8/5/2008: Intel News Brief: Mohammad Omar operates out of Quetta in
Pakistan:

Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is believed by Afghan
and Western officials to be running the militant organisation from his
base near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in Pakistan.

Omar runs a shadow government, complete with military, religious and
cultural councils, and has appointed officials and commanders to
virtually every Afghan province and district, just as he did when he
ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban claim.

He oversees his movement through a grand council of 10 members,
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed stated.

Mullah Bradar, one of the Taliban's most senior and ruthless
commanders, who has been cited by human rights groups for committing
massacres, serves as his first deputy.

He passes down Omar's commands and makes all military decisions,
including how foreign fighters are deployed, the paper said, citing
Waheed Muzhta, a former Taliban foreign ministry official who lives in
Kabul and follows the progress of the Taliban through his own
research.

The Taliban even produce their own magazine Al Somood published online
in Arabic, where details of their leadership structure can be found,
he said.

Pakistani officials say ties between their powerful spy agency Inter
Services Intelligence and Taliban have been broken.

But Inteligence claims there is no doubt that the Taliban continues to
use Pakistan to train, recruit, regroup and re-supply their movement.

The advantage of that haven in Pakistan, even beyond the lawless
tribal realms, has allowed the Taliban leadership to exercise
uninterrupted control of its insurgency through the same clique of
mullahs and military commanders who ran Afghanistan as a theocracy and
harboured Osama bin Laden until they were driven from power in
December 2001.
Source: Morning Intel News Brief via Rediff-India