In a video released last week, the Taliban are seen shooting a 19-year-old after he confesses to planting small transmitter chips that guide CIA's drones to their targets.
"I was given Rs 10,000 to drop chips wrapped in cigarette paper at Al Qaeda and Taliban houses," he said. "If I was successful, I was told I would be given thousands of dollars ... The money was good so I started throwing the chips all over. I knew people were dying because of what I was doing, but I needed the money."
A US official talking to the NBC dismissed the video as "extremist propaganda".
| If we had a CIA worth anything we'd be spreading the word that the chips are hidden in various shipments of money and gold from the ISI to the Taliban, and that key people in the ISI have been turned to our side ... |
The Taliban, meanwhile, believe they have busted most of the spy networks operated by the US and Pakistani militaries. "We used to watch these planes, but had no idea they were chasing us and taking pictures of our activities," said a Taliban commander in North Waziristan. "In the early days ... our training camps were visible and people would come and go. We were not so concerned about the security of our locations, but that has all changed now. We [have] abandoned all our old camps and re-located to new places."
The commander said 40 training camps had been moved because their friends in Afghanistan had tipped them off about planned US attacks.
The commander said that the Americans had then started paying Pakistani and Afghan citizens to identify their locations. "Finally, with the help of our sources in the Pakistani and Afghan intelligence agencies, we detained two Afghan tribesmen, who after five days of interrogation, confessed to spying for US forces in Afghanistan. They revealed other names and then we knew there were entire networks of spies operating in our areas," he said. A government official said the Taliban had recently executed more than 100 alleged spies in North Waziristan. |