Fifth Columnist "Jang Group/GEO TV" & Colonel Imam.

During Judicial Crisis [Musharraf Days] it was Hamid Mir who got out of the office and slapped one policeman in Islamabad to instigate Policemen to enter GEO office to create a scene. These anchors often create a situation where they made their guests to say what they themselves [anchors] want to say. Why we forget that Nazir Naji and Ahmed Noorani Tapes were also made available on internet. Who tapped the conversation???? Hamid Mir and many other leading anchors in several Pakistani Private TV Channels [who are also leading correspondents in Newspapers] seem to work like ASSETS of someone. Hamid Mir is a known time server. Many of us have now forgotten that it was Hamid Mir who filed a lead story [and story was false] in Daily Dawn [Hamid Mir wasn't even a Contract Employee of Dawn] after 911 that "Osama bin Laden"  has more than 30 Nukes [as if Nukes are .22 Caliber Pistols and can easily be carried around when half of the leading Military around the world were looking after for OBL. Above all Hamid is an expert in quick somersaults: Read the contents of this story when Hamid Mir and Col Imam were exchanging allegations.

This is with reference to Hamid Mir's report (Sept 20) titled "How an ex-commando became a terrorist". It is total disinformation -- Ilyas Kashmiri neither had any association with the SSG nor did he serve in the army as a soldier. Being an ex-commando officer, I know that the SSG never indulges in such heinous crimes. It's a superior professional force of the army composed of responsible officers and men who carry out professional tasks. I would like to add that there is always an attempt by hostile agencies to defame the security forces of Pakistan with a malicious intent. Therefore, newspapers and columnists must refrain from falling prey to these fifth columnists. REFERENCE:  Colnel (r) Imam Ex-SSG officer, Rawalpindi Who is Ilyas Kashmiri? Friday, October 02, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=201054

ISLAMABAD: Once he was a blue-eyed boy of President General Pervez Musharraf. He got a cash award from the president for slitting the throat of an Indian Army officer in the year 2000 but after 9/11, he became a suspected terrorist. This terrorist was Ilyas Kashmiri, reportedly killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan last week. US officials claimed that Ilyas Kashmiri was a senior al-Qaeda commander and his death was a huge loss for the militants fighting against the foreign forces in Afghanistan. Very few people know that Ilyas Kashmiri was a former SSG commando of Pakistan Army. He was originally from Kotli area of Azad Kashmir. He was deputed by Pakistan Army to train the Afghan Mujahideen fighting against the Russian Army in mid-80s. He was an expert of mines supplied to Afghan Mujahideen by the US. He lost one eye during the Jihad against Russian invaders and later on he joined Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami of Maulvi Nabi Muhammadi.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 1

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RLw4kDTAU8

Ilyas Kashmiri was based in Miramshah area of North Waziristan where he was working as an instructor at a training camp. After the withdrawal of Russian Army from Afghanistan, Ilyas Kashmiri was asked by Pakistani establishment to work with Kashmiri militants. He joined the Kashmir chapter of Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami in 1991. After a few years, he developed some differences with the head of HuJI Qari Saifullah Akhtar. Ilyas Kashmiri created his own 313 Brigade in HuJI. He was once arrested by Indian Army from Poonch area of Indian held Kashmir along with Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial. He was imprisoned in different Indian jails for two years and finally he escaped from there after breaking the jail. His old friend Langrial is still imprisoned in India. Ilyas Kashmiri became a legend after escaping from the Indian jail. It was 1998 when the Indian Army started incursions along the Line of Control and killed Pakistani civilians many times by crossing the border. Ilyas Kashmiri was given the task to attack the Indians from their back. He did it many times. Indian Army killed 14 civilians on February 25, 2000 in Lonjot village of Nakial in Azad Kashmir. Indian commandos crossed the LoC, spent the whole night in a Pakistani village and left early morning. They slit the throats of three girls and took away their heads with them. They also kidnapped two local girls. The next morning, the heads of the kidnapped girls were thrown towards Pakistani soldiers by the Indian Army.

The very next day of this massacre, Ilyas Kashmiri conducted a guerilla operation against the Indian Army in Nakyal sector on the morning of February 26, 2000. He crossed the LoC with 25 fighters of the 313 Brigade. He surrounded a bunker of Indian Army and threw grenades inside. After one of his fighters Qudratullah lost his life, he was able to kidnap an injured officer of the Indian Army. That was not the end. He slit the throat of the kidnapped officer. He came back to Pakistan with the head of the dead Indian Army officer in his bag and presented this head to top Army officials and later on to the then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, who gave him a cash award of rupees one lakh.

The pictures of Ilyas Kashmiri with the head of a dead Indian Army officer in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers and he became very important among the Kashmiri militants. Maulana Zahoor Ahmad Alvi of Jamia Muhammadia, Islamabad, issued a fatwa in support of slitting the throats of Indian Army officers. Those were the days when Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmad, visited the training camp of Ilyas Kashmiri in Kotli and appreciated his frequent guerilla actions against the Indian Army. His honeymoon with the Pakistan Army generals was over after the creation of Jaish-e-Muhammad. Gen Mehmood wanted Ilyas Kashmiri to join JeM and accept Maulana Masood Azhar as his leader but the one eyed militant refused to do so. The militants of JeM once attacked the training camp of Ilyas Kashmiri in Kotli but he survived that attack. His outfit was banned by Musharraf after 9/11. He was arrested after an attack on the life of Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. He was tortured during the interrogation.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 2

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKxpuwusAGE

The United Jihad Council led by Syed Salahuddin strongly protested the arrest of Ilyas Kashmiri and on the pressure of Kashmiri militants, Ilyas Kashmiri was released in February 2004. He was a shattered man after his release. He disassociated himself from the Kashmiri militants and remained silent for at least three years. It was the Lal Masjid operation in July 2007, which totally changed Ilyas Kashmiri. He moved to North Waziristan where he spent many years as a Jihad instructor. This area was full of his friends and sympathisers. He reorganized his 313 Brigade and joined hands with the Taliban but he was never close to al-Qaeda leadership. He attracted many former Pakistan Army officers to join hands with him. The strength of 313 Brigade in North Waziristan was more than 3,000. Most of his fighters were hired from the Punjab, Sindh and Azad Kashmir. It is alleged that he organised many terrorist attacks in different areas of Pakistan, including the assassination of Major General (retd) Faisal Alvi in Rawalpindi. Alvi was also from the SSG and he led the first-ever Army operation in North Waziristan in 2004. Kashmiri planned attacks on Alvi on the demand of Taliban in North Waziristan. Sources close to his family have yet not confirmed his death in a US drone attack but there is no doubt that Ilyas Kashmiri was actually a creation of the Pakistani establishment like Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the banned LeT. The Pakistani establishment abandoned and arrested most of these militant leaders without realising that they had followers all over Pakistan and they could create problems for Pakistan anytime. The establishment is still without any policy about all those who were once declared “freedom fighters” and were honored by the top Army officials like Pervez Musharraf. REFERENCE: How an ex-Army commando became a terrorist By Hamid Mir Sunday, September 20, 2009
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24626

Now read that the same Jang Group/The News International  file two different stories (both are published) in the same newspaper giving different reasons of Colonel Imam's "Alleged Death"

PESHAWAR: A well-known spymaster and former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official Col (retd) Sultan Ameer Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam, reportedly died of cardiac arrest in the captivity of militants on Sunday. He was in the custody of militants affiliated with the Hakimullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Family sources of the veteran intelligence officer said they were hearing rumours since Saturday about his death but till now there was no confirmation from any independent source. Taliban and tribal sources told this scribe that Col Imam’s health had deteriorated due to his confinement since March last year. He reportedly suffered a heart attack that took his life. Pleading anonymity, the Taliban sources said Col Imam had been shifted to the Khost province in neighbouring Afghanistan by his captors where he died of cardiac arrest. They said the body of the ageing retired military officer was being brought to the forested and mountainous Shawal Valley in North Waziristan. They said the militants may release pictures of the deceased to the media today (Monday) to prove that he was dead. The sources said the militants were still holding his body, which was likely to be brought to the remote Shawal Valley any time on Monday. Certain tribal sources said the body had already been transported to Shawal Valley, which is at a long distance from Miramshah, the principal town of militancy-torn North Waziristan.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 3

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKFPQ8wwPNk

It was not clear whether the militants would hand over his body to the family for burial or stick to their previous demands that they made for his release. A senior TTP commander a few days back claimed that both Col Imam and Ajmal Khan, vice-chancellor of the Islamia College University, Peshawar, were in his custody. The TTP commander had said that talks for the release of Col Imam were in progress with his family and indicated that he may be released soon. The TTP had yet to make a fresh comment on Col Imam’s fate. Relatives and friends of Col Imam said they were saddened by the irresponsible attitude of the Pakistani television channels, which started running reports of his death as breaking news without quoting any authentic source. “It’s a big tragedy for us. I didn’t know whom to believe, the TV channels or friends and colleagues. We have no confirmation of his death but the TV channels declared him dead and even recovered his body from a market in Miramshah,” complained a member of the bereaved family.

Pakistan’s military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas was quoted as saying that they too were hearing news about Col Imam’s death but were not in a position to confirm this piece of information. Col Imam and another former ISI official, Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khawaja, had gone to North Waziristan along with a British journalist-cum-documentary maker, Asad Qureshi, to make a documentary on the Pakistani Taliban and victims of the US drone strikes when they were kidnapped on March 6, 2010. Later, an unknown militant organisation, Asian Tigers, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and accused Khalid Khawaja of spying for the CIA. He was subsequently shot dead on April 30 near Mir Ali town. Journalist Asad Qureshi and his driver Rustam Khan were released several months later reportedly after his family paid ransom to his kidnappers, who in reality were a group of Mahsud tribal militants and the Punjabi Taliban led by Sabir Mahsud and Usman Punjabi.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 4

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7Q3vp6Db8

Sabir Mahsud and Usman Punjabi later developed differences over the ransom money and militants affiliated with the former killed Usman Punjabi and his five men at Danday Darpakhel village near Miramshah on August 28, 2010. It prompted Hakimullah Mahsud-led militants to raid the hideout of Sabir Mahsud in Miramshah bazaar and kidnap him and his gunmen. In the evening, the bullet-riddled bodies of Sabir Mahsud and his men were found on the Miramshah-Dattakhel Road near the Miramshah town. The TTP militants, besides seizing arms and resources of the Sabir Mahsud group, also took Col Imam into their custody and shifted him to an unknown location. On one occasion, the TTP sources claimed they had shifted Vice Chancellor Ajmal Khan and Col Imam to their stronghold in Shaktoi in South Waziristan. Col Imam was widely respected by the Afghan Mujahideen and also by the Taliban due to his role during the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. He also served as Pakistan’s consul general to Afghanistan’s western Herat city for some years after the installation of the Afghan Mujahideen government. He had trained and backed the Afghan Mujahideen and was on friendly terms with Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar and other Taliban leaders.

Usman Punjabi, the leader the Punjabi Taliban, had once said that they kidnapped Col Imam as they were not happy with him because he had supported the Afghan Taliban but opposed their Pakistani counterparts. Online adds: According to some media reports, Col Imam was killed by his kidnappers in North Waziristan over non-payment of ransom money. The kidnappers reportedly demanded Rs4-5 million for the release of Col Imam, which was not in reach of his family. The relatives of Col Imam said that intelligence sources conveyed them the news of his death. Meanwhile, security officials have confirmed the death of Col Imam, saying that his body was still with the kidnappers, who were demanding a ransom of Rs2 million for returning it. Col Imam is survived by two sons and two daughters. REFERENCE: Colonel Imam ‘dies of cardiac arrest’ in captivity By Mushtaq Yusufzai Monday, January 24, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3513&Cat=13&dt=1/24/2011

LAHORE: The Pakistani authorities investigating the March 25, 2010 abduction and subsequent murder of the former ISI official Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam believe that the little known militant group called Asian Tigers, which had demanded $10 million and the custody of some key Afghan Taliban commanders in exchange for the release of the hostage, was actually a cover name for the Lashkar-e-Zil (LeZ), a loose alliance of al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked anti-American militia, led by the North Waziristan based Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, who also heads Brigade 313 and the Azad Kashmir chapter of the Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI). According to well-informed sources in the security establishment, Ilyas Kashmiri is currently based in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan from where the body of another former ISI official, Khalid Khawaja, was recovered on April 30, 2010, almost a month after his abduction. They pointed out that almost nine months after the abduction, on January 23, 2011, the body of Khalid Khawaja’s aide, Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar, has also been found in the Danday Darpakhel area of Miramshah, which is the capital of North Waziristan.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 5

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNr796zpWXo

Both Khawaja and Imam had stated in a video dispatched by the kidnappers and released by the Geo TV in April 2010 that they had travelled to Waziristan after being asked by the former Army Chief General Mirza Aslam Beg and former ISI Chief Lt Gen Hameed Gul. But apparently, Khawaja and Imam had travelled to North Waziristan to assist a British journalist, who wanted to interview some Taliban commanders for a documentary. The three, who were last seen in Mir Ali area, were in touch with one Usman Punjabi before they went missing and the authorities probing the case believe that Usman was actually a mole of Kashmiri to hook Khawaja and Imam.

An email sent along with a video footage of the abducted persons had demanded an immediate release of Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar, the second in command of Mulla Mohammad Omar. Baradar was arrested by the Pakistani authorities in February 2010, just a week after the holding of the US-sponsored London conference on Afghanistan. The mail sent by the Asian Tigers had further demanded a $10 million ransom for journalist Asad Qureshi. In the video clip, Colonel (R) Imam is heard saying that his real name is Sultan Amir and he served in the Pakistan Army for 18 years, 11 of them in the Inter Services Intelligence. “I had consulted with Gen Aslam Beg (former army chief) about coming here,” Col Imam said. In the same video, Khalid Khawaja had said that he had served in Pakistan Air Force for 18 years and in the ISI for two years. “I came here on the prodding of Lt Gen Hameed Gul, General Aslam Beg and ISI’s Colonel Sajjad.” Both Imam and Khawaja were shown in the video holding a copy of a Peshawar-based newspaper while recording their statement before the camera. In the video, the group called itself “Asian Tigers” and said the hostages would be killed if its demands were not met within 10 days. The email, which was originally in Urdu language, stated while charge sheeting the former ISI officials: “Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam are in the Taliban custody. Both ISI persons are the enemy of Islam and Muslims. We demand release of all Taliban leaders, Mullah Baradar, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah and Mullah Kabir. We will send a list of other mujahideen within a few days. We give ten days time. If the government failed to release mujahideen, we will kill ISI officers.”

However, well informed sources in the security establishment say the Asian Tigers’ demand for the release of key commanders of the Afghan Taliban was motivated by the hate factor and designed to get their custody from the Pakistan government. According to them, the abductors were somehow convinced that both the former ISI officials, who were considered close to the Afghan Taliban, had been working against the interests of Punjabi Taliban since the Lal Masjid military operation of 2007. Therefore, the Punjabi Taliban belonging to several Sunni Deobandi sectarian-cum-jihadi groups which are working in tandem with the Pushtun-dominated Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan used to despise Khawaja and Imam for their support to the Afghan Taliban and opposition to the Pakistani Taliban. Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for the Taliban Media Centre, being operated by the Punjabi Taliban, had stated soon after Khawaja’s murder that he was executed because he used to call the Punjabi Taliban terrorists and refer to the Afghan Taliban as mujahideen.

Colonel Imam in Jawab Deyh (Sept 2009) - Part - 6

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub6HmsQzVpU

Explaining their decision to execute Khawaja, the spokesman for the Punjabi Taliban, further said that all major militant organisations operating in the Waziristan region unanimously agreed to punish him and everybody wanted him to be executed as he had confessed of all the charges levelled against him. He alleged that during his previous visit to North Waziristan, Khawaja brought a list of 14 senior Punjabi Taliban commanders and told TTP leaders, Commander Hakimullah Mahsud and Commander Waliur Rahman, to hand them over to the Pakistani authorities because they were getting financial assistance from Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Mohammad Omar even mentioned names of jihadi commanders who were identified as Indian agents by Khawaja. Important among those mentioned in the list were Qari Hussain Mahsud, an anti-Shia close aide of Baitullah Mahsud and commonly known in the TTP circles as Ustad-e-Fidayeen or the teacher of suicide bombers, Qari Mohammad Zafar, the acting ameer of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan on February 24 and Matiur Rehman, a bomb making expert of the LeJ, who is believed to be using drug money to fund the recruitment drive and reorganization of the LeJ.

Therefore, those investigating the abduction and subsequent slaughter of Khawaja and Imam further believe that these acts had something to do with the rift among the various pro-Kashmir jihadi groups currently operating from the Pakistani soil. They cited Khawaja’s remarks in the video that certain jihadi commanders such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil, Maulana Masood Azhar and Abdullah Shah Mazhar and jihadi groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Al Badr are still operating as ISI proxies and allowed to collect funds in Pakistan. To tell the truth, while the leaders of the three mainstream pro-Kashmir jihadi groups - JeM, LeT and HuM - are still allowed to move freely across Pakistan despite being proscribed by the Pakistan government, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri has already been declared as one of the most wanted fugitive commanders. REFERENCE: ‘Key Jihadi behind Col Imam’s murder’ By Amir Mir Monday, January 24, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3521&Cat=13&dt=1/24/2011

NOW NOTE THE SOMERSAULTS OF JANG GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS

Monday, January 24, 2011, Safar 19, 1432 A.H
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jan2011-daily/24-01-2011/main.htm

Read and note the somersault

http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jan2011-daily/24-01-2011/main3.htm




Latest in the same Jang Group of Newspapers
 
Updated at: 1400   |    
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jan2011-daily/25-01-2011/u60497.htm

 And now after filing everything The News International (Editorial) has to say this

Colonel Sultan Ameer Tarar, known as ‘Colonel Imam’, appears to have died a death just as shadowy as his professional life. The former ISI official was highly respected among the Afghan Taliban for his role in the war against the former Soviet Union after 1979; he was also widely believed to have acted as a ‘go between’ linking militants to intelligence elements – but what seems to have been less known is the fact that the late Colonel was looked upon with distrust by other militant elements, including the Taliban factions who apparently abducted him and another former ISI official Squadron Leader Khalid Khwaja in March last year – while they were visiting North Waziristan, apparently with a British journalist. The unfortunate Khwaja was killed soon afterwards. The fate of Imam seems less clear. While a Taliban spokesman has said he died of a heart attack, there are accounts which suggest he may have been murdered after his family failed to pay ransom. Yet another account of what may have happened comes in a report in this newspaper which states he may have landed up in the hands of a group involved in the Kashmir jihad and that the death of both Imam and Khwaja may be linked to an internal squabble between jihadi forces. It is hard to say if the whole truth will ever surface.

Certainly many aspects of the militancy remain rather hazy with facts impossible to distinguish from conjecture. But it is quite apparent, as has also been driven home by the kidnapping and death of Imam, that the militants are not a homogenous body. It is a fallacy to look upon them as such. There are deep lines of divide separating them and severe rivalry in some cases. The Afghan and Pakistan Taliban are one example of this. The differences that exist between them may explain why Colonel Imam ran into trouble in territory he considered safe. They have also played a part in determining differences in perspective between Islamabad and Washington, even though both fight a common enemy. This reality complicates the battle against the militants. We are taking on not just one entity but a monster with many heads pulling in different directions. Even now, there is only limited understanding of the ideological leanings of the various groups, their inter-connections and the question of who they see as friends and who as foes. REFERENCE: Shadowy death Tuesday, January 25, 2011 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=27469&Cat=8&dt=1/25/2011

TAIL-PIECE

Former Pakistani Officer Embodies a Policy Puzzle

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: March 3, 2010

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — With his white turban, untrimmed beard and worn army jacket, the man known uniformly here by his nom de guerre, Col. Imam, is a particular Pakistani enigma.

Mary Fitzgerald/The Irish Times

Once a promising protégé for the United States, Brig. Sultan Amir, who is known as Col. Imam, has taught insurgent tactics. 

A United States-trained former colonel in Pakistan’s spy agency, he spent 20 years running insurgents in and out of Afghanistan, first to fight the Soviet Army, and later to support the Taliban, as Pakistani allies, in their push to conquer Afghanistan in the 1990s.Today those Taliban forces are battling his onetime mentor, the United States, and Western officials say Colonel Imam has continued to train, recruit and finance the insurgents. Along with a number of other retired Pakistani intelligence officials, they say, he has helped the Taliban stage a remarkable comeback since 2006.In two recent interviews with The New York Times, Colonel Imam denied that. But he remains a vocal advocate of the Taliban, and his views reveal the sympathies that have long run deep in the ranks of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services.Despite Pakistan’s recent arrest of several high-level Taliban commanders, men like Colonel Imam sit at the center of the questions that linger around what Pakistan’s actual intentions are toward the Taliban. American and NATO officials suspect that retired officers like Colonel Imam have served as a quasi-official bridge to Taliban leaders and their rank and file as well as other militant groups.Now retired, Colonel Imam (his real name is Brig. Sultan Amir) lives in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, just yards from the Pakistani Army headquarters.In the interviews, Colonel Imam denied any continued link to the Taliban. But he admitted that some “freelancers” — meaning former Pakistani military or intelligence officials — might still be assisting the insurgents.

If Colonel Imam personifies the double edge of Pakistan’s policy toward the Taliban, he also embodies the deep connection Pakistan has to the Afghan insurgents, and possibly the key to controlling them.Once a promising protégé for the United States, he underwent Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1974, learning in particular the use of explosives, and he went on to do a master parachutist course with the 82nd Airborne Division.On his return to Pakistan, he taught insurgent tactics to the first Afghan students who fled the country’s Communist revolution in 1978, among them future resistance leaders Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Masood. He then worked closely with the C.I.A. to train and support thousands of guerrilla fighters for the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Army throughout the 1980s.

Once the Soviets were pushed out, the Taliban emerged and Colonel Imam, then serving as a Pakistani consular official in Afghanistan, provided critical support to their bid to rule the country, Western officials said.

By his own account, he was so close to the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, that he visited him in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, and left only when the American bombing campaign began later in 2001. He says he has not returned since. His parting advice to Mullah Omar, he said, was to fight on, but stick to guerrilla tactics.Today, Colonel Imam speaks highly of the Americans he worked with. But he predicts failure for the United States in Afghanistan. While his views are clearly colored by his ardor for the Taliban cause, they also carry the weight of someone who knows his subject well.

The Taliban cannot be defeated, he said, and they will not be weakened by the recent capture of senior commanders, including the No.2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.The Taliban movement is so devolved, he said, that commanders on the ground make most of their own decisions and can raise money and arrange for weapons supplies themselves.“The Taliban cannot be forced out, you cannot subjugate them,” he said. “But they can tire the Americans. In another three to four years, the Americans will be tired.”He criticized President Obama’s decision last year to send more American troops into Afghanistan. “They are doing what you should never do in military strategy, reinforcing the error,” he said.“They will have more convoys, more planes, more supply convoys, and the insurgents will have a bigger target,” he added. “The insurgents are very happy.”

The plan by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, to win over the Afghan people while pressing the Taliban militarily could have worked in 2003 or 2004, when the Taliban were weak and had less support, but now the Taliban had a presence in virtually every province, he said. He also said the idea of paying members of the Taliban to change sides would not work and only bogus figures would come forward. “It is shameful for a superpower to bribe,” he said.Meanwhile, he has nothing but praise for Mullah Omar, who is suspected of hiding in Pakistan today. Of all the thousands of men he trained, he said, religious students like Mullah Omar were the most “formidable” opponents because of their commitment.The Taliban had been tainted in recent years by bad characters joining the movement and committing crimes, and Mullah Omar was now cracking down on them, he said.

He pointedly criticized the Pakistani Taliban who turned to fight the Pakistani Army in Swat last year and unleashed a wave of bombings in Pakistan’s cities. They were “troublemakers” that should be “neutralized,” he said.Yet for Afghanistan, the solution was to negotiate with the Taliban leadership, he said. Mullah Omar wants peace and is capable of compromise, he said.He was also the only leader who could keep Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan or in abeyance, including Osama bin Laden, he said. Mullah Omar’s popular support was such that Mr. bin Laden would have to listen, he said.Mullah Omar had refused to hand over Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, in 2001 because he calculated that if he did, it would be only the first of many demands placed on him, he said. A version of this article appeared in print on March 4, 2010, on page A6 of the New York edition. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/world/asia/04imam.html?_r=1