Posted on 06/02/2014 12:55:31 PM PDT by blueplum
Kabul (Reuters) - The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday.
The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day. :snip: "The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul, who declined to be identified.
"He is asking: How come the prisoner exchange worked out so well, when the Afghan peace process failed to make any significant progress?"
Karzai has backed peace talks with the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 and has fought a bloody insurgency since then against U.S.-led forces in the country.
But they have come to little so far, and the group moved swiftly to dash hopes that the prisoner swap would rekindle negotiations between it and the Afghan government.
"It won't help the peace process in any way, because we don't believe in the peace process," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Sunday.
The official close to the palace also said Karzai was worried about further deals being cut without his knowledge.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
There is no area of foreign policy that is better now than when Barack took office! ...Period!
Welcome to our World Mr. Karzai!
The Taliban don’t want peace. They want us gone so they can take the country back over and commence throwing acid on schoolgirls.
Rumor has it Congress also filed their formal note of protest, as they were not consulted as required by law. Apparently our dictator in chief, the lecturer on Constitutional Law, doesn’t believe it applies to him.
The Taliban don’t want peace.
Neither does Obama.
So he blindsides the Afghan President in the process in addition to Congress —
Wow
Hey, it was made BEHIND OUR BACKS TOO, but nobody cares if I’m upset!
LOL, I’m probably about the 10th person on the thread to say the same thing...
I had lunch with Kharzai’s kids in Kabul, just me and them and an Afghan-American that I did some business with involving security.
The kids were in their 20’s and were pedictably annoying, callow, and filled with a massive sense of entitlement.
I did not like them very much but I did treat them with good manners.
Join the club, we've got jackets.
It’s OK since the war in Afghanistan is over and we’ll only leave 10,000 troops there for a few more years along with a bazillion armed contractors.
Hey, The pres had to make the deal quickly because Bowe’s life was in imminent danger...
Badminton is a very dangerous sport after all.
Did Karzai think he was dealing with an Amercan president?
The Kenyan/Indonesian who occupies the White Hut is the political ally of the Castros, Chavezs and Ayatollas of the world.
If I were in the military at this point in time, I would walk....No RUN... to the nearest exit.
Another translation that would be just as accurate...
"We're friggin' terrorists. What kind of moron would think we want peace?" Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said
There is more:
Ledeen reports major Haqqani connections as they were Bergdahl’s captors...
http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2014/06/01/mirrors-and-veils-the-bergdahl-perplex/?singlepage=true
Also, Huffington Post has a lot on the Haqqani network:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/07/haqqani-network-afghanistan_n_987762.html
So, The Afgan leader was left out of the final loop. An American Islamo-philic deserter is traded for 5 major Taliban leaders for what treasure at the expense of the US taxpapayer is unknown. Why pay to exchange our Jihadist for their five Jihadists of higher value?
Only Ledeen has posted further investigation leading to his realistic speculations regarding the Haqqani Networks’ centrality in the exchange working with QATAR.
Aside from military lives being expended in the search for Bergdahl, what has the US paid to get him back? What will it pay in the future?
Not just Karzai is being left out of the loop.
Cool! I need a jacket to go with my “shut up your mouse, Obama” t-shirt ;)
As far as I can tell one can’t usually believe the things that Karzai says. Plus he has to adopt an anti-American attitude for domestic consumption purposes. Plus he’s massively corrupt and untrustworthy so why would the US want to fully clue him in on negotiations. The combination of these factors make it impossible to tell what actually happened based on what he says in public.
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