Gone to ground...
Quite vivid HBO Docu on Afghanstan last night "The Taking Of A ... ...." (name of Afghan 'fixer').
To hear the fixer talking freely with another young Afghani in shotgun seat - about the journalist in his back seat and his 'type' ( foreign journo's in general ) translated in subtitles was telling.
"BBC pays the best ...', etc.
But obv. one can be a bit too smart when in Helmand with the Taliban in control of villages, areas, zones.
After his party was kidnapped, the fixer's head was sawed off with a dull blade ,
while the Italian journalist went free.
Taliban said it was all settled by a call from Pakistan ISI ( or whatever they are called, Intelligence service who has been backing Taliban during all of this and preceeding,
with US $ ).
Let the foreigner go and kill the Afghan....
By today, looking at what appears to be some disarray , it appears that those we thought might be dead- are dead.
Now there are more being captured and talking.
Sure, some may be lies the Pakistani's and US wants to hear , but some may be true.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19pstan.html?hpw
And naturally, when forces with overwelming power attack you on a few fronts,
one gets squeezed to another area.
Central Asia has some weak Gov's and paper tiger leaders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/world/asia/18kyrgyz.html?ref=world