Paki Taliban Leader Resurfaces in Video

This mutant was thought to be killed months ago. Apparently he's still breating, unfortunately.

A Pakistani militant leader who was thought to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike in January has appeared in a new Internet video, vowing attacks on American cities.

The video of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced early Monday. It was released shortly after another clip appeared on YouTube, in which the group claimed responsibility for the failed bomb attempt in Times Square. Counter-terrorism analysts dismiss that claim as highly unlikely, noting that the organization has displayed no ability to strike beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The video of a healthy-looking Mehsud, which appeared to have been filmed in April, was the first concrete evidence of what his fighters have insisted for four months: That he escaped the drone strike and was not incapacitated by it.

In the weeks following the January missile strike in South Waziristan, Pakistani and U.S. officials said they were confident -- even certain -- Mehsud had been killed. That development was hailed as a huge blow to a militant organization that has carried out a steady campaign of attacks inside Pakistan over two years, and whose previous leader was killed by a U.S. drone last summer.

Such strikes, combined with a major offensive by the Pakistani army in the Taliban's border hub, prompted many Pakistani officials to declare that the group had been irreparably shattered. But Pakistani intelligence officials reversed course last week and said they believed Mehsud had survived, but had been sidelined as another commander, Wali ur-Rehman, took over the group.

That assessment was thrown into doubt with Mehsud's new video appearance.

In the video, Mehsud is shown with two masked militants and says he is "alive and healthy" on April 4, 2010. Speaking in Pashto but with English subtitles, Mehsud pledges that "the time is very near when our fedayeen [suicide attackers] will attack the American states in their major cities...in some days or a month's time."

The video is stamped with the logo of the media wing of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, and it was deemed credible by Flashpoint Global Partners, which monitors terrorist Web sites. It was followed by the release of a second showing a photo of Mehsud and what sounded like his voice, the Associated Press reported. In that clip, he again promised attacks on U.S. cities.

I guess he hasn't gotten the word the world loved us again.