[Canceled] TV Alert: Larry Johnson on CNN Today at 4 p.m. ET
By Bronwyn's Harbor on February 17, 2010 at 3:55 PM in Current Affairs
UPDATE: Larry arrived for the interview only to be told it’s been canceled. Why? CNN told him that they have two breaking news stories to cover: (1) the release of some of the missionaries in Haiti, and (2) the pending announcement by Tiger Woods tomorrow. If there’s anyone left who wonders why the media get a bad rap, this should remove all doubt. I’m disgusted with CNN. The only consolations: Below, you and I now got some great new material on the capture of key Taliban leaders, and the scope of Baradar’s executive responsibilities.
ORIGINAL: Larry will be a guest today on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer in the 4 p.m. hour to discuss the capture of Taliban heavyweight Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi, Pakistan and, possibly, the capture of another Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Salam, revealed today in a Newsweek story, “Exclusive: Another Taliban Leader Captured in Pakistan.” (At the end of this post, you’ll find a detailed description of Baradar’s executive responsibilities.)
Larry recommends that you check out another February 14th Newsweek post on the capture of an Al Qaeda operative: “Exclusive: A U.S. Intelligence Breakthrough in the Persian Gulf?,” by by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball.
Larry speculates that the capture of that Al Qaeda operative — a “courier” carrying a “treasure trove” of “phone numbers, photographs and documents” — may have led to information that enabled the capture of Baradar and, possibly, Salam.
U.S. intelligence officials appear to have obtained access to what could turn out to be a significant trove of phone numbers, photographs and documents detailing the links between Al Qaeda’s leaders in northwest Pakistan and the terror group’s increasingly menacing affiliate in Yemen, two counter-terrorism sources tell Declassified.
In late January, an Al Qaeda operative headed from Pakistan on his way to Yemen was arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Oman, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed.
There has been no public announcement of the arrest. But in a possible indication of the operative’s importance, just a few days later, two postings on a jihadi web forum suggested that Al Qaeda leaders were worried and wanted their “commanders” to take immediate precautions.
The postings stated that the “captured brother” — identified as a “field commander” named Abdullah Saleh al-Eidan who went by the name of “Barud”- – was “on his way back from Afghanistan” and had been turned over to Saudi authorities.
Even more noteworthy, the postings -written by a fellow Al Qaeda “brother” – reported that Al Eidan had with him 300 “important phone numbers” as well as pictures, names and documents from Afghanistan.
“The brother requested that this information reach the commanders in Yemen and Afghanistan as soon as possible,” read one of the postings, which appeared on a web forum known as Fallujah Islamic Forum. “He also asked.the commanders to change their places of residence and mobile phone numbers as soon as possible.” …
Read all of “Exclusive: A U.S. Intelligence Breakthrough in the Persian Gulf?” to get the details of the capture of the Al Qaeda courier that has possibly enabled the capture of Baradar and perhaps Salam.
Here’s a snippet about Baradar’s significance from another Newsweek post, “America’s New Nightmare“:
[...]
In all likelihood, you’ve never heard of Mullah Baradar. The only Taliban leader most people know is Mullah Mohammed Omar, the unworldly, one-eyed village preacher who held the grand title amir-ul-momineen—”leader of the faithful”—when he ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Omar remains a high-value target, with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. But he hasn’t been seen in at least three years, even by his most loyal followers, and rarely issues direct orders anymore. In his place, the adversary that American forces are squaring off against in Afghanistan—the man ultimately responsible for the spike in casualties that has made July the deadliest month for Coalition soldiers since the war began in 2001—is Baradar. A cunning, little-known figure, he may be more dangerous than Omar ever was.
In more than two dozen interviews for this profile, past and present members of the Afghan insurgency portrayed Baradar as no mere stand-in for the reclusive Omar. They say Baradar appoints and fires the Taliban’s commanders and governors; presides over its top military council and central ruling Shura in Quetta, the city in southwestern Pakistan where most of the group’s senior leaders are based; and issues the group’s most important policy statements in his own name. It is key that he controls the Taliban’s treasury—hundreds of millions of dollars in -narcotics protection money, ransom payments, highway tolls, and “charitable donations,” largely from the Gulf. “He commands all military, political, religious, and financial power,” says Mullah Shah Wali Akhund, a guerrilla subcommander from Helmand province who met Baradar this March in Quetta for the fourth time. “Baradar has the makings of a brilliant commander,” says Prof. Thomas Johnson, a longtime expert on Afghanistan and an adviser to Coalition forces. “He’s able, charismatic, and knows the land and the people so much better than we can hope to do. He could prove a formidable foe.” …
by Ronald Scott
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