US establishes contact with Mullah Omar

[Infiltrator]

Infiltrator, you seem like a nice person but the problem is that your state has brought issues and conflicts where ever it has went. This whole Afghan war - the Taliban were willing to hand over OBL before and after 9/11. US didn't accept any of that. Not only it harmed itself, it's brought Pakistan to where it is. No Afghan war, and Pakistan wouldn't be having any of these bombings.

Yes, I understand what you're saying and I hated Bush's regime but unfortunately Washington has made some wrong decisions and now we're paying for them along with countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

 

[SMC]

I should also point out that while Taliban regime was brutal to all its people, that wasn't the reason US gave for initiating the war. US could have theoretically justified the war under UN laws if they said that the war was to protect the people, but if that wasn't the reason for the war, then they have to do what they said they were there to do and leave. The war would still be justified, but now it would be justified for a different reason. Finish up Al Qaeda and leave.

The same goes for Iraq. They didn't find any WMDs, should have left ASAP.

 

[Infiltrator]

Apparently, The Express Tribune reported this yesterday with Times of India reporting on it bit later. I'm wondering if any other newspapers will mention it.

 

[Spring Onion]

infil...You are plain delusional there have been several rounds of negotiations, releases and funding and removal from terrorists wanted list. Is that all BS?
It has already unfolded US is defeated and wants to Get lost out of afghanistan.


So US wants Pakistan to go after imaginary HQ network and its is good to go for US to be-friends with talibs/AQ for all the troubles both have caused to each other.
Guess they've given us one other reason not to go after and shake hands.

we should not fall for this trap.

 

[Spring Onion]

Apparently, The Express Tribune reported this yesterday with Times of India reporting on it bit later. I'm wondering if any other newspapers will mention it.

dear Indian your Indian media lifted it from Express Tribune and btw ET is a joint venture with US. its a pro US paper

 

[Infiltrator]

dear Indian your Indian media lifted it from Express Tribune and btw ET is a joint venture with US. its a pro US paper

I'm not Indian so I don't know why you are mentioning that. I have two American flags for a reason. Also, even if ET is pro-USA, it still doesn't mean we've actually contacted Mullah Omar.

As far as I know, there is still no legitimate evidence proof supporting the claim we've made contact. Until then, it's just a claim and not fact.

 

[Al Bhatti]

Who knows may be in the end it may turn out that the US was being fooled by some afghan impostor like they were fooled earlier by one of the so called "senior commander of the Afghan Taliban".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/asia/23kabul.html

 

[AHMED85]

Any one see Taliban .. Tell me about its looking side...

 

[Emran]

what for?
they want us to kill him and they themselves are trying to resume talks, what a hypocrcy!

 

[osamaziadxb]

Lol.. The topic should be "The Great Escape"

 

[Luftwaffe]

Jana...we should not fall for this trap.

Yes we shouldn't, I think our strategy should completely be revised and revamped from the past, Pakistan for Pakistanis no outsiders and no temporary friends anyone who is hell bent on their ideology of Islam and ruling must be eradicated.

 

[secularbuster]

I wonder what Mr. Gambit has to say about it?

 

[Spring Onion]

the softening up for this contact was already started in May


U.S. Has Held Meetings With Aide to Taliban Leader, Officials Say
By CARLOTTA GALL and RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK
Published: May 26, 2011


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — American officials have met with a senior aide to the fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, at least three times in recent months in the first direct exploratory peace talks, officials in the region said.


Tayeb Agha, left, an aide to the Taliban leader, has met with Americans in exploratory peace talks.

The meetings have been facilitated by Germany and Qatar, but American officials have been present each time, meeting with Tayeb Agha, who is a close personal assistant to Mullah Omar, the officials said. The C.I.A. and the State Department have been involved in the meetings, one official said.

The meetings were first reported by The Washington Post last week and the German magazine Der Spiegel this week. A senior Afghan official and Western officials working in the region confirmed the reports on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to the news media about the issue.

Begun well before the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, the meetings represent a clear shift in the attitude of the Obama administration toward peace talks with the Taliban, first signaled by a speech in February by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Western officials said. In that speech Mrs. Clinton said that previous requirements for starting talks could instead be considered “desired outcomes,” opening the way to exploratory meetings without preconditions.

The presence of Mr. Agha, a longtime personal assistant of the reclusive Taliban leader, is a sign that the Taliban are serious despite their public opposition to peace talks, the officials said. Through spokesmen and in e-mailed statements, the Taliban have always rejected peace talks until foreign forces leave Afghanistan. But privately, through intermediaries, they have insisted on direct meetings with United States officials, which would give them official recognition of their movement.

Mr. Agha speaks English and Arabic, and he has been easily identified, avoiding the false start that occurred last year when an impostor posed as a Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, in meetings with Afghans and NATO officials. Mr. Agha is reported to have attended a dinner hosted by the king of Saudi Arabia several years ago, which was seen as the first American-sanctioned overture toward the Taliban.

Yet the senior Afghan official cautioned that the meetings might not represent much because Mr. Agha was known to be no longer particularly close to Mullah Omar. Mr. Agha was a much trusted personal assistant, answering phone calls and making appointments for Mullah Omar, for most of the Taliban’s time in power, from 1994 to 2001. Now in his late 30s, Mr. Agha is thought to have lived in Quetta, Pakistan, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and to have remained in touch with the Taliban leader. Yet his authority to speak for the insurgents remains unclear.

Mullah Omar’s ability to control the increasingly radicalized insurgent commanders and groups allied with the Taliban also remains in question. He is still the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement, and he certainly retains strong command over Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, which represent the bulk of the insurgency. Yet the increasingly radical Pakistani Taliban groups that send insurgents to Afghanistan and the Haqqani family, which runs its own fief in Pakistan’s tribal areas, have disregarded Mullah Omar’s orders in the past despite swearing allegiance to him.

The meetings have been conducted without the participation of Pakistan, which has long called for negotiations with the Taliban as a way to end the war on its western border and which has insisted that it also be included. Pakistan’s chief of army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, even offered President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan his help in bringing Taliban insurgent leaders, who are widely known to use Pakistan’s tribal area as a sanctuary, to the negotiating table.





http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/world/asia/27taliban.html

 

[Respect4Respect01]

THEN WHY IS USA TELLING PAKISTAN TO DO MORE, THEY ARE GETTING EASY WAY OUT FOR THEMSELVES.

 

[secularbuster]

I think the US wants to get out of Afghanistan before a probable major military strike against Pakistan. It doesn't want its troops to be sitting ducks in case of retaliation by Pakistan. The signs are not good.