Word: omar
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Mullah Abdulsamata Khaksar has been waiting months for the CIA to talk to him. The former deputy Interior Minister of the Taliban says he has a lot of information to give up, perhaps even some that will lead to Mullah Omar, the fugitive leader of Afghanistan's fallen regime and chief ally of Osama bin Laden. But, until TIME alerted U.S. military officials in Kabul in late January of his willingness to talk, no American officials had debriefed Khaksar. Two weeks after, no senior U.S. intelligence official had spoken...
...According to Khaksar, the reason the U.S. hadn't been able to find Mullah Omar so far is that it has been relying on "liars" and tribal chieftains who were using U.S. firepower to wreak revenge on their ancient enemies. (Khaksar's brother-in-law is Mullah Salaam, one of Omar's closest advisers; indeed, Salaam may be on the run with Omar.) What does Khaksar want for his hoard of information? Safe passage for his family to a location of his choice. Not Pakistan, he says - too dangerous and too full of ex-Taliban and ISI agents who want...
...secret where the ex-Taliban lives. There are a few loyal Pashtun guards at the gate, their weapons hidden but ready. Khaksar says he heard recently that Mullah Omar and a few other Taliban ministers were trying to recruit a hit man to finish him off. "The Taliban have offered a lot of money, and if the assassin dies in completing his mission, the money will go to the assassin's family," Khaksar says. He sits at a desk with a picture of the late Northern Alliance hero, Ahmed Shah Massoud, on his desk, perhaps insurance in case the current...
...Taliban frantic want to see the Americans. Five times he sent letters to the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul, he says, offering to meet the diplomats. Khaksar said he was ready to pass on information that might lead to the capture of the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar and to some al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. But he waited days, weeks, months and nobody contacted him. It's possible that his letters never got to CIA agents inside the embassy. Security at the US embassy compound is on a war alert, with snipers on the roofs and trip flares...
...Pakistani society remains a work-in-progress, and American support, both economic and political, remains critical. The kidnapping of American journalist Daniel Pearl is simply the most high-profile example of the resilience of Pakistani extremism. The embarrassment for Musharraf in that case is compounded by the fact that Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect who is now in police custody, is a British-born convicted kidnapper who moved to Musharraf's Pakistan early in 2000 after Kashmiri hijackers forced his release from an Indian prison...