Pakistani President Zardari ventured to announce on Monday that Osama ben Laden was dead. Of course, Mr. Zardari, who does not inspire great confidence in what he says or does, according to congressmen who listened to his rhetoric, must have known that when his late announced it to David Frost in an al-Jazeera interview back in 2007. What is even more extraordinary, is that he lay the blame squarely on the US for having 'lost' ben Laden at Tora Bora, when according to our own intelligence, we had been so close to capturing him. He also revealed that Benazir Bhutto had warned President Bush of the threat posed by ben Laden as far back as 1989, but at the time, we were funding the Taliban to help them overthrow the Russian invasion.
Be that as it may, the 'enemy du jour' who may very well pose the greatest threat to US is one Baitullah Mehsud, leading tribal militia leader in Waziristan, Pakistan and the leader of the Taliban umbrella group.
Once again, it is important to view once again, the dialogue that ensued between the late Benazir Bhutto and David Frost, where she does mention Mehsud.According to a report in today's courrierinternational, Mehsud has every intention to deliver total war to Islamabad AND its Western allies. The first of those threats came a couple of weeks ago, at which time they were reported adding that Washington pooh-pooh'ed them as just words. Mehsud's weapons arsenal is not limited to Kalishnikovs but a huge number of devoted suicide bombers, on the ready to transform themselves into weapons of death. In other words, Baitullah Mehsud, whose reputation transcends Pakistani borders, has been named the new Osama. Newsweek has called him more dangerous than ben Laden, and he made the 2008's TIME 100 List of the most influential leaders in the world. It might behoove the United States not to deal with his threat the same way that Condoleeza Rice treated the CIA memo which told her that al-Qaeda was planning to attack the United States using aircraft as weapons.
There is a $5 million dollar for Mehsud's capture, information that would assist in his capture, or his arrest. An equal sum had been posted for ben Laden's capture, which produced no takers. Here is an example of Western misunderstanding and misinterpreting the 'jihadist' mindset.
Not much is known about Mehsud, other than he does not like to be photographed. Like ben Laden, he has an illness; whereas the former most likely died of kidney failure, Mehsud is diabetic. He has not had formal education other than attending the notorious madrassahs that gave him the intensive course in Taliban ideology. His inspiration to fight against the US came to him after Islamabad allied itself with our country. By mid-April of 2009, he had already vowed a minimum of 2 attacks per week in Pakistan.
Baitullah Mehsud, according to a United Nations 2007 report, was responsible for 80% of suicide bombings in Afghanistan.
Just one more bit of 'threat' came via a TV report from France 24, and though the report was in French, the threat which came from the Talib was in English, and quite clear:
'I don't know, about this Obama, - I think he is half-Christian and half Muslim; I don't know, - his name is Hussein Obama? God willing, you will see it, there are Muslims inside the United States of America. Some time you will find that there are Muslims in the US, and we will find against all of you from inside America. We will fight against the US forces inside America, inshallah (God willing).'
Anybody care to lay this memo on the President's desk?
