Word: mullah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...knows whether the most prized targets--Osama bin Laden; his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri; and Taliban leader Mullah Omar--are among them. Last week a London-based Arab newspaper carried a purported interview with Omar in which he claimed that bin Laden is alive, warned that "we don't consider the battle has ended" and vowed to bring "fire and hell and total defeat...
...More worrying than these outbursts was Ahmed's sympathy for the Taliban. When the President sent him down to Kandahar last Sept. 17 to persuade Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to hand over bin Laden, the spymaster instead secretly told Omar to resist, an ex-Taliban official told Time. Word of this double-talk reached Musharraf, who replaced him as ISI boss with General Ehsan ul-Haq, a trusted friend and ex-military intelligence chief who shares Musharraf's more Westernized views. His orders were to weed out "the beards," as the Islamic extremists are nicknamed inside the agency...
...network with the ex-Taliban also persists. In Peshawar, thousands of empty Pakistani passports were stolen last December, and many are now thought to be in the pockets of Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives. Several senior Taliban commanders, including former Interior Minister Mullah Abdul Razzak, are living openly in the southern Pakistani border town of Chaman with their wives and families. Western diplomats express frustration over this, but they reckon Pakistan may be saving the ex-Taliban clergymen, who still have backing in southern Afghanistan, as a political option in case the interim Kabul government of Hamid Karzai unravels...
...more concern than these outbursts was Ahmed's sympathy for the Taliban. When the President sent him to Kandahar six days after Sept. 11 to persuade Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar to hand over bin Laden, the spymaster instead secretly told Omar to resist, an ex-Taliban official told TIME. Word of this double cross reached Musharraf, who on Oct. 7 replaced Ahmed as ISI boss. He put in Lieut. General Ehsan ul-Haq, a trusted head of military intelligence who shares Musharraf's more Westernized outlook. His orders from the President were to weed out "the beards," as Islamic...
...Soviets lost more than 50,000 well-trained soldiers in Afghanistan. Getting rid of a warlord like Dostum or Khan might be even harder than defeating the Taliban. When U.S. forces fought the Taliban, they had the support of all the warlords because everybody despised Mullah Omar and Co. But these warlords have a knack for forging alliances—even among enemies, especially when foreigners try to impose their will on Afghanistan. Just ask the Russians...