Hiding In Plain Sight

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ther Taliban bosses are living openly in Pakistani cities, according to Afghan intelligence officials and several jailed jihadis. A captured seminary dropout, for example, claims he was recruited to carry bombs into Afghanistan by a senior Taliban living in Peshawar's swanky Hyatabad district. And an Afghan who works with the U.S. in Kandahar, Afghanistan, says the former Taliban Defense Minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, openly celebrated his marriage to a teenage bride in Quetta several months ago. "We know the entire al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership is on the other side, and we can't do a damn thing about it," a U.S. commander complained to his officers on a recent tour of a firebase on the Afghan side of the border. He called in a mortar round that exploded only a few hundred yards short of a Pakistani border post — a warning that U.S. patience was being pushed to the limits.

America's impatience reaches all the way to the White House. At a New York City meeting in September of Bush, Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush turned to Musharraf and ticked off the names of several Taliban chiefs that U.S. intelligence officials had told him were hiding in Pakistan, according to a member of the Afghan delegation. Musharraf, says the source, denied any knowledge of them. "If the U.S. has specific evidence that the Taliban are hiding here," says presidential spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan, "they should tell us, and we will act." Recently, Musharraf told reporters he was "exasperated" by claims that Taliban leaders were hiding in Pakistan.

But Bush's talk with Musharraf may be paying off. Taliban followers say ties are fraying with their militant sponsors — and through them, the ISI. Money for arms, explosives and fresh recruits is drying up. As a result, says a mid-level commander, Taliban are no longer able to mount effective hit-and-run missions inside eastern Afghanistan. In addition, last month's Afghan presidential election seems to have sapped Taliban strength. Despite the extremists' attempts to sabotage voting, Karzai was the overwhelming victor among Pashtuns, the ethnic group of most Taliban. A Taliban spokesman concedes that the U.S.-led security forces around polling sites made it impossible for militants to carry out their threats.

Lately there have been signs that many Taliban and their supporters may be losing their zeal for war. From his Kabul jail cell, Mujahed says he has had enough fighting. "Let others do the jihad," he says. "Me, I'm exhausted." If Pakistan really started to do all it could to crack down on the Taliban, it might find that fatigue among those battle-weary warriors would finish off the job.