Obama Administration on Mullah Baradar

"This is a huge catch," a senior administration official tells ABC News about the capture of Mullah Baradar.

“We haven’t had something like this since the start of the war.”

The official noted that while “not connected,” the capture of Baradar, done in conjunction with Pakistani intelligence, is happening “simultaneously with the operation in one of the major Taliban strongholds. It’s like a one-two punch.”

The White House would not officially comment on the Baradar capture in any way, but when asked by ABC News about apparently improved cooperation between U.S. intelligence and Pakistani intelligence, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at today’s briefing that “we have, over the course of many months, seen an increase in that cooperation.”

Since last Spring, the US government has seen an increase in “Pakistani push-back on extremists in their own country,” Gibbs said, which is “beneficial not simply for us,” but for the Pakistanis as well.

“I think the Pakistanis realize that extremist threats within its own border, or just threats outside of its country,…were threats to their own country,” Gibbs said. “And I think they have appropriately taken strong action.”

Was this as a result of Obama administration diplomacy or the Taliban’s double-cross of the Pakistan government?

“I don't think it's an either/or,” Gibbs said, noting that “we're working constructively with them, meeting with them regularly.  We have a better intelligence-sharing capability,” but also “their realization of what was happening within their own country and the threat that it posed also played a big part in changing their actions.”

The senior administration official agreed with that assessment, but added: “there’s been a lot of work.”

-jpt