A despicable method

The Taliban's brand of terror is multilayered and ruthless. The radical Islamic movement is responsible for the beheadings of Afghans suspected of cooperating with international forces, the massacre of ethnic Hazaras in the province of Bamiyan and suicide bombings that have killed or injured hundreds of Afghan civilians, soldiers and police, as well as international forces.

Perhaps the most enduring image of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is the senseless destruction of giant stone Buddha statues that were more than 2,000 years old. Taliban leaders considered the statues idolatrous and anti-Muslim.

It has become painfully obvious that leaders of this movement will stop at nothing to advance their extremist ideology. Yet, news reports that Baitullah Mehsud, a top Taliban leader in Pakistan, is trafficking in children trained to conduct suicide attacks are profoundly disturbing.

Once trained, the children — some as young as 11 years old — have been sold to other Taliban leaders for $6,000 to $12,000 each, CNN has reported. A video released by Pakistan's military shows children in a training camp killing and going through exercises.

According to the CNN report, the Taliban boasts of a three-month supply of suicide bombers. Suicide bombings have become the Taliban's preferred method of attack, and child bombers may be better able to bypass security and reach targets unnoticed, Pakistani military officials say.

Mehsud is an al-Qaida ally and considered the mastermind of the 2007 attack that killed Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He is the most wanted man in Pakistan.

Increasingly, Pakistan's military has cracked down on the Taliban, which has also helped U.S. security interests because Pakistan is a transnational route for the trafficking of drugs and humans that could end up in the United States, says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Clearly, taking down Mehsud needs to be a top priority because of the terrorist threat he poses. More importantly, stopping Mehsud would go a long way toward halting this insidious enterprise of brainwashing little boys to be suicide bombers and then trafficking them to other Taliban leaders.