Taliban 5 exchanged coded email for months with recruiter

Washington Post:

The five men from Northern Virginia under arrest in Pakistan had exchanged e-mails written in code for months with a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban and had a map indicating they were bound for the tribal area where al-Qaeda is thought to be based, Pakistani police officials said Friday.

The men contacted the Taliban recruiter when they arrived in Pakistan Nov. 30, the officials said. The recruiter, named Saifullah, directed them to don traditional Pakistani garb and board a bus headed for militant havens in Pakistan's northwest, said the officials, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is unfolding.

The Americans, Muslims from the Alexandria area, were wearing the traditional dress when they were arrested Tuesday near Lahore. One had a map in his sock and had circled Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, the rugged area where al-Qaeda is said to be located, said Usman Anwar, the police chief whose officers interrogated the men.

"We subsequently informed our intelligence agencies," he said.

The revelations, if confirmed by U.S. investigators who are exploring possible criminal charges against the men, deepen the scope of their known militant connections and raise the possibility that they were recruited for jihad. Pakistani sources said Saifullah, whose location is unknown, had spent time in the United States and is familiar with American slang and idioms.

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AFP reports that Saifullah also has ties to al Qaeda. That suggest a closer relationship between al Qaeda and the Taliban than the administration has been willing to acknowledge lately. While the Post says that it is unclear why the men traveled to Pakistan, it seems pretty clear to me from their own story. One does not book a trip to Waziristan to do sight seeing.