Ghulam Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan's education minister and a member of a peace council in charge of reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, sees a post-bin Laden opportunity for accord. (Official Presidential Palace Photo)
Posted on 06/03/2011 6:47:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A large number of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters "have lost all hope" and are seeking peace deals with the Afghan government since U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden last month, a senior Afghan official told The Washington Times this week.
He also confirmed reports that the United States has stepped up contacts with the Taliban, which sheltered the al Qaeda leader until U.S. forces toppled the brutal Afghan regime after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Ghulam Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan's education minister and a member of a peace council in charge of reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, described an "increase in the number of approaches" to the panel from militants since bin Laden's death on May 2.
"They have lost all hope," he said.
Mr. Wardak said Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have contacted Burhanuddin Rabbani, the council chairman and a former president of Afghanistan, but he declined to disclose more details of those meetings.
"Since these approaches are in the premature stage, we would like these contacts to be confined to him," he said, referring to Mr. Rabbani.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Ghulam Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan's education minister and a member of a peace council in charge of reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, sees a post-bin Laden opportunity for accord. (Official Presidential Palace Photo)
Also in the news, Pakistan has complained to Afghanistan about cross-border raids.
Imagine.
sidebars from the FRchives:
Afghanistan could be lost within a year: US commander
[2009, General Stanley McChrystal]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2344814/posts
That’s Weird... Obama Administration Removes Taliban From National Terror List
[2010]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2568763/posts
U.S. to Partner with Taliban...Instead of Killing Them
[2011, not satire]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2721918/posts
-and-
NAACP: Obama Energized ‘Taliban Wing’ of GOP
[2010, Julian Bond]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2434248/posts
Rosie O’Donnell (Christians = Taliban)
[2006]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1709341/posts
we would indeed be fortunate if this entire situation turned out to be like a buffalo hunt
Headline = Riiiiiiiiiight...
“LOST ALL HOPE” is a little too convenient a peg to hang
Obama’s hat on.....this could be played ALL to Obama, the Osama-killer’s , favor. We don’t know what it means, if anything, but like everything else, it’s ‘in flux’, and that’s why its pontential as a ‘good Obama thing’ can be played to the hilt right up to the election of 2012.
We turn the place into a National Park?
Post bin laden has been since 2002, and the taliban havent heard anything from him in those 9 years either, but hey, its all about perception and who controls the propaganda spewing machine being a means to an end with the truth, as always, the first casualty!
Any traction at all would come from Hekmatyr and the Haqqanis and Omar. There have been quite a number of Saudi's and other arabs that, knowing they are in UBL's address book, that we're reading, have headed home after finding a new religion: saving their own hides.
Our very Special Ops forces put out the party lights.
Any hope that AQ has lost is due to the loss of funds that UBL and his network used to hand out. That is what UBL had devolved into.
It’s the taqiyya talking.
I wholeheartedly agree.
The worst part of this entire Zero administration is, we’ve already seen its best days, and maybe our own as well.
Bring us the head of Zawahiri and we can talk.
Let me tell you a story about a man named fred
Poor carpenteer, barely kept his family fed
He headed up the mountain, said I'm goin' for a ride
Ain't gonna stop till I see the other side
But then the day he could see the summit
Sunkenciv said--weerall done...dadgummit
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