third in command of the Taliban.

The arrest reportedly came only hours after Vice President Cheney left Pakistan, after confronting President Pervez Musharraf with "compelling evidence" of the resurgence of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan.

"His arrest would be huge, if confirmed," said Barnett Rubin, a New York University professor who testified today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the resurgence of the Taliban in Pakistan.

It was the first time Pakistan had arrested a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001, and thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan.As ABC News has reported, the failure of Musharraf government to actively pursue Taliban leaders has long been a sore subject with U.S. officials.

Intelligence sources said Akhund may know the secret whereabouts of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and perhaps of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri.

In the 1990s, Akhund served as the military liaison between the Taliban and the Pakistan's security service, the ISI, which has been accused of sheltering Taliban leaders since the U.S. invasion.

Habibullah Khan contributed to this report.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/major_taliban_l.html

al-Qaida and Pakistan

It was reported that former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, gave Pakistan's president Musharraf two options prior to the first Allied bombing runs in Afghanistan against al-Qaida. Either play ball and receive U.S. financial and military aid or be bombed back to the stone age.

Now that we know al-Qaida is reforming operations in Pakistan, perhaps it is time to either cut assistance to Mr. Musharraf or attack the al-Qaida bases in Pakistan.

al-Qaida propaganda tapes are now making their way to the west in a matter of days, not weeks or months as happened a few years ago.

Former U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte stated that "from their leaders' (al-Qaida) secure hideout in Pakistan" they are overseeing operations in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. We may also surmise in America.

On the chance that Musharraf, for political reasons, seems to be helping us less than he is, attacking al-Qaida bases against his "protestations" would give him the political cover he needs. Ignoring the re-growth of al-Qaida is as negligent as a cancer patient ignoring an obvious growth.