AfPak: Obama’s Covert War In Pakistan

It is pretty obvious why President Obama picked General McChrystal to be the commander in Afghanistan. General McChrystal has the perfect background for it: Under the Bush administration McChrystal was the head of  Blackops. McChrystal is currently running, not only the military operations in Afghanistan but also the covert ones in Pakistan.

It is likely that General McChrystal is coordinating the efforts of Delta Forces, Rangers & other Special Forces in conjunction with the CIA and Pakistani ISI within Pakistani borders. According to Washington, the US covert operation captured, with the help of the ISI, the Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The New York Times broke the story tonight.

Baradar was captured in Karachi last Thursday, but the White House requested  The New York Times to delay the publication of the report. Baradar is an Afghan Taliban, and he is second in command right below Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Baradar oversees the military operations for the Taliban presumably both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Baradar is rumored to favor peace talks with the Karzai administration, his arrest could impair the possibility of such negotiations.

However, according to a statement made tonight to the AFP by a Taliban spokesman the report of the capture is untrue.

“Baradar is currently in Afghanistan, where he is leading all Jihadi’s activities. He is with us and is in contact with us,” the Taliban spokesman told the AFP. According to the Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, the US is “spreading the report of Baradar’s capture to make up for the failure in Marjah”.

No matter how you look at it, under the Obama administration the Afghan war has become the Afghanistan/Pakistan (AfPak) war. The capture of Baradar orchestrated by American operatives( either blackops or CIA) within Pakistan is likely to create a backlash in the country, where anti-American sentiments  run deep.

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