He has swore his allegiance to the Supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.  Baitullah has very close ties with the Afghan Taliban as he had fought with them in the 1990's when the Taliban gained control of that country.  He is a major commander in the current war that the Taliban is waging in Afghanistan against the country's Western backed government and U.S. led coalition.  Many say Baitullah Mehsud and the supreme leader of the Taleban, Mullah Omar, have several similarities. Both are against photographs of themselves, both vow jihad and both keep moving from one hideout to another. It is obvious that they are being protected heavily by the locals in the tribal regions.

Baitullah Mehsud belongs to the Mehsud tribe in Pakistan's outlaw South Waziristan region hence his name.  The area he controls is a known safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.  Mehsud himself is a very secretive person that does not like to be photographed for what he states is due to religious beliefs.  It also probably helps keep him safer.  The U.S. Department of State has authorized a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location, arrest, and/or conviction of Baitullah Mehsud, the senior leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement of Pakistan).

The details of Mehsud's biography are sketchy, as he shuns publicity and lime light for the most part. He has done the occasional telephone interview and has met with Al Jazeera News. He is known to be in his mid to late 30s and to lead thousands of militants, many of them Mehsud tribesmen, in Waziristan, a tribal region on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan

Baitullah Mehsud has a large following.  Since 9/11 he has grown in strength and stature and is said to command about 20,000 pro-Taleban militants. A majority belong to the Mehsud tribe.  Intelligence reports claim that Mehsud's force also has a large number of foreigners.  The sects main focus is on jihad (holy war) against foreign occupying forces in Afghanistan and the establishment of an Islamic state but appears to be shifting to larger goals as time passes.. 

Talking to the BBC in an exclusive interview earlier in 2007, he said the militants were determined to achieve their goal of freeing Afghanistan through jihad. "Only jihad can bring peace to the world," he said.  Mehsud on several occasions has openly admitted to crossing the border to fight foreign troops.

Many may feel that Mr. Mehsud does not have the reach to attack the United States.  This could be a costly miscalculation on their part.  He has aligned himself with al Qaeda and with their networks it has already been proven that the terrorist organization has the ability to hit the West.  We only have to remember the the two different World Trade Center attacks, the London attacks and a host of other attacks scattered around the globe that were carried out by al Qaeda networks. 

It is important to understand that it is all of militant radical Islam that is at war with the West.  Regardless of their affiliation radical Islamists want Western influence and troops out of Muslim lands as well as an end to Israel.  It is a common creed shared among the radicals from Somalia to Afghanistan and from Pakistan to Yemen and into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Radical Islam has embraced their hatred of  Western policy and influence and has used this to recruit young radicals for generations to come. Al Qaeda and the Taliban in all reality are acting as one in the same at least at this juncture of their relationship.  They share the same goals when it comes to dealing with the West and other invaders that have tried to gain control of Pashtun lands.

In his first television interview, conducted by al-Jazeera last year, Mehsud said his ultimate aim is to attack New York City and London. This was more than mere rhetoric. In January, Spanish police said a cell of Pakistanis they arrested in Barcelona were planning suicide operations in Spain and possibly elsewhere in Europe. They had allegedly been dispatched by Mehsud. And so we can add another name to the list of Islamist terrorists with global reach.

"We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jazia (a tax in Islam for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state)." Mehsud Stated in an interview.

In a January 2007 interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Baitullah extolled the virtues of jihad against foreigners and advocated taking the fight to the U.S. and to Britain.

In our opinion at terroristplanet.com,  if there is to be a next attack inside America it will be from the al Qaeda network umbrella that includes the Taliban.  It is becoming harder and harder to distinguish the two radical creations.  It is important to understand the differences between al Qaeda and the Taliban, but it is even more important to understand their shared goals. The Taliban once only wanted American influence out of their region so that they can implement Sharia Law in an Islamic State of Afghanistan.  It has since spread to include Pakistan itself falling under Taliban control.  It appears now that they share the same goal that al Qaeda has of creating a world wide Islamice Caliphate.   In recent statement by Mehsud they have shifted their view more than likely as a result of understanding that Islam has to destroy the West in order to continue their beliefs of what Islam is about and how Muslims should exist on Earth.  As long as the West is a threat they cannot complete their objective.

Since at least 2006 there has also been a wave of suicide bombings that has swept across Pakistan that are being credited by intelligence reports to Mehsud's lieutenant, Qari Hussain and others with close ties to the military leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

Mehsud was able to take advantage of the 2007 Red Mosque siege in Islamabad where Pakistan security forces confronted a group of militant religious students that sparked furor from other radical groups.  The end result was a broader alliance in the tribal region among radicals in the Tehrik Taleban Pakistan of which Mehsud became the alliances leader.

Also in 2007 the Pakistani government stated that Baitullah Mehsud ordered the assassination of newly elected Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December.  Even though Mehsud denies involvement intelligence reports from the ISI (Pakistan Intelligence Agency) and even She stated that she had been warned that Baitullah was one of a group of radicals who had sent suicide bombing squads to kill her.  This threat became a reality on December 27, 2007 when from the video you can see a gunman shooting her and an explosion following immediately ending the Prime Minister's life.

The new militant coalition has expanded it's reach well outside of the tribal regions in the frontier.  "It is a new and very dangerous development because it shows how the pattern is changing, with militants taking their fight to Pakistan's main heartland and demonstrating the reach and network that they have there now.
"It is important too that Mehsud now has the support of the Pakistan militant groups that were banned in 2001, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which are largely based in Punjab. The alliance has become much broader. The peace deal in Swat, which is under the control of his group has also given him extra authority."

In March 2009 the US blamed Mr Mehsud for coordinating attacks on US forces across the border in Afghanistan and placed a $5 million price on his head, making him the most wanted Pakistani militant.  He has openly admitted on numerous occasions that his militants have carried out cross border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan against U.S. and NATO troops.

In an early April 2009 telephone interview, Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the commando assault on the police academy in Lahore, Pakistan on March 30..  Attackers with guns, grenades and suicide vests stormed the police training centre in Pakistan's cultural capital, and held out during an eight hour gun battle with the army. Seven police cadets, a civilian and four attackers died.   "We wholeheartedly take responsibility for this attack and will carry out more such attacks in future,” he said. “It’s revenge for the drone attacks in Pakistan.”  In the same interview Mehsud claimed two other attacks: a March 25 attack on an Islamabad police station and a March 30 suicide attack on a military convoy near Bann