Almost as lopsided a deal as Nolan Ryan, Leroy Stanton, Frank Estrada and Don Rose for Jim Fregosi. Or Paul O’Neill and Joe DeBerry for Roberto Kelly. Or maybe Rico Carty for Jim Panther. Or Manny Trillo, Julio Franco, George Vukovich, Jay Baller, and Jerry Willard for Von Hayes. Shoeless Joe Jackson for Braggo Roth, Ed Klepfer and Larry Chappell. Jay Buhner, Rich Balabon and Troy Evers for (arrrrgh) Ken Phelps.
“Pakistani militants savor a sweet deal,” by Syed Saleem Shahzad for Asia Times, May 20 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
KARACHI – Pakistani authorities claim that no deal was made regarding the release at the weekend of the country’s envoy to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who had been in the captivity of the Pakistani Taliban for three months.
But this is pure fantasy. There certainly was a deal, orchestrated by pro-al-Qaeda Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and far from indicating any move on the part of the militants to negotiate, they are expected to launch more and more attacks on Pakistan to build up pressure and minimize Islamabad’s role in the United States-led “war on terror”.
To underscore this, a suicide bomber on Sunday killed 11 people and wounded 22 at a market in Mardan close to a Pakistani military camp in North-West Frontier Province.
On Saturday, Islamabad freed 55 Taliban militants ranging in importance and also paid a sum of 20 million Pakistani rupees (US$287,000) to the militants. In turn, Azizuddin, who had been abducted in Khyber Agency, and dozens of Pakistani security officials were released by the militants.
The freed Taliban included the top commander from eastern Afghanistan, Mufti Yousuf, who had been arrested in Peshawar in Pakistan by a team of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and who was being held in detention at the IB’s Karachi’s office. Muslim Dost, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence, was also handed over to militants in Razmak, North Waziristan.
Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad is expected to be released soon. Aziz was apprehended during the military operation against the radical mosque last year….