July 28, 2007:
On July 24th,
Pakistani police surrounded, and tried to arrest Pakistani Taliban leader
Abdullah Mahsud. They did capture several of Mahsud's staff, but the man
himself committed suicide rather than give up. Pakistan hailed Mahsud's death
as a great victory in the war on terror. But it was several other things as
well. Abdullah Mahsud was captured in late 2001, while serving as a Taliban
commander in Afghanistan. Since he was a Taliban leader, he was sent to
Guantanamo Bay, where he was interrogated for over two years. He was believed
to be hard core Taliban, but the Pakistani government convinced the U.S. to let
Mahsud go. The reasoning behind this was that Mahsud came from a Pushtun family
that was loyal to the Pakistani government (he had a brother and brother-in-law
that were officers in the Pakistani army). The Pakistanis promised that Mahsud
would no longer be a problem. When Mahsud got back to Pakistan, he rejoined the
Taliban and became a big problem for the Pakistanis. The U.S. urged Pakistan to
arrest Mahsud, but there were always excuses. The real reason Mahsud was not picked
up was that the Mahsud family had influence with the Pushtun tribes, and
grabbing Mahsud would cause more bad feelings. But with the growing
aggressiveness of the Taliban and al Qaeda, Pakistan finally felt they were
better off taking Mahsud down.
The U.S. has a long list of
Pakistani Taliban that they want to see arrested, or killed. The Americans know
why some of these guys are, or were, untouchable. CIA and U.S. Army Special
Forces have spent the last six years compiling lots of information on Pushtun
politics, on both sides of the border. They also know that Pakistan would
rather not take on their Pushtun tribes. Pakistan already has a rebellion going
on in Baluchistan (southwest Pakistan), and doesn't want to have a war with the
more numerous Pushtuns, to the north, at the same time. But the more radical
Taliban are all for dragging the Pushtun tribes into a war with Pakistan. The
trouble with that scenario is that many of the tribes do not like the Taliban
or al Qaeda. A tribal war would be messy, and could drag on for years. It looks
like the Taliban radicals are going to have their way, destroying themselves,
and much else in the tribal territories, along the way.