The United States government has been begging the Afghanistan Taliban for years, and I do mean years not months, to pweese o pwritty pweese be fwriends with us! Now the US has promised to release all Taliban terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay prison if the Taliban will agree to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar. The news media report this as something new, as if contact with and negotiations with Taliban leaders is a news flash, which it is not.
We reported in September 2011 about plans to build a Taliban Embassy in Qatar, a prelude to peace talks, according to Wired's Danger Room. The news became public later that the Obama administration was considering releasing Taliban members from Gitmo.
According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.
More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund....
The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal. (The Guardian UK)
All the negotiations over the past years between the US and the Taliban have failed, as they were intended to do by the Taliban who play the current gullible administration like a violin. It was reported that the reason all the talks failed is because those negotiations were leaked to the media and the Taliban got their itty bitty feelings hurt.
The U.S. government not only approved of the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, they insisted. Just call it a peace offering from the U.S. to the Taliban...
It seems that the Taliban has not had any official diplomatic representation for 10 years and their new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ... will be just one of many embassies in Doha Qatar.
A little history:
Prior to the Afghan invasion:
On the eve of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin Powell instructed his ambassador in Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin, to get a message to [Mullah] Omar through Pakistani intermediaries. It was neither a lengthy nor complicated communication. Nor was it an invitation to further dialogue.
“It is in your interest and in the interest of your survival to hand over all al-Qaida leaders, to close the terrorists’ camps and allow the U.S. access to terrorist facilities,” reads Powell’s message, prompted by suspicions of a 9/11 follow-up attack and unearthed by the National Security Archive. “We will hold leaders of the Taliban personally responsible for any such actions. Every pillar of the Taliban regime will be destroyed.” (Photo: ISAF, Danger Room)
After the Afghan invasion:
As I've said before, "Why should anyone be surprised at this idea of an embassy for the Taliban in Doha Qatar, when again and again since 9/11, the U.S. Government has engaged in "outreach" with Islamic supremacists and jihadists."
... in 2007 we reported on previous failed talks with Taliban leaders that took place in 2005.
In 2009 we reported that cooperation with the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar could lead to help in locating Osama bin Laden if the Taliban had assurances they could return to power in Afghanistan.
In January 2010 we confirmed with sources that the talks were underway. In October 2010 we reported that Pakistan had freed the supreme commander of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, so that he can play a pivotal role with Mullah Mohammed Omar in backchannel talks through the Pakistani army with Washington. Also here.
February 2011 we reported:
The United States is now negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, who was previously blacklisted by Western nations and the United Nations and spent four years in Guantanamo Bay, charged with co-ordinating Taliban and al-Qaeda forces around Kabul, is now in a London hotel. Zaeef is now in secret negotiations between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and the Taliban's Pakistan-based supreme commander, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
Apparently the United States and coalition partners trust Zaeef when he says the Taliban has learned it's lesson, and apparently we still trust Karzai and even Mullah Muhammad Omar. It boggles the mind. If negotiations work out here's the deal: in return for power in parts of southern Afghanistan, the Taliban would accept the authority of the Kabul government and expel al-Qaeda and its jihadist affiliates.
In June of 2011 Hamid Karzai himself confirmed the negotiations and we reported of direct contact with Mullah Mohammed Omar, NATO forces and Washington.
And here we are today, planning to release terrorists. Shameful.
shameful and suicidal DEB! Happy New Year!:)
Posted by: Angel | January 03, 2012 at 09:42 PM
It hasn't worked with any other rogue nation or group, so why exactly is President Obama reaching out and making concessions in order to negotiate with the Taliban?
Read the story at The Political Commentator here: http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/2012/01/president-obama-has-great-idea-lets.html
Posted by: Michael Haltman | January 04, 2012 at 05:34 AM
Afghanistan already has an embassy in Qatar. I wonder if this is the first time there has been an "embassy" anywhere by a group and not a nation.
I hope the release of the terrorists is one more thing to bring Obama down.
Posted by: Maggie@MaggiesNotebook | January 04, 2012 at 09:42 AM
Maggie: Yes Afghanistan has an Embassy in Qatar as do several other countries. To my knowledge this is the first for a terrorist group, the Taliban.
Since the Taliban spread out over more than one country, as do al-Qaeda etc., I suppose the powers that be think this is a good idea.
Will the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda be next?
Posted by: Debbie | January 04, 2012 at 11:46 AM
How do we know a deal hasn't already been struck vis a vis the bin Laden kill?
This could be the unfurling of our end of the bargain. Strange that Mullah Baradar completely disappeared from the news after they made a big deal of capturing Taliban number 2.
Posted by: McCloud | January 04, 2012 at 06:00 PM