As I'm waiting for the womens' hockey clash between Sweden and Slovakia, I've got MSNBC on in the background. Olbermann & Maddow have been beating the hell out of former Vice President Dick Cheney over his performance on the Sunday talk shows. As a 'media vegan' (I love C-SPAN precisely for skipping all the 'Special Segment' and 'Worst Person in the World' silliness) I'm beginning to become suspicious of a symbiotic relationship between MSNBC and figures like Cheney. I think they need each other. Cheney, I believe, has a book due out in about a year and any attention, even bad press, scratches the hype itch. For MSNBC, Cheney is low hanging fruit for which they can squeeze out ample sauce for their faithful 'Blue Team' viewers. It's amazing how much energy both Olbermann and Maddow can muster rebutting Cheney's criticism of the Obama Administration's war on terrorism and the handling of the Christmas day bomber. Still, the real question might be why is anyone even bothering to listen to Cheney in the first place? What achievement, besides providing covering fire for torture, can Cheney really hang his hat upon in the fight against terrorism? However, here's some breaking news that might help handicap the question for our noble media: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been captured in a joint effort between the CIA and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directive (ISI) and is apparently being held in Karachi. This could be huge.
Mullah Baradar is believed to be second in command to Mullah Muhammad Omar and close to bin Laden. It's also big news in another way -- the cooperation between the CIA and ISI. Since the ejection of the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001, the two security agencies have maintained a deep and mutual mistrust against each other. Apparently, Mullah Baradar was captured last Thursday. U.S. and Pakistani officials chose not to talk about the capture so to allow the joint mission to further plum for intelligence and further possible captures. The Taliban has denied Mullah Baradar was caught. President Obama, the target of Cheney's criticisms about returning to "pre-911 mindsets" did assert as candidate and commander, that he would take the fight to Taliban and Al Qaeda. Capturing Baradar might be an important dividend of that effort.
Circling back to Dick Cheney, one should note that it was the Bush Administration that spent years trying to prop up Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf in the failed belief that Musharraf would deliver Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders wanted by the U.S. Pakistan and the ISI did surrender a number of Al Qaeda operatives. Often these assets where surrendered as much to deflect embarrassing collusions between the ISI and militants. One of the overall goals of Pakistan has always been to use Afghanistan as a buffer and counterweight to Indian influence in the region, incubating and using the Taliban as the very instrument by which to control the government in Kabul. Yet this troublesome truth didn't prevent Bush from trying to bargain for the impossible. Under Bush, the U.S. pumped billions of aid dollars to Pakistan (that was mostly spent on military hardware to counter India). The deal was suppose to be that Bush (and Cheney) would persuade Musharraf, over time, to gradually move toward democracy while countering the threat of Islamic fundamentalists. "Pakistan is an ally in the war on terror and the American people are safer." Those words were an applause line in a Bush speech in July of 2004. Bush and Cheney asserted that they had secured Pakistan's support through Musharraf. It was an utterly compromised proposition. Bush and Cheney failed to pressure Musharraf to stop allowing the Taliban a safe haven in Pakistan -- even after the assassination attempt on his life. While Taliban forces regrouped in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, Musharraf let the ISI play a long and risky game of double-dealing with the very Islamists they were supposed to be apprehending. This is the underwhelming record Mr. Cheney is allowed to side step while he embellishes some nonsense about miranda rights. Again, why?
Update
Yes. I cleaned up a couple of gruesome sentences. Much more importantly, Pakistan continues to help clean up the Taliban. Mr. Cheney might be wondering how the Bush Administration could've gotten the ISI to clear out their rolodex sooner.
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