Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Living In Quetta Sporting Shades?

You know, if this is true, it does prove how far reaching America's efforts to squash Taliban rule has been. No, I don't say that because of battle victories or because of ground lost by the Taliban. I say that because of this , taken from the article here at CanadaEast:

He says the Taliban founder has turfed his trademark turban, trimmed his beard and begun wearing sunglasses.
"He has totally changed his appearance," says Zaher, a self-described Taliban commander under the former regime.
"He does not look like a Talib anymore. He does not even wear a turban."

This reporting of Omar's appearance and whereabouts is coming from Mullah Mohammed Zaher who has sat down with Omar many times and seen Omar conducting prayer services at a mosque in Quetta. Now, the question is whether or not to believe Zaher.

But back to my point, which is that the once mighty Mullah Omar, the defiant one...has turned tail and has compromised even his traditional Taliban appearance to save his lousy skin.

Now, on a side note, I have to ask a seemingly obvious question. If you are a Taliban leader and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, would wearing sunglasses in the middle of Quetta, Pakistan REALLY make you blend in? I mean really, how many Pakistanis are walking around with RayBans on ? : )

Mullah Omar wears shades, has trimmed beard, lives in Pakistan: ex-follower

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The notorious leader of the Taliban, one of the world's most wanted fugitives, has reportedly had a makeover and been sighted on numerous occasions in Pakistan.
The one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar has significantly changed his appearance since he fled from his native Afghanistan seven years ago, says a former follower. Mullah Mohammed Zaher says he has personally met with the reclusive jihadist several times in Quetta, Pakistan.
He says the Taliban founder has turfed his trademark turban, trimmed his beard and begun wearing sunglasses.
Coupled with the fact that few pictures of him exist, Zaher says it would be difficult to pick Omar out of a crowd.
"He has totally changed his appearance," says Zaher, a self-described Taliban commander under the former regime.
"He does not look like a Talib anymore. He does not even wear a turban."
Zaher says Omar has several safe houses in the Quetta area, and that he has eaten meals with him there more than once in recent years.
"I used to meet him. I have seen his home," Zaher said through a Pashto-language interpreter.
"He used to call us over."
Zaher also lent support to a claim made five years ago by Afghan President Hamid Karzai about what the Taliban founder has been up to.
He says Omar is now a religious imam and has led Friday prayer services at a mosque next to a medical clinic in Quetta's Saleem plaza.
The Afghan president publicly declared in 2003 that his intelligence sources had informed him that Omar was seen praying at that mosque in the bustling plaza.
Despite Karzai's claim, few reports have emerged since then about the fugitive mullah's whereabouts.
"We got a call about 10 days ago from our sources in Quetta that Mullah Omar was seen at a mosque near Saleem complex in the city," Karzai told Newsline.com in December 2003. "I know where the Saleem complex is. I have lived in Quetta myself for many years."
A U.S. intelligence source told CNN in 2006 that American officials believed Omar was in the Quetta area, and that at one point they had his whereabouts pinned down to a precise neighbourhood.
Britain's Independent newspaper reported last year that Omar was being sheltered by Pakistan's intelligence services - a claim the Pakistani government vigorously denied.
But Zaher says it's true.
He says Omar has even spent the night on a military compound in the Nawakilli area near Quetta, where he says he and other militants received bomb-making lessons from members of the Pakistani army.
Zaher escaped to Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
He says he became tired of facing harassment and extortion from corrupt officials in the new Karzai government, and he moved his family to Quetta in 2003.