Posted on 11/23/2009 11:57:10 PM PST by gandalftb
The United States has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn on Monday. He said that four “major neutral players” were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and CIA. The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in the back-channel negotiations.
The source said that four leaders were playing the role of mediators:
Abdullah Anas, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam.
Saudi national Abul Hassan Madni, once a prominent leader of Rabta-i-Alam-i-Islami. He lives in Madina.
Abu Jud Mehmood Samrai, an Iraqi married to a Pakistani woman. He was given Pakistani nationality by former president Ziaul Haq for his role in the Afghan war.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a Pakistani militant leader, who co-founded the Harkatul Ansar, currently heads Hizbul Mujahideen. He signed the famous decree issued by Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri in 1998 calling for killing the Americans. Khalil commands respect among both Pakistani and Afghani Taliban.
Mullah Umar, chief of Afghan Taliban, nominated his shadowy foreign minister, Agha Motasam, to negotiate with the Americans. They said that talks held so far were of a preliminary nature, but may resume on a serious note after Eid.
(Excerpt) Read more at dawn.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2392832/posts
End game underway.
Opinion: There is no “end game” with jihadis.
There are breaks for financing, restocking, recruiting and training.
welcome news
Oh, great. The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy meet the anti-Christ and princes of darkness.
You can’t be serious.
Wonder what this will cost us?
More coalition lives!
Never negotiate with kidnappers or terriorists by offering them money! .....This administration is staffed with fools!
These people never leave their base beliefs. They may take the money , but loyalty cannot be bought.
You are correct we are being led by fools.
I want the US to leave Afghanistan.
Israel negotiated with Hamas recently to swap hostages. What’s your say?
The taliban is so unspeakably mean to women. They don’t let women even go to the doctor, because it would mean having a male examine them.
If we don’t defeat them, they will go on being cruel, and we will be walking away from people who desperately need help to shake this horrible movement off and live more normally. If we stop short of defeating them, it will be like when we almost finished Iraq in the first Gulf War, and left the Kurds to suffer. Then we had to come back later. Stopping short and leaving bad guys in place is not smart.
“The United States has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn on Monday”
What part of “don’t negotiate with terrorists” don’t they understand? Oh, wait. They see US as the “terrorists.”
Irrelevant. Negotiation is capitulation.
Polls in Israel show that the overwhelming majority believe that 200 terriorists not imprisoned for crimes against their country should NOT be traded for the one soldier.
It’s a shame that it has to be that way. However, the Israelis at least understand that there is no rationale for freeing 200 people who are committed to killing them.
Unfortunately, Obama, Holder and others here in the US don’t comprehend that you don’t set your enemies free so that they can later attack again.
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