Musharraf Releases Highest Ranking Taliban Ever Captured?

I added the question mark.
48 hour rule is in full effect on this one. Read on and you will see why I say that.

Parvez Musharraf needs more militants to militate against in order to affirm the presence of his totalitarian military in Pakistan’s civilian sphere. As I noted in my article Pakistan, Prince of Denmark, this means that Musharraf will ally with pro-Taliban parties, appease militants by offering them the freedom to implement Sharia, kill those tribal leaders who held the Taliban at bay (links all in the article), and now, it appears, he will release the HIGHEST RANKING TALIBAN EVER CAPTURED.
Newsweek reports:

Pakistani lawyers, human-rights activists and opposition-party members can scarcely ignore the irony of their situation: while thousands of them are being beaten and locked up under President Pervez Musharraf’s newly declared state of emergency, his government has just let more than two dozen militant Islamists out of jail. Protesters might be even angrier if Musharraf disclosed the names of some of those freed militants. Taliban sources tell NEWSWEEK that the top man on the list was Mullah Obaidullah Akhund—the highest-ranking Taliban official ever captured by the Pakistanis. As one of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s closest confidants and his defense minister until the post 9-11 invasion of Afghanistan, Obaidullah was No. 3 in the group’s hierarchy and a member of its ruling 10-man shura (council).

Here is their description of their site.
PakistanPolitics.net is an independent pro-democracy website and blog, offering stimulating, critical analysis, promoting dialogue and debate on issues of importance to Pakistani politics and linking ex-pats, ex-Pakistanis and residents of Pakistan. It is also the Pakistani blogosphere’s first law blog. It takes a progressive approach to politics in Pakistan.

The primary contributors and researchers for this site are all Pakistani-American or Pakistani lawyers and barristers. The editor is Ali Eteraz.

Strike One! Writes for Huffington Post.

Ali Eteraz, 27, is a political commentator with a specific interest in the politics of religion, especially Islam. He was born in Pakistan and has lived in the U.S., Middle East and Caribbean. He is a contributor to Guardian Unlimited, Alternet, Jewcy and Huffington Post. His essays have appeared in various periodicals.

Strike Two! Here he takes Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch to task for not giving him credit for a story he posted on DailyKos.

So, if you note, I made the posting about the Iranian man who witnessed his mother stoned to death at 12:18 pm EST. I actually found the letter about an hour before that and it took me a while to put it up. I cited where I found the letter and then added some of my own commentary, as well as the commentary of the Iranian activist to whom the website belongs. I then made a posting on my Kos diary at 11:39 AM PST.

Strike Three? ?

So Mr Eteraz's main argument is that Musharraf is sowing and fueling the extremists inside his own country as a means to hold onto power. What I find hard to believe is that anybody would release from prison those very people pledged to bring about his destruction. The Taliban use chaos as a means to seize power. They don't set up embassies or government institutions. They seize it village by village. One needs only to look at how they rose to power in Afghanistan to see this. They used the same tactic in Somalia, Iraq, and are now using it in Pakistan. Look anywhere in the world where the radical Islamists are present such as Thailand and you will see their method of operation is to sow fear first, get concessions from the established government and then proceed to the next village and repeat. When the national government finally wakes up and realizes that they have not stopped the advance of the Islamists it is too late and the result is the country that has been targeted is now thrust into chaos and the Islamist move on to the next target.