Former Gitmo Inmate Leading Fight Against U.S. in Helmand

[Lars]

July 07, 2009

Former Gitmo Inmate Leading Fight Against U.S. in Helmand








As U.S. forces are pushing ahead with the massive Operation Khanjar in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, Mullah Zakir is leading the Taliban fight against them.

A former Guantanamo Bay inmate is leading the fight against U.S. Marines in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to FOX News on Tuesday.

Mullah Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, surrendered in Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan in 2001, and was transferred to Gitmo in 2006. He was released in late 2007 to Afghan custody.

Now as the United States is pushing ahead with the massive Operation Khanjar in the southern province of Afghanistan, Zakir is coordinating the Taliban fighters. Some 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan forces have faced some resistance as they sweep across the province, reclaiming control of districts where Zakir and his comrades were running a shadow government.

Zakir was released from Afghan custody around 2008, according to the New York Post. He re-established connections with high-level Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan after his second release.

Taliban chief Mullah Omar appointed Zakir in mid-2008 as senior military commander, according to the newspaper.

Zakir quickly became a charismatic leader, helping establish an "accountability commission" to track spending and monitor activities of Taliban leaders in the districts where they held power and were running a shadow government, according to the Post.

Explaining why Zakir was released from Gitmo, the defense official said, "We were under incredible pressure from the world to release detainees at Gitmo. You just don't know what people are going to do.

"He was no worse than anyone else being held at Gunatanamo Bay," the official added. "He was not going to be tried for war crimes so we decided to release him. Either he was not thought to have committed a crime or we didn't have enough evidence to prosecute him."

The defense official shifted some blame for Zakir's activities to Afghanistan. "The country which agreed to take him promised to take steps to mitigate the threat he posed."

Afghanistan's fledgling security agencies have been having trouble keeping the country's jails secure.

Pul-e-Charkhi prison, the country's major high-security prison that houses hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, has seen jailbreaks and even insurrections by inmates. Still, releases of Taliban and Al Qaeda inmates are conducted in coordination with the United States.

[free ranger]

Catch & release - not just for illegal immigrants...

[frodo]

No on the record source so more bullshit.

[Ought Six]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1245...googlenews_wsj

Excerpt:

The Taliban's efforts appear to be led by two senior figures. The first, Mullah Berader, is a longtime senior Taliban leader who sits on the Quetta shura, which is believed to have about 20 members. "We've been trying to kill him for a long time. He has 20 lives," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official.

The other is Mullah Zakir, who is running the Taliban's military operations in the south and east, say U.S. and Pakistani officials and Afghan insurgents.

[Glockd]

Hey Frodo, it seems "AFIAK" is good enough for your posts concerning the region, but everything else is "bullshit". Nice double standard ya got there pal.

[frodo]

Glock, my BS call was made after trying to check the sources of the assertion that this guy was running operations.

The story can be traced back to the NYT in March which was echoed by the Times (UK), but again there is no person who has gone on record

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/wo...27taliban.html

Several Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to news organizations, confirmed the meetings. But they said that the overture might have been inspired by Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban leader who swears allegiance to Mullah Omar but is largely independent in his operations.

Mr. Haqqani, and his father Jalaluddin Haqqani, the most powerful figures in Waziristan, are closely linked to Al Qaeda and to Pakistani intelligence, American officials say. From their base in North Waziristan, they have directed groups of fighters into eastern Afghanistan and increasingly in complex attacks on the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Taliban fighters said the Afghan Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a commander from Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, whose real name is reported to be Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul.

A front-line commander during the Taliban government, Mullah Zakir was captured in 2001 in northern Afghanistan and was detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until his release in 2007, Afghan Taliban members contacted by telephone said.

There is extensive data on wikipeia, but the pdf of the review board crashed my computer.

[spinnerholic]

Not much of a surprise, is it?

If I'd been held in Gitmo for years and managed to get released, as soon as I got home, I think I'd become a very dedicated Taliban member and tell my story to everyone who'd listen.

[Brihard]

I can't recall the exact figure and provide a link, and I apologize for that, but to the best of my recollection the 'recidivism' rate for released Guantanamo detainees appears to be running at about 20% alst anyone published any analysis of it.

Take that for what it's worth, very little. I'll see if I can stumble across that data again.

[frodo]

The trouble with cult members is that you have to "deprogram" them to avoid recedivism. Glock would do it with a 9mm.

[CanadaSue]

In some cases, that's the only realistic way.