| We had some of this yesterday, but it looks like Mullah Hanif is continuing his song. |
 A captured Taliban spokesman has said the movementÂ’s fugitive leader is hiding out in Pakistan with the protection of that countryÂ’s spy agency, Afghan intelligence officials said on Wednesday.
Abul Haq Haqiq, who was known to the media as Mohammad Hanif, was arrested in the eastern province of Nangarhar late on Monday. During interrogation he said fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, who has a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head, was in the western Pakistan city of Quetta, the Afghan intelligence agency said in a statement. “He is under the protection of the ISI in Quetta,” it quoted Hanif as saying.
| We are, like sooooooo surprised. Who'da ever thunkit? |
Haqiq was not presented to the media for questioning and the authenticity of the claims could not be verified.
| "So, really, he probably didn't say it, at least not quite like that. And he prob'ly meant something else..." |
The Afghan intelligence agency, called the National Directorate of Security, said the 26-year-old Haqiq had also said the  regular suicide attacks in Afghanistan were plotted in a madrassa in PakistanÂ’s Bajaur tribal area. He also claimed former ISI chief Hamid Gul had financed the attacks and showed propaganda videos against the foreign forces in Afghanistan, the NDS statement said.
| Hamid is "retired" from ISI, of course. Being a former chief of ISI seems to pay pretty well, well enough to give you a fortune large enough to subvert the country next door. How much more plausible can your deniability get? |
 An Afghan governor showed the media on Wednesday photographs of Hanif, claiming he had been picked up in a house containing packets of anthrax powder. Gul Agha Sherzai, governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar, did not say how it had been proven the powder was the deadly anthrax bacteria or what quantity had been found. Intelligence officials involved in the arrest and police would not confirm the discovery of anthrax, which would be a first for Afghanistan.
| I'm not sure I'd take Gul Agha's word on which direction the sun comes up, or whether it's raining outside. |
Another purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, confirmed HanifÂ’s arrest in a phone call from Peshawar an undisclosed location, but said that the TalibanÂ’s governing body had already appointed a new spokesman, Zadiullah Mujahid.
| Yeah, they said that yesterday, too... |
Pakistan rejected Afghan intelligenceÂ’s claim that Mulla Omar was in Quetta and said that Pakistan did not know any Taliban spokesman detained by the Afghan government. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said that the Afghan intelligenceÂ’s claims were absolutely baseless and unfounded.
| "That guy they caught don't know what he's talkin' about. He's lyin', y'know. He's got it in for Pakistan..." |
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