Al-Zawahiri has Pentagon lawyer to thank for Afghanistan progress

Terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri can thank a US Department of Defense attorney for the Taliban's continued operations in Afghanistan.

In a recently released video, al-Zawahiri credited Mullah Omar, leader of the ousted Taliban, with running a three-year effort "against the Crusaders and apostates in Afghanistan" and supposedly controlling "extensive parts of eastern and western Afghanistan."

Al-Zawahiri credits the resilence of the Taliban with enabling suicide bombings in Afghanistan.

He should thank a US military lawyer, who we won't name. For now.

That lawyer saved Mullah Omar from being killed by American forces.

Early in the Afghanistan campaign, the operator of a Predator drone spotted Mullah Omar escaping from a building and fleeing in an SUV. The Predator operator readied to eliminate Mullah Omar with a Hellfire missile - but the lawyer, whispering in the operator's earpiece, told him not to fire. The reason: Innocent people might be in Omar's vehicle.

Omar has eluded friendly forces ever since, while remaining alive to kill more of our own people in Afghanistan.