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“What I want to say is that he was never an extremist, neither in his private nor political life. He believed that a modern moderate Islam could work in Afghanistan. He said that the extreme left or right failed in Afghanistan, since both had neglected the needs of the people. Therefore, we could not govern Afghanistan like any traditional Muslim country.” -Ahmad Wali Massoud regarding Ahmed Massoud Shah of the Northern Alliance. In 1996, funded financially and backed morally by their allies in Pakistan, the Taliban (”Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) emerged as the prominent force in Afghanistan after the...

As President Obama prepares to unveil his long-deliberated war strategy, the Taliban's supreme commander declared today that U.S.-led forces would find only defeat, dishonor and "a bed of thorns" in Afghanistan. The warning, contained in a statement by Mullah Mohammed Omar , the movement's reclusive leader, was issued on the eve of one of the year's most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. It marks the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which is made by millions of observant Muslims. In his missive -- punctuated by the flowery phrases and high-flown rhetoric typically...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country's strategic partnership signed with India is not meant as an aggressive move against Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai pose before a meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Karzai is on a two-day official visit to India.(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, address the media after a signing of agreement meeting in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011.This is Karzai's second trip to India this year and comes just days after he accused neighboring Pakistan...

The leaders of Afghanistan and India have signed a strategic partnership agreement during a visit by President Hamid Karzai to Delhi.Mr Karzai met Indian PM Manmohan Singh, who said violence in Afghanistan was undermining security in South Asia. He also said that India would "stand by Afghanistan" when foreign troops withdraw from the country in 2014. Mr Karzai's visit follows a series of attacks which have damaged ties between Kabul and India's rival, Pakistan. Correspondents say the increasingly close relationship between Kabul and Delhi will be viewed with some suspicion by Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as its backyard.

Indian media is reporting that Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi is serving as a key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban. According to an article in The Hindu: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Doha-based Islamist scholar who once called on his followers to back jihadist groups in Jammu and Kashmir, has emerged as a key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, government sources have told The Hindu. In 2009, Mr. al-Qaradawi had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, asserting that “the Kashmiris were properly fighting jihad against the Indian army.” The jihad was...

The West will subsidise Afghan security forces by more than $4 billion a year after US-led troops leave in 2014, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, implicitly accepting a cut in the planned size of his military. Western officials told AFP that no final agreements had been reached on funding or on the size of Afghanistan's security forces after combat troops in NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force withdraw. But Karzai told a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Kabul: "It's set that post 2014, for the next 10 years until 2024, the international community, with the US in the...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt Friday on the account of events given by U.S. authorities as he met with the families of 16 civilians allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier. In his meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul, Karzai suggested the Americans had not been frank about what happened. "We tried to talk to the soldier involved, but there was no cooperation from America," Karzai told the villagers. "Based on what you are saying, the killer was not just one person." The soldier, whose identity has been withheld by U.S. authorities, is accused of...

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters today that the Obama Administration will not release the president’s THREE PAGE Apology letter to Hamid Karzai. The Tatler reported: The White House press secretary told members of the press pool aboard Air Force One today that President Obama’s “sincere” apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a Koran-burning incident “is not appropriate to show” to reporters. Jay Carney spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes as the presidential entourage flew to Florida for a speech on energy at the University of Miami. Obama’s letter to Karzai that included the apology was “a...

With the clock ticking on her final term in office, Rep. Lynn Woolsey visited Point Reyes Station Thursday night and shared some frank opinions on Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama and the Occupy movement. SNIP Press asked Woolsey for her assessment of Newt Gingrich, since they served together in Congress. Woolsey said, "He's got a brain but he overreaches; he's too big for his own good. He would be the worst president on earth." Press asked Woolsey if that meant she would prefer a President Michele Bachmann. "Probably, because — well she's...

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday. The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbors over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20. "God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan," he said in the interview to Geo...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president said Monday that Pakistan has broken promises to help end the Taliban-led insurgency but that he hopes the two countries can work together like brothers — softening his rhetoric after days of tough talk in which he had suggested relations were about to break down. The two countries' relations have become increasingly strained since the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani two weeks ago. A host of Afghan officials have publicly accused Pakistan and its spy agency of supporting the militants who killed Rabbani. And Afghan President Hamid Karzai has suspended a series...

The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures. Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The talks were described as a...

The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been killed in an assassination attempt, officials say. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the younger half-brother of the Afghan president and leader of the Kandahar Provincial Council, was shot dead, presidential spokesmen Waheed Omar told the BBC. Initial reports suggest he was shot by his bodyguard in his house in Kandahar. A controversial politician, some saw him as a defender of Pashtun rights. Critics said he was a warlord mired in corruption who was openly involved in the drugs trade and had a personal militia at his disposal. The president repeatedly defended him, denouncing...

Two female members of the Afghanistan Parliament got into a physical fight Tuesday following a discussion of rocket attacks from Pakistan. General Nazifa Zaki, a former army general, threw her shoe at fellow MP Hamida Ahmadzai, video from parliament showed. The video, posted online by TOLOnews.com, shows Zaki leave her seat to head toward Ahmadzai, who throws a water bottle at Zaki when she gets close. Zaki punches Ahmadzai, and the two begin to tussle. ... What began as a discussion took a turn for the worse when one of the coalitions in parliament, including members who are accused of...

WASHINGTON — In most administrations, "leaks" of classified information precipitate presidential ire. Nearly all such unauthorized disclosures are the consequence of disgruntled government employees deciding that a "leak" is the best way to stop some activity they have decided should not continue. To justify their unlawful actions, they call themselves "secret whistle-blowers." The so-called "mainstream media" love them. Most American presidents do not. That's what makes the current commander in chief's reactions to a whole series of "leaks" so unusual. President Barack Obama doesn't seem to be concerned at all. President Ronald Reagan was infuriated by the publication and broadcast...

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

U.S. Military leaders are prepared to back Afghan President Hamid Karzai's timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal, saying in roundtable meeting with reporters Monday that Afghan security forces should be able to handle the country's security on their own by 2014. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the withdrawal timeline will discussed further at an upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal at the end of the month. "One of the agenda items for the Lisbon summit is to embrace president Karzai's goal of completing the transfer of security responsibility to Afghanistan by 2014," the Pentagon chief said. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, head...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- One evening last August, as President Hamid Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, his personal plane sat on the airport tarmac, waiting for a late-running passenger: Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan. The ambassador, Feda Hussein Maliki, finally appeared, taking a seat next to Umar Daudzai, Karzai's chief of staff and his most trusted confidant. According to an Afghan official on the plane, Maliki handed Daudzai a large plastic bag bulging with packets of euro bills. A second Afghan official confirmed that Daudzai carried home a large bag of cash. "This is the Iranian money," said an...

Barack Obama's foreign policy has been defined so far by his attempts to "engage" with adversaries or rivals of the United States, such as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. The results have been mixed. But now the president's focus is visibly shifting. In the next 18 months, Obama's record abroad will be made or broken by his ability to do business with two nominal U.S. allies: Hamid Karzai and Binyamin Netanyahu. Both men are prickly and somewhat inscrutable... And Obama has not done well. In fact, his treatment of the Israeli and Afghan leaders during...

A former UN ambassador to Afghanistan has questioned the 'mental stability' of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and suggested that he may be using drugs. Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, has made the allegations concerning Karzai in a classified UN report about life in the presidential palace in Kabul.