LAHORE: Seeking credible intelligence cooperation from Islamabad, the
US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sleuths stationed in Pakistan
have shared with their Pakistani counterparts a list of 30 high-value
al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked terrorists, who currently operate from
their Waziristan hideouts and have evaded successfully the radar of
the American drones.
According to well-informed sources in the Pakistani security
establishment, who are working in tandem with their American
counterparts in the US-led war against terror, the CIA sleuths have
got prior permission of their bosses to kill all those on the hit list
while using deadly drones since it was almost impossible for anyone to
capture them alive in the Waziristan region even if they are somehow
tracked down. Started under former President Bush, the drone programme
is being run by the CIA, which had been provided written legal
authority to hunt down and kill any terrorist without seeking further
approval each time the Agency wants to hit a high value target. The
previously undisclosed CIA hit list of targets included top al-Qaeda
leaders, such as Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri
and other principal figures from al-Qaida, Taliban, Haqqani network
and their affiliated terrorist groups. The hit list was known as “the
high-value target list”, also called HVT.
Following the ouster of President Bush in 2008, his successor,
President Obama, was quick to grant the CIA the presidential authority
to kill the most wanted al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked leaders. The newer
hit list of the potential drone targets represents an expanded CIA
effort against a larger number of al-Qaeda fugitives who are operating
from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. The hit list is updated from
time to time as the CIA, in consultation with other counter terrorism
agencies, adds names or deletes those al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who
are captured or killed, or when new intelligence indicates the
emergence of a new terror leader. The hit list contains the names of
many of the same people who are on the FBI’s list of most-wanted
terror suspects, although the lists are prepared independently.
US intelligence sleuths stationed in Pakistan believe that there are
over 2,000 al-Qaeda militants who have taken shelter in the Waziristan
region alone on the Pak-Afghan tribal belt. According to them, there
are three primary targets of the ongoing American drone strikes – key
al-Qaeda and its allied commanders; al-Qaeda’s external operations
network; and al-Qaeda, Taliban and their allied Afghan and Pakistani
militant groups which are conducting cross border ambushes against the
US-led Allied Forces across the border in Afghanistan. The following
is the list of the 24 non-Pakistani high-value al-Qaeda and
Taliban-linked terrorists who are the potential targets of the CIA-run
American drone programme:
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, his deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri,
al-Qaeda’s No. 3 Sheikh Yunis al-Mauretani, the ameer of the Afghan
Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, al-Qaeda’s chief operational commander
for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Saif Al Adal, al-Qaeda’s chief military
strategists for terror operations in the West, Commander Ilyas
Kashmiri, the chief of the Haqqani militant network, Jalaluddin
Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani network, Sirajuddin
Haqqani, the official spokesman of al-Qaeda, Sulaiman Abu Ghath, the
spiritual leader of al-Qaeda, Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, al-Qaeda’s field
commander for operations in Afghanistan, Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaeda’s
operational chief for North America, Adnan Al-Shukri Juma, Osama bin
Laden’s son, Saad bin Laden, the commander of Turkish jehadis in North
Waziristan, Abu Hanifah, the commander of the Chinese jehadis in North
Waziristan, Abu Nasir, the commander of Uzbek and Tajik militants in
North Waziristan, Abu Akash, two German brothers, Mouneer Chouka alias
Abu Adam and Yaseen Chouka alias Abu Ibrahim, who command German
militants, three American jehadis, Abu Ibrahim al Amriki, Sayfullah al
Amriki and Anwar al-Awlaki, two Yemeni militants, Nasir al-Wahishi and
Qassim al-Raimi, a Saudi militant Said al-Shiri, and an Algerian
jehadi Abdelmalek Droukdel.
The CIA hit list also carries the names of six key al-Qaeda and
Taliban-linked jehadi leaders from Pakistan who are involved in
targeting the Pakistani and NATO forces and are considered common
enemies by Washington and Islamabad. They include the ameer of the
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Commander Hakeemullah Mehsud, his fellow
commanders, Maulvi Faqeer Mohammad and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, Taliban
renegades in Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Buhadar and Maulvi Nazir, and the
fugitive ameer of the Swat chapter of the
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, Maulvi Fazalullh.
According to sources in the security establishment, despite public
protests against violations of their national sovereignty by the
drones, the Pakistani authorities are sharing vital intelligence
information with their American counterparts to nip the evil of
al-Qaeda and Taliban in the bud which equally threatens Pakistan. To
substantiate their claim, they referred to the September 16, 2010
statement of US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Richard Holbrooke, wherein the late senior official had stated that
the drone attacks against terrorists in Pakistan’s northern tribal
region were being conducted in close collaboration with Pakistan’s
civil as well as military leadership. “Everything we do is in close
collaboration with Pakistan government and the GHQ”, The News had
quoted Holbrooke, as saying.
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