Posted on 02/03/2012 4:42:49 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration's bid to broker peace in Afghanistan.
The message, conveyed through an intermediary and intended for President Barack Obama, reportedly expressed impatience that the White House had not yet transferred five former senior Taliban officials out of Guantanamo Bay military prison.
U.S. officials have been considering moving the detainees to Afghan custody in the Gulf state of Qatar as one of a series of good-faith measures that, if successful, could lead to talks on Afghanistan's future between militants and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The accelerating efforts to set such talks in motion are a central part of the Obama administration's strategy for leaving behind a modicum of stability as it winds down the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
*PING* to FReeper ‘Dead’, with his timeless and monumental tagline! ;)
Peace in our time!
I hope he left a return address.
After effectively killing off most of the original leadership of the Afghan Taliban, a younger, less discriminate leadership has largely ignored Mullah Omar.
They'd be negotiating with a disjointed head, with no real world say so as to what the Afghani Taliban would even come close to complying with.
This could only be for the purpose of getting something, anything on paper.....regardless the outcome.
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