Dead man walking

Paradigm Intel:


He doth protest too much...

Binny hasn't been heard from for about 2 years?
The Dadullah's brother is now giving Binny instructions?
"I tell him to keep hidden"??
And He got letter from Binny, no he got a letter reported to be from Binny.
Indicators point to Laden as dead.
Nothing indicates he is alive.

This new guy won't be around long enough to even learn his name.
He has a big red X on his back.

He beheaded a Doctor, civilian, Allah will send him to hell.

Even Dadullah's own troops loyalty was from fear of the sociapath.
Dadullah boasting that he would fight anyone, anywhere.

"Come and get me," he snarled in remarks addressed at President Hamed Karzai.

On May 13, Afghan National Army forces and their US Special Forces mentors did just that.

Mullah Dadullah, the much-feared commander of Taleban forces in the south of the country, appeared once again on Afghan television screens, this time laid out on a pink sheet.

Dadullah was dead, killed in a firefight in the Garmseer district in Helmand province.

"This attack will break the Taleban's back," Kandahar governor Assadullah Khaled told the assembled press. "Here is the body of a wild man who used to behead and hang innocent people."

Since the insurgents began to make serious inroads in Helmand this spring, individual acts of violence attributed to them have been on the rise. A series of public hangings in Musa Qala and Sangin in February terrorised the local population. Residents told of bodies left hanging for days, as a lesson to others not to work with the government or foreign forces.

It was Dadullah, say Taleban sources, who ordered the beheading of Ajmal Naqshbandi, the Afghan translator captured along with Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in Helmand province in March. Ajmal spent five long weeks in captivity before his body was dumped in Helmand, the severed head reattached to his corpse.

Earlier this year, Dadullah had promised a fierce spring offensive, boasting that he had 600 suicide bombers and 10,000 Taleban fighters ready to sweep into the south.

As the poppy harvest, which traditionally brings a lull in the fighting, came to an end, Dadullah seemed about to make good on his promises.

But a resident of the local capital Lashkar Gah, who would not give his name, said Dadullah was a vindictive commander who was at the root of all of Helmand's security problems.

"I am very happy Dadullah is dead," he told IWPR. "He was a cruel person. I hope that things will now improve, because no other Taleb commander can do the things Dadullah could. Maybe now things will finally get better."

Helmand's Drug Bazaars: everyone wins

Everyone's a Winner at Helmand's Drug Bazaars
The arrangements are quite open and operate semi-officially, according to Hajji Aligul, 55, a tribal leader in Nadali.

By IWPR trainees in Helmand (ARR No. 255, 1-June-07)
A distinctive odour ( sweet purfume, flower smell ) hangs over the local bazaar in Chan Jir, a small village in Nadali district, just 15 kilometres from the Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah. Most of the two dozen or so shops in the market specialise in just one commodity – opium.

Sayed Gul, a tall young man of 25, stands outside his shop, his hands covered in sticky brown paste. A merchant with a bulky bag under his cotton patu, or scarf, passes by, and Sayed Gul springs into action. Running so fast that his sandals kick up the dust behind him, he catches up to the stranger and takes his arm.

"Where are you going, man?" he says, leading him into the shop

Once out of the burning sunshine, serious negotiations begin. Sayed Gul calls for his young son to bring the Hajji Sahib, or respected guest, some tea. He is eager to offer him some of his poppy paste – the man is a small-time trafficker buying up opium in Chan Jir to sell on to larger dealers in Pakistan.

"I attended a shura [council] where we negotiated with the government," he told IWPR. "We agreed that we would give 220 grams of poppy paste per jerib. The police commander told us, of course, that if we did not reach agreement, they would take the paste by force."

The poppy harvest is in and everyone from the Taleban to local government officials is cooperating to get the opium crop to market.

But cooperation has been so close that farmers say the Taleban scaled down their "spring offensive" this year so as not to interfere with bringing in the crop.

"It is not beneficial to have fighting during the harvest," said Shah Mahmud. "The Taleban and the government both receive money from poppy – they lose out if the crop is destroyed by bombing or fighting."

In several places, villagers have requested that the Taleban leave the area until after the harvest.

"We told the Taleban, 'This year the government was very good to us and did not destroy our poppy," said one tribal leader who did not want to give his name. "We said, 'Stop your fighting during harvest time, otherwise we will turn against you, take up arms against you and kick you out of the area.'"

Article Sources: IWPR