Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
 Navy Adm. Mike Mullen discusses the Pakistan situation (Navy photo) |
The Pentagon has gotten the go-ahead from Pakistani officials to build facilities to house U.S. officials in Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan which is home to the Afghan Taliban leadership, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Joining those officials will be counter-insurgency forces with plans to hunt down not only Taliban but members of al-Qaida who are thought to be in and around Quetta and throughout Baluchistan province.
While Pakistan’s army general headquarters approved the presence, U.S. intelligence knows the Taliban leadership – in combination with al-Qaida – is in Quetta also with the tacit approval of the Pakistani government.
To the Pakistani government, the Taliban in Quetta isn’t regarded so much as a domestic threat as a strategic asset, since the Islamist group is the creation of the government itself.
Analysts say that the Pakistani government has decided to move the top Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who heads the Quetta Shura, from Quetta to Karachi to protect him not only from possible drone attacks but counter-insurgency forces.
The approval for the U.S. comes despite a Pakistani government rejection of a recent U.S. request to extend drone attacks into Baluchistan. Until now, the attacks have been restricted to Pakistan’s Waziristan region, home to the notorious Haqqani network which continues to attack U.S. and allied troops.
“We do know that some of the leadership (of al-Qaida) is sitting in Quetta and that they travel back and forth from Afghanistan to Pakistan,” said Candace Putnam, the U.S. consul-general in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.
For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, subscribe now.
Pam Bondi crushes Dems at confirmation hearing
Around the Web