Pakistan’s phony Baradar arrest

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men have bamboozled the public again. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the Pakistanis told you Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured, or seized, or arrested. Not a shot fired.

Reports in the New York Times, The Washington Times, The London Times, Reuters and other wire services conflict on the exact date that hands were laid on Baradar. A breathless headline in the New York Times proclaims a “secret joint raid” by Pakistani and American intelligence. At the same time Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, says reports of secret joint operations are simply propaganda. All this confusion confirms just one thing: the White House and agencies supposedly involved in the affair know nothing about it except what Pakistanis tell them.

With regard to this murky event I prefer the word detained, since Baradar and other senior Taliban leaders were captured once before—and released. In 2001, Baradar and several colleagues were taken by Afghan militiamen. Pakistan intervened and the Taliban bosses were sent on their way. Baradar will probably have the same good fortune again, after a decent interval.

That news media parrot disinformation is not surprising. After all, with rare exception they know as much about complex Afghan tribal issues as does the White House. That is to say, nothing. But what are the administration’s motives in promoting this sham detention? What about the Pakistanis?

President Obama has the simplest motive of all. With his approval ratings at historic lows, he is desperate to show the electorate that his endless and abortive war in Afghanistan is turning the tide at last. The CIA joins the disinformation and claims a role in detaining Baradar because of its pain and embarrassment after a Taliban double agent killed seven field officers at an outpost near Khost.

Pakistan’s actions however, are driven by vastly more complex motives. Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and expert in Taliban matters said about Baradar, “His whereabouts, I think, were extremely well-known to the Pakistanis for a long time.” His opinion is supported by many others like Abdullah Abdullah, former Afghan presidential candidate, who said, “When I was foreign minister (2002-2006) we would provide our Pakistani counterparts with the names of Taliban leadership and details of their activities. But the Pakistanis would joke that these were common names, and they needed even more specifics from us. Of course it was a deception.”