The Last Days of Taliban Head Mullah Omar New report claims he lived in Afghanistan until his death, not Pakistan as CIA, others believed By Jessica Donati
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-last-days-of-taliban-head-mullah-omar-11552226401?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=contextual&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, lived in hiding near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan until his death, according to a new research-group report that contradicts long-held theories by U.S. officials about the notorious one-eyed leader.
The consensus among experts, including at the Central Intelligence Agency, was that Mullah Omar fled to Pakistan after the U.S. ousted the Taliban following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks orchestrated by al Qaeda, which operated in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s protection.
The new report provides a detailed picture of Mullah Omar’s final years spent mostly in seclusion in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. The report contends he lived with his bodyguard, Jabbar Omari, receiving infrequent visits from a messenger who traveled every few months between his location and the Taliban’s decision-making body in Quetta, Pakistan.
The report was published by the Zomia Center, a research group in New York affiliated with New America, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. The research relies on interviews with some previously inaccessible sources, including current and former members of the Afghan government, the Afghan intelligence agency, the Taliban and Mullah Omar’s bodyguard, Mr. Omari, who protected him until his death and now lives under house arrest in Kabul.
The Taliban hid news of Mullah Omar’s death for more than two years, until it was revealed by the Afghan intelligence agency in 2015.
The suggestion that U.S. intelligence assessments about Mullah Omar may have been in error comes as the U.S. holds talks with the Taliban’s political office to end the war that began with the post-9/11 U.S. invasion. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top representative in the talks, was among Mullah Omar’s close friends.
“The report shows that the U.S. got one of the biggest claims about the war wrong, and it also shows how little we understand the Taliban movement,” the report’s author, Bette Dam, said in an interview. Ms. Dam is a Dutch journalist who has spent years reporting from Afghanistan and searching for the Taliban’s elusive leader and has written about her experiences in a book, titled “Searching for an Enemy,” that was released this month in the Netherlands. The CIA declined to comment. CONTINUE AT SITE
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