Taliban Planning Massive 'Man-Caused Disaster' in Washington

Janet Napolitano, call your office, looks like there could be a possible man-caused disaster about to hit DC.

The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital.

Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S., said Monday's attack outside the eastern city of Lahore was in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone. He provided no details.

Could just be the usual trash talk, but then again it could be the real deal. My question is, if this does come to fruition, will we be allowed to call it terrorism?

Of course since there's no longer a war on terror, we'll have to come up with a new phrase. Perhaps we can call it the Conflict Against Mean-Spirited People Who Just Aren't Down With Hopenchange.

More from Gateway Pundit.

BBC Fawns Over Pakistan's Most Wanted Terrorist

The BBC seems to take great pride in being invited to interview Pakistan's most dangerous terrorist, Baitullah Mehsud, as they prominently announce on the web site "By Invitation Only". The article then goes on to list Mehsud's greatest hits, so to speak, such as the assasination of Benazir Bhutto.

This sure seems to be a strange way of describing the meeting.

With such a reputation, it is not surprising that there is a sense of awe as this short, plump, bearded man greets us.

I don't think I would use the word awe. Fear, trepidation, uneasiness, maybe, but I don't think awe would be in there.

The interview concludes with this quote from Mehsud.

"There can be no deal with the US."

I say good deal and I take him at his word. Now I don't know if the Obammessiah wants to sit down and talk to this learned and very religious man, but me personally, I would pick up the hotline to the Pentagon and tell them to warm up the B-52's.

Of course, the story has plenty of references to the usual accusations they use against our military. You know, things like innocent people's homes being bombed and stores being destroyed. Just remember, those same people trotted out for the interviews to tell of the destruction are also these people.

In our garden meeting, "Amir Sahib" (honoured leader) - as Baitullah Mehsud is affectionately called by his men - smiles and shakes his head when this query is raised.

Around us, dozens of militants armed to the teeth listen intently to their leader.

Aww, the Poor Guy: Suspected Mastermind in Bhutto Killing an Insomniac Diabetic

A heart-tugging story from the terrorist lovers at Reuters brings us an inside look at Baitullah Mehsud, who apparently is a very sympathetic, simple religious man.

We're supposed to feel sorry for this pipsqueak because he suffers from diabetes and as a result, has difficulties sleeping. Maybe his prescription for Ambien ran out.

Pakistani Taliban leader sleeps badly at night

Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, had just consoled the father of a 16-year-old suicide bomber when he spoke of his religious compulsion to drive American forces out of Pashtun tribal lands.

"I know very well the military might of America, and that fighting with America is like banging my head against a wall," said Mehsud, his dark eyes gleaming beneath a black turban.

"But my religion compels me to fight against the occupiers until the last drop of my blood," he said, according to a witness among the scores of kinsmen and fighters who had assembled to commemorate the boy's martyrdom for the cause.

That was in August, 2006, in the village of Khaisor in South Waziristan, just a few days after Shoaib, the son of a cleric, had rammed his truck into a convoy of Western troops in the Afghan village of Nawe Adda in Paktika province.

Two months ago, Mehsud was declared Emir of the Taliban in Pakistan. Yet in 2005 a Pakistani general had called him "a soldier of peace" for signing a peace deal that brought a short-lived lull in the conflict in South Waziristan.

Intelligence officials say he's been behind a wave of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities since the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque in July to crush a militant movement.

But it was when Pakistani officials named him as the prime suspect in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27 that Mehsud's notoriety rocketed.

And, clearly, made him a rock star to the folks at Reuters.

In a recent interview with al Jazeera, Mehsud said he had met Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq.

Nice to see Al Jazeera, a favorite media outlet of U.S. Democrats, has such easy access to this monster.

According to the Friday Times magazine, Mehsud is financed by al Qaeda and Afghan and Pakistani businessmen in the United Emirates.

Despite this pedigree, Brigadier Mahmood Shah, former chief of security in the tribal areas, says he is unimpressive.

"He is not much of a man, inconsistent government policy has made him so important."

But Shah says Mehsud possesses qualities that have allowed him to assemble a heavily armed following.

"He is very clever, he is very cool-minded, he is very calculating. He is not a jumpy character."

Of course, Reuters must humanize the poor fellow.

Abdul Karim Mehsud, a lawyer in Peshawar who comes from the same tribe, said he hadn't seen his clansman for six years, but recalls a simple person, quite religious, but an avowed jihadi driven by desire to liberate Afghanistan, where he had fought.

"He's a diabetic and he doesn't sleep well because of the diabetes," the lawyer said.

Maybe a few Hellfire missiles could help cure his sleeping woes.

Meanwhile, another suspected potential suicide bomber has been nabbed in Pakistan. I hope this doesn't keep Mehsud awake with worry.

Police in Pakistan on Sunday arrested a suspected teenage suicide bomber from a restive northwestern town and were still searching for two alleged accomplices, officials said.

The arrest was made in the village of Abdul Khel in Dera Ismail Khan district, home to pro-Taliban opposition leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who is said to be on a militant hit list, the officials said.

"Police have arrested a young boy suspected of being a suicide bomber," senior police official Sarfraz Khan told AFP.

"Police are looking for two other suspects."

It also appears the poor guy who can't sleep may realize his days are numbered and is seeking a truce. If the Pakis are stupid enough to go for this, they're dumber than I though.

Baitullah Mehsud has offered to stop his anti-government activities if the government releases all the Taliban leaders arrested till date, reported a private TV channel on Saturday.

According to the report, Mehsud has signalled the possibility of talks with the government. The sources revealed that the government had received a message from Baitullah Mehsud through his close companions. The offer by Baitullah Mehsud has come at the time when the government is claiming that the security forces are planning another large-scale operation.

So It Wasn't the CIA?

They blow up so young.

Teen suspect held in Bhutto's killing

A teenager who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.

The teen also confessed to taking part in a plot to attack Shiites during Ashoura, even as police in Pakistan's far south said they had foiled suicide attacks planned for the Shiite Muslim festival.

In Karachi, police chief Azhar Farouqi said officers detained five men who were in the possession of explosives, detonators and a small quantity of cyanide intended for attacks on this week's Ashoura processions.

"With these arrests we have foiled major attacks," Farouqi said.

The intelligence official said the 15-year-old told investigators that the five-person squad was dispatched to Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader with strong ties to al-Qaida and an alliance with the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan, on Afghanistan's northwest border.

The senior official from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the teen was arrested Thursday and was involved in a plot to attack Shiites during an Ashoura festival on Sunday.

Pakistan's Sunni extremists, who regard Shiites as heretics, often attack the community during Ashoura. On Thursday, 11 people died and 20 were injured in a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

A senior district police officer in Dera Ismail Khan, a town 168 miles southwest of Islamabad, confirmed the teen's arrest there and said the suspect made "a sensational disclosure." The officer also asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

In the capital, Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesman Jawed Iqbal Cheema said he had no information about any arrests in the border area, or about any new developments in the Bhutto case.

Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a purported spokesman for Mehsud, denied his group had links with the teen, and said he had not been dispatched by Mehsud to kill Bhutto.

"It is just a government propaganda," he said. "We have already clarified that we are not involved in the attack on Benazir Bhutto."

Bhutto, a former prime minister, died on Dec. 27 when one member of the squad, whom the teen allegedly identified as Bilal, fired at her and detonated an explosive vest as Bhutto was leaving a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, which is adjacent to Islamabad. The blast killed at least 20 other people and wounded scores more.

C'mon Over and Bring A Few Cold Ones

This is supposedly the text of an intercepted phone call between the Al Qaeda members involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Maulvi Sahib (MS): Asalaam Aleikum (Peace be with you)

Baitullah Mehsud (BM): Waleikum Asalam (And also with you)

MS: Chief, how are you?

BM: I am fine.

MS: Congratulations, I just got back during the night.

BM: Congratulations to you, were they our men?

MS: Yes they were ours.

BM: Who were they?

MS: There was Saeed, there was Bilal from Badar and Ikramullah.

BM: The three of them did it?

MS: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

BM: Then congratulations.

MS: Where are you? I want to meet you.

BM: I am at Makeen (town in South Waziristan tribal region), come over, I am at Anwar Shah's house.

MS: OK, I'll come.

BM: Don't inform their house for the time being.

MS: OK.

BM: It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her.

MS: Mashallah (Thank God). When I come I will give you all the details.

BM: I will wait for you. Congratulations, once again congratulations.

MS: Congratulations to you.

BM: Anything I can do for you?

MS: Thank you very much.

BM: Asalaam Aleikum.

MS: Waaleikum Asalaam.