It seems that the President of Pakistan is a little confused about what it means to “hunt the Taliban as part of its suspension of the constitution.” Unless the prison system there is on the catch and release program there:

Newsweek reported the Pakistani government has released several senior Taliban commanders captured inside Pakistani territory over the past year. The leaders were among 25 Taliban exchanged for over 200 Pakistani soldiers captured by South Waziristan commander Baitullah Mehsud in late August.

Among those freed from Pakistani jails are Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, Amir Khan Haqqani, two brothers of slain Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Usmani, and Baitullah Mehsud’s cousin.

Mullah Obaidullah was the Taliban Defense Minister under during the reign of the Taliban from 1996 until the US toppled the government in the fall of 2001. He was the most senior Taliban figure captured to date and “is considered by American intelligence officials to have been one of the Taliban leaders closest to Osama bin Laden,” as well as part of the “inner core of the Taliban leadership around the Mullah Muhammad Omar who are believed to operate from the relative safety of Quetta.”

The Pakistani military is in bad shape. They have been taking a beating on the northern border by the Taliban and while most of the soldiers were released in the exchange, some had been beheaded. Pakistan has returned to the “2005 Sara Rogha accord, which prevents the government from operating with no restrictions on Taliban activities inside or outside of Pakistan.” Why is that bad?

Over 29 Taliban and al Qaeda camps are known to be in operation in both North and South Waziristan alone.

Maybe Musharraf will let us go in there and take them out. Or maybe he will protect them. Either way, this War on Terror isn’t over by a long shot. This looks to be the next possible fight. That is, if Iran doesn’t do something stupid.