Yesterday’s CIA drone strike in the remote South Waziristan village of Zanghra, which it has been confirmed killed Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud’s second wife and injured several children may also have killed Mehsud himself, according to an unnamed US official.
The official conceded there was no physical evidence of Mehsud’s killing, but cited unspecified “indicators” that Mehsud, who occasionally visits the village, may have been there at the time of the attack and “there are hopes that it is him.”
A spokesman for Pakistan’s top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) denied previous claims by Interior Minister Rehman Malik that Mehsud was “likely” killed, likewise adding that there was no evidence of Mehsud’s death.
The US has tried unsuccessfully to kill Mehsud on several previous occasions, once bombing a funeral procession full of civilians in the hopes that Mehsud would be among them. As it turns out, he had already left at the time. Mehsud has been an outspoken critic of US air strikes in Waziristan, and has threatened retaliatory attacks in response to them.
We got ya! All ya gotta do is stick yer head up and say, 'No ya didn't!" Then ka-blooowie!
Not man enough to step out into the open and let us shoot ya? Chicken!
'Fightin' fer piece an freedom for everybody; building a better world explosively' – your good buddies at Raytheon Inc
For the 99% of Antiwar.com readers and 100% of the staff who are unaware: Baitullah Mehsud was an American agent A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians. &
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.
Zarqawi was also an American creation who died shortly after being outed. The occupation creates these miscreants because they hope the endless civilian attacks will stop the locals from supporting the guerrillas.
It is difficult to determine how much has been spent on the Zarqawi campaign, which began two years ago and is believed to be ongoing. U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq in 2004 cost $24 million, but that included extensive building of offices and residences for troops involved, as well as radio broadcasts and distribution of thousands of leaflets with Zarqawi's face on them, said the officer speaking on background.
The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work.
One internal briefing, produced by the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, said that Kimmitt had concluded that, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date."
For the 99% of Antiwar.com readers and 100% of the staff who are unaware: Baitullah Mehsud was an American agent A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians. &
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.
Zarqawi was also an American creation who died shortly after being outed. The occupation creates these miscreants because they hope the endless civilian attacks will stop the locals from supporting the guerrillas.
It is difficult to determine how much has been spent on the Zarqawi campaign, which began two years ago and is believed to be ongoing. U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq in 2004 cost $24 million, but that included extensive building of offices and residences for troops involved, as well as radio broadcasts and distribution of thousands of leaflets with Zarqawi's face on them, said the officer speaking on background.
The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work.
One internal briefing, produced by the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, said that Kimmitt had concluded that, "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date."
So. As an ex-agent Bitullah Mehsud is probably shaven, shorn and on his way to a gas station franchise somewhere in the land of the free.
Wonder if he gets his own 5 million dollar reward?