In early May, Israel’s leading intelligence review, Debka File had a cautionary tale for US intelligence:
On April 4, the Tehrik-i-Taliban recorded Hakimullah saying: “God willing, very soon in some days or a month’s time, the Muslim (community) will see the fruits of the most successful attacks of our fedayeen in the USA. The main targets of our fedayeen are American cities. This good news will be heard within some days or weeks. Inshallah we are successful!”
This tape was not brought to the attention of the American or Western public at the time. So deep was US intelligence in denial of the Taliban’s capacity for striking on American soil, that they did not listen when its top commander gave them advance notice of a terrorist operation, a piece of bravado never dared even by its partner, al Qaeda.
The claim of “full responsibility for the recent attack in the USA” by Qari Hussain Mehsud, Taliban’s top bomb-maker, was harder to ignore after it was aired 24 hours before the smoking bomb appeared on Times Square on an audiotape accompanied by images released on April 30, on a YouTube website called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.
Hakimullah Mehsud is the current Supreme Commander of the Taliban in Pakistan. US authorities had thought Hakimullah Mehsud had been killed in a subsequent drone attack but he later surfaced to claim responsibility for the Times Square attack and to warn others will follow.
On April 4, the Tehrik-i-Taliban recorded Hakimullah saying: “God willing, very soon in some days or a month’s time, the Muslim (community) will see the fruits of the most successful attacks of our fedayeen in the USA. The main targets of our fedayeen are American cities. This good news will be heard within some days or weeks. Inshallah we are successful!”
The previous commander had issued this warning;
Fifteen months earlier, on March 28, 2009, Baitullah Mehsud, at 35, supreme commander of Taliban- Pakistan (Tehrik-i-Taliban – TTP), gave interviews to Pakistani news outlets and international wire services claiming credit for a string of terrorist attacks – one in Lahore, in which 30 police recruits were killed, and suicide bombings against security forces in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Bannu. Hakimullah Mehsud, the current Commander, is his son.
Mehsud said these attacks were the Taliban’s revenge for the US drone strikes in the tribal areas of Waziristan, adding to an AFP interviewer: “There will be more such attacks, including strikes inside the US. Very soon we will take revenge from America, not only in Afghanistan but in Washington, which will amaze the entire world.” [Debka]
Posted on May 29, 2010