Rising Terror Chief Worries U.S. Officials

(CBS)  Pictures obtained by CBS News from Pakistani sources are among the first public images ever to surface of a man U.S. intelligence officials call "one of the most dangerous people on the planet," CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent Bob Orr reports.

He is Pakistani warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the accused mastermind of the Benazir Bhutto assassination. An emerging leader, sources say, who threatens to eclipse Osama bin Laden as the world's top terrorist.

Terrorism analyst Christine Fair says Baitullah Mehsud is running a training camp for suicide bombers in Pakistan's off-limits tribal region -- a magnet for radical Islamic recruits from Europe and potentially the United States.

"He may not be out there cultivating people to send them abroad, but people abroad may seek him out for the operations that they conduct back home or elsewhere," Fair says.

Officials suspect that's precisely what happened in the recent foiled suicide bombing plot targeting transit systems in Spain and four other European countries.

Operatives rounded up in Barcelona have been linked to terror training camps in the same Pakistan region where Mehsud is the supreme commander and where al Qaeda has found safe sanctuary.

Robert Grenier was a top official at the CIA.

"Given the fact that he is able to control territory that is extremely important to al Qaeda, that makes him a very important player," Grenier says.

Unlike al Qaeda leaders bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who use very public propaganda to assert their power and build fear, Mehsud is a secretive tribal fighter who rarely shows his face outside his inner circle.

But Mehsud's message is just as threatening.

With his identity protected, Mehsud told the Arab network al Jazeera, "We want to eradicate Britain and America ...We pray that Allah will enable us to destroy the White House, New York, and London."

"He's saying the same thing that bin Laden said then years ago," Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said. "And it doesn't mean that the attack's coming tomorrow, but yeah, it's certainly, he's the kind of person and his group is the kind of group that we need to mindful about."

While Mehsud's emergence from the shadows is worrisome, U.S. officials hope there's an upside. As one intelligence analyst put it, if he makes himself more visible, he'll be easier to eliminate.

[prinzowhales]

What do you say, people? Does this new guy have what it takes to be America''s new terrorist ''Cover Boy''?
Can he step into the sandles of the dead Osama and freak out the fat folk lied up outside the Cheese Cake Factory at America''s malls? When he says "Boo!" will Americans jump? Can we justify spending billions to tear him down with cruise missiles and smart bombs after our PR machine builds him up? Stay tuned...and lets see how he struts his terrorist stuff on the CIA''s International Terrorist Catwalk.

[pensacola88]

The best way to numb the Taliban fighters is to send them massive amounts of "Pornographic Magazines".

Our Marines, who have captured Taliban fighters, all reported that nothing calms down a Taliban fighter faster and longer, than a Girly Magazine. The prisoners even trade their food with eachother for Girly Magazines.

Our Psy-Ops guys need to get busy and start collecting as many girly-mags as possible for distribution in Taliban areas. They either will not fight that hard against us, or will fight very hard against each other. Their will to fight will be lost, if we give "candy" to the Talibans.

[tmittelstaed]

How convenient to have Baitullah Mehsud available to blame the assassination of Benazir Bhutto assassination on, when the biggest beneficiary of the assassination was President Pervez Musharref. Smells to me like another propaganda buildup to justify giving more money to Musharref.
You would think that if Mehsud was that much opposed to the United States, that he would be trying to help any opponents of Musharraf, since Musharraf is a solid US supporter, not kill them. As it is, that assassination helped the United States out - it''s not the kind of thing that is likely to have been the work of an anti-US terrorist.

[feelfree1]

"Terrorism analyst" Christine Fair, is a tool of the global propagandist organization known as the RAND Corporation.

Obviously her analysis can not be taken seriously.

[prinzowhales]

Looks like CBS decided that the visit of Cheney and Juan McWar to Iraq isn''t exactly being hailed by us peons as the Corporatist swine had hoped.

I was hoping that the two of them would tout the success of our invasion of Iraq announced by Cheney with a ticker tape parade through Sadr City so that Iraqis could show their appreciation for their million murdered fellow citizens...their four million refugees...their destroyed infrastructure and their malnourished children.

[prinzowhales]

Even if you are dumb enough to believe the Official Fable that 19 Arabs who couldn''t fly a Boeing crashed them into three buildings on 9-11...Merck Pharmaceutical has murdered tens of times as many Americans with Vioxx as died on 9-11. Who is the bigger terrorist--Merck or al Qaeda?

Merck!! hands down!! But, the kicker is that Merck and al Qaeda are run by the same Demopublican corporatist thugs!!

[prinzowhales]

As a caller on the Alex Jones Show at infowars.com just pointed out, big food processors helped cover up the danger of transfatty acids because they produced and marketed it...they didn''t care how many deaths they caused as they attacked healthy natural fats and peddled their hydrogenated vegetable oils and additives...Millions of Americans have died and had heart attacks because of these corporate lies...

IF THE WASHINGTON REGIME SERVED THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES AND NOT THE CORPORATIST PIGS...THEY WOULD BE SENDING THE 101ST AIRBORNE AFTER KRAFT AND ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND!!--not having our SFs and Rangers protecting drug lords in Afghanistan.

The real terrorists in America are the Corporatists!

[prinzowhales]

Posted by FeelFree1 at 01:49 PM : Mar 18, 2008
------------------------
Absolutely correct!

[feelfree1]

"Radical Islam" lacks the means and the resources, to pose much of a threat to the U.S., and they lack any substantial organizing network, outside of the CIA, Mossad, etc.

Meanwhile, the Christian leaders in the U.S., and Jewish leaders in Israel, ARE working in tandem, DO have nuclear weapons and other WMD, constantly threaten, invade, terrorize, and attack their neighbors, are habitual and chronic liars, and are intensely greedy.

We also know that the "19 Hijacker" conspiracy theory is nonsense, and is riddled with more holes than a Fallujah ambulance after a U.S. "liberation" operation.

There are millions of Muslims currently living in the U.S., yet how many heads have been chopped off here so far? That''s right- ZERO!

The global threat of Muslim extremism is insignificant as compared to U.S. and Israeli extremism, and this latest "rising terra chief" is another tale in the neo-conservative/neo-liberal book of ooga-booga fables.

If he was a real threat, then the regime apologists would most likely be ignoring it rather than hyping it, as it would only seem to highlight the failure of our puppet-Fuhrer in dealing with this supposed menace.

[bm6005]

noclue;
I must admit I do have a hatred for America''s policies around the world. We bully, pick on, pick dictators etc. *** don''t we leave other people to stew in their own juices instead of trying to run the world? When a-holes like you get over the fact that we''ve caused people around the world to hate us due to our meddling in THEIR countries affairs everything will get better. I mean withold everything, no aid, no support no involvement when natural disasters occur. We are not as good or as smart as you moron''s seem to think we are. Just a classic schoolyard bully!!!