U.S. Command Links Afghan Taliban with Pakistan
July 12, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNew.org - The ISAF command in Afghanistan is increasingly linking that country's Taliban with Pakistan [and al-Qaeda], the effect of which might de-couple efforts, supported by team Obama, especially at the State Department, to legitimize the terrorist Islamic fundamentalist group for purposes of including it in Afghan's future system of governance.
A September 11 press release from ISAF reads:
"An Afghan and international security force killed several insurgents and detained two suspected insurgents in Ghazni province yesterday while pursuing a Taliban commander in direct contact with Taliban leadership in Pakistan and associated with Al Qaeda and Commander Nazir Group." [source, http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/july-11-isaf-operations-in-ghazni-kandahar-provinces.html]
The release further notes that the Taliban is working with the Haqqani network, a powerful al-Qaeda linked Muslim group operating in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, "The group is known for assassinations and intimidation operations against civilians and operates with the Haqqani network in attacks against international forces."
Team Obama is fully wedded to the myth that the Taliban can somehow be defanged and turned into a legitimate political entity.
Chief public spokesman for this view is Secty. State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recently said that the U.S. will continue to stand with the Karzai government and Afghanistan while conducting talks with the Taliban about reconciliation, "Clinton has assured Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, that the US will remain committed to his country's security and reconstruction even after American troops have departed...Karzai was in the US on a visit aimed at improving ties with the administration of Barack Obama, his US counterpart. He and his delegation were attending a series of meetings on Tuesday at the US state department as they push a plan for reconciliation with Taliban fighters." [source, U.S. Committed to Afghan Security, Al-Jazeera, May, 11, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051132016505714.html]
It is widely believed that the Karzai government, fearing abandonment by Obama, has opened channels to the Taliban in a calculated move to hedge bets if the U.S. begins its intended withdrawal next summer.
What effect yesterday's ISAF announcement will have on business as usual at the WH remains unclear.
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