CIA wants Taliban official sent from Pakistan to U.S.-run prison

WASHINGTON — The Taliban military commander captured last month in Pakistan has refused to provide information that could be used against his insurgent network, prompting the CIA to push for his transfer to an American-run prison in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.

The proposal reflects the level of U.S. frustration
with the interrogation of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar since he was taken
into custody by Pakistani operatives working with the CIA nearly a month ago, and also points to the Obama administration’s dilemma over what to do with high-value detainees.

As the main architect of the Taliban’s insurgent campaign, Baradar is believed to have extensive knowledge of the militant networks’ operations and finances.

“This guy should be able to give out everything from
bank account numbers to where training camps are located,” said a U.S.
government official familiar with the efforts to question Baradar.
“He’s not doing any of that.”

The CIA was denied direct access to
Baradar for about two weeks after his arrest, and has since worked
alongside Pakistani interrogators who continue to control the
questioning. But officials said they have learned nothing from Baradar
that could be used to track down other Taliban leaders, or inform the planning of U.S. military operations.

A second U.S. official said that “Baradar is
talking,” but acknowledged concerns about the reliability of the
information, and said, “His debriefing could well be an extended
affair.”

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta and other officials have proposed moving Baradar to the U.S.-run prison at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul.
But officials acknowledged the prospects for such a transfer are
uncertain because of legal and diplomatic obstacles, as well potential
objections from Pakistan.

The CIA declined to comment on the plan.
A U.S. official said, “Baradar’s an Afghan, so it’s only logical that
his home country might be considered as an ultimate destination.”

But Baradar, a former member of the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan, is also believed to have longstanding ties to Pakistan’s intelligence service. U.S. officials and experts said Pakistan may be reluctant to turn over a prisoner who could reveal details about that relationship.

Moving Baradar to Bagram would give U.S.
interrogators control over his questioning. Officials stressed that he
would be in U.S. military custody, and that the U.S. Army’s interrogation rules would apply.

But a transfer to Bagram also poses other potential problems.

The prison already holds several detainees captured outside Afghanistan. But the Pentagon
has been reluctant to accept more out of concern that the facility
might become a source of international scorn, much like the detention
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon already is engaged in a
legal fight to prevent prisoners from using U.S. courts to challenge
their detentions at Bagram. And U.S. commanders have announced plans to
turn over to Afghan control.

Baradar’s capture has been portrayed as a breakthrough in U.S. efforts to get Pakistan to pursue Taliban leaders in the country. But emerging details about the arrest challenge that conclusion.

Pakistani and CIA operatives did not know
they had captured Baradar until after they began sorting through a
group of suspects arrested in a raid on the outskirts of Karachi on Jan. 26.
The house was targeted based on U.S. intelligence that “pointed to a
meeting of his people,” a U.S. official said. But there was no
expectation that Baradar would be there.

Only after Pakistani authorities began showing their CIA counterparts photographs of the prisoners did operatives realize they were holding the most high-ranking Taliban leader captured in the eight-year war.

Separately on Friday, Pakistan intelligence sources confirmed that a missile fired from a U.S. drone killed the brother of an Afghan Taliban commander.

Mohammed Haqqani, brother of militant leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, was killed in a drone strike Thursday in North Waziristan, a region in Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas that remains largely Taliban-controlled.
Three other militants were killed in the attack, which occurred in near
Derga Mendai, a village located within the Haqqani network’s stronghold
in North Waziristan.

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(c) 2010, Tribune Co.

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