The Washington Post reports that U.S. forces have captured Latif Mehsud, a Pakistan Taliban (TPP) commander, taking him from Afghan security force hands. Mehsud is said to have been in Afghanistan for peace talks.
The United States recently seized a senior Pakistani Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan, snatching him from the custody of Afghan intelligence operatives who had spent months trying to recruit him as an interlocutor for peace talks, Afghan government officials charged Thursday.
Latif Mehsud, an influential commander in the Pakistani Taliban, was taken into custody by U.S. personnel, who intercepted an Afghan government convoy in Logar province, Afghan officials said.
Afghan officials accuse U.S. of snatching Pakistani Taliban leader from their custody
3:10 PM PT: The U.S. officially confirms the capture.
"As part of the armed conflict against Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, authorized by Congress in the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, Mehsud was captured and is being lawfully held by US military forces in Afghanistan," said Pentagon spokeswoman Commander Elissa Smith.
AFP
Background on Latif Mehsud
Some small background on Latif Mehsud is available in the media. Associated Press has a photo of him, here.
News International reported that Latif Mehsud had been elevated to the TPP #2 slot two weeks ago.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is on the verge of a major split following its ameer Hakeemullah Mehsud’s decision to surreptitiously elevate Latif Mehsud, his close confidant and driver-cum bodyguard, as his No 2 in the terror outfit.
TTP headed for major split as Mehsud promotes his driver
Background on the Capture
Washington Post deals with U.S. security forces snatching Latif Mehsud from the hands of Afghan security forces, presumably in a gunpoint raid, by calling it "dramatic".
Latif Mehsud ... was taken into custody by U.S. personnel, who intercepted an Afghan government convoy in Logar province, Afghan officials said.
The dramatic capture enraged Afghan President Hamid Karzai...
Associated Press deals with this by distinctly burying the lead.
Latif Mehsud was arrested by American forces as he was driving along a main highway in eastern Logar province's district of Mohammad Agha, said the Logar governor, Arsallah Jamal. The road links the province with the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Senior Pakistan Taliban captured in Afghanistan
Background on Bagram
Latif Mehsud is said to have been taken to the U.S.-controlled portion of Bagram prison.
A longstanding legal challenge about Habeas rights at Bagram is now before the D.C. Circuit Court. Lawfare has the most extensive coverage of this.
The day involved, as Raffaela reported earlier, two separate arguments. The first merged the Al Maqaleh and Amanatullah cases, and consisted mostly of debate over whether new evidence should, under the Supreme Court’s Boumediene ruling, allow the petitioners to seek writs of habeas corpus. The second concerned the Hamidullah case and some unique questions surrounding the named petitioner there—who was apprehended before he reached the age of majority, yet like the other petitioners, was eventually transferred to U.S. custody at Bagram.
Oral Argument Recap: The Bagram Habeas Cases
The U.S. has a separate facility near Bagram, called the Black Jail. Interrogation techniques there include very small isolation cells, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and cold cells. See
A Report on the Black Jail at Bagram, from July.
Prison control has been a major dispute in Afghan/American negotiations on security transfer and sovereignty.
The 25 March 2013 handover was the second attempt at transferring the detention facility at Bagram – now renamed the Afghan National Detention Facility (ANDF). The United States and Afghanistan first struck a deal on 8 March 2012 to great fanfare, publishing the agreement and discussing it with the media.(1) Within months, it had, acrimoniously, fallen apart.
The ‘Other Guantanamo’ 6: Afghans still struggling for sovereignty at Bagram
A confounding issue in the disputes about prisoner control, is that neither side can properly hand prisoners over to the other, for substantial fear that the prisoners will be tortured.
One Interpretation of the U.S. Action
After years of not going very well, current Afghan/American security negotiations are not going very well. The U.S. action of seizing a TPP member from Afghan security hands is a strong provocation, making the state of negotiations worse. It hits on many hot button issues.
a. Afghan-channel peace and reconciliation talks.
b. Prisoner control.
c. Independent U.S. counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.
d. Pakistan.
But two issues have emerged as potential “deal breakers”, President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi, told reporters late on Tuesday.
One is a U.S. desire to run independent counter-terrorism missions in Afghanistan after 2014, Faizi said. The other was a U.S. refusal to agree to a wide-reaching promise to protect Afghanistan from foreign aggression.
Karzai has long opposed operations in Afghanistan by U.S. special operations forces and the CIA, particularly when they run the risk of causing civilian casualties.
“These things are strongly related to our sovereignty,” Faizi said. “We find it to be something that will definitely undermine our sovereignty, if we allow the U.S. forces to have the right to conduct unilateral military operations.”
Afghans baulk at U.S. push for operations after 2014: spokesman, Reuters
The
New York Times calls Hamid Karzai's recent
BBC remarks a "lashing out."
Mr. Karzai has lashed out at the United States and its allies before. But his latest comments, broadcast Monday evening in London and posted online in the early hours of Tuesday in Kabul, came at a crucial juncture. The NATO coalition’s mission concludes at the end of 2014, and negotiations to keep American forces in Afghanistan beyond that point are stalled, according to Afghan and American officials.
Karzai Lashes Out at the U.S. for Its Role and Focus in Afghanistan
The directly provocative U.S. action, hitting so many hot button issues, could be seen as some sort of messed up lashing out back.
Or, similarly, as some sort of messed up negotiating tactic or pressure in the messed up security negotiations.