Word: talibanize
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...Read "The Face of Pakistan's New Taliban...
...that the fate now awaiting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after the death of its founder, Baitullah Mehsud? U.S. officials say it would be a mistake to count the TTP out, but they acknowledge that the group is more vulnerable than it has been in years. "Mehsud brought different tribal groups together under his banner of extremism," says a U.S. counterterrorism official. "The loss of his leadership skills and experience would be significant. It wouldn't mean the end of the Pakistani Taliban, but it would be a true setback for them, especially in the near term." (Read a story...
...pair of maulanas, Habib Gul and Faqir Mohammed, have been regarded as important TTP leaders. If the leadership struggle is protracted, the TTP's shura, or council, will call in a moderator: the most likely candidate for that role is Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, currently hiding out near Quetta...
Baitullah himself rose to the top of the Pakistani Taliban after a long internecine battle with other commanders, like Abdullah Mehsud, a onetime detainee at Guanténamo Bay. Once he had reached the summit, Baitullah was able to keep fractious tribal commanders in line by sheer force of will. It helped that, after a 2005 truce with Pakistani authorities, he had the time and freedom to consolidate his leadership. Many counterterrorism analysts believe he also had the covert help of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. It helped, too, that the CIA's drone campaign was aimed primarily...
...pictures of the Taliban on LIFE.com...