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Afghan Police Unit Defects to Taliban, Leaving Burning Station Behind
New York Times By DEXTER FILKINS and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK November 1, 2010
But the Taliban, it appears, have reintegration plans of their own. On Monday morning, they claimed to have put them into effect.
Taliban hold secret talks with Afghan president
The Associated Press By KATHY GANNON Sunday, October 31, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Three Taliban figures met secretly with Afghanistan's president two weeks ago in an effort by the Afghan government to weaken the U.S.-led coalition's most vicious enemy, a powerful al-Qaida linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.
District governor escapes blast, 2 bodyguards injured in N. Afghanistan
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bombing targeted car of district governor in northern Kunduz province injured two bodyguards on Monday, the district governor Habibullah Mohtasham said.
Proliferation of armed groups threatens aid work
KABUL, 1 November 2010 (IRIN) - The increasing number of armed groups hired by the government or allied foreign military forces, and armed criminal gangs, are inhibiting humanitarian work in Afghanistan and pose serious risks to civilians, aid agencies warn.
Kabul slams joint U.S.-Russian anti-drug raid in Afghanistan
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The reported first-ever joint U.S.- Russian anti-drug operation in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province has angered the Afghan government and prompted President Hamid Karzai to seek explanation.
NATO is not looking for deployment of Russian forces in Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Spokesman of NATO's Civilian Representative in Afghanistan on Monday said that the military alliance is not looking for Russian force to be deployed in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.
Three Questions: Pakistan and Afghan Talks with Taliban
Voice of America Ira Mellman 31 October 2010
Washington - Even though the US special representative in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, says high level talks between Afghanistan and Taliban members are not taking place, there could be enough talking that is going on to make some members of Pakistan's government upset.
Iran Cash Spending Details to be Announced
November 1, 2010 Tolo news
The spokesman for President Karzai said Monday that the Afghan government will soon provide information on what Iran cash has been spent for
Former Taliban leader Mehsud's brother killed in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Former Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud's brother was gunned down in North Waziristan tribal area, northwest Pakistan, local TV channels reported Monday.
Three Questions: Pakistan and Afghan Talks with Taliban
October 31, 2010 VOA News Ira Mellman
Washington - Even though the US special representative in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, says high level talks between Afghanistan and Taliban members are not taking place, there could be enough talking that is going on to make some members of Pakistan's government upset.
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Afghan Police Unit Defects to Taliban, Leaving Burning Station Behind
New York Times By DEXTER FILKINS and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK November 1, 2010
But the Taliban, it appears, have reintegration plans of their own. On Monday morning, they claimed to have put them into effect.
In Khogeyani, a volatile area southwest of the capital, the entire police force on duty Monday morning appears to have defected to the Taliban side. A spokesman for the Taliban said the movement’s fighters made contact with the Khogeyani’s police force, cut a deal, and then sacked and burned the station. As many as 19 officers vanished, as did their guns, trucks, uniforms and food.
Even the local police chief, who missed the attack, said he suspected a defection en masse.
“This was not an attack, but a plot,” said Mohammed Yasin, the chief of the Khogeyani police force. “The Taliban and the police made a deal.”
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Afghan officers decided to defect after “learning the facts about the Taliban.”
“We never force people to join us,” said Mr. Mujahid, whose name is fictitious. “The police joined us voluntarily and are happy to work with us, and to start the holy war shoulder to shoulder with their Taliban brothers.”
The Taliban takeover of the station did not last long in Khogeyani, a district in Ghazni Province. Musa Khan Akbarzada, the provincial governor, said his office lost contact with the police station at about 5 a.m. Government forces arrived in Khogeyani about three hours later and found the station smoking and abandoned.
Mr. Akbarzada said his Afghan forces would continue searching for the missing police officers. Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said the police and the insurgents had already melted away into the countryside.
“The Taliban exist in and around the district centers, and we have our own judges, courts, district governors and other officials,” he said. “We do our guerrilla attacks and then leave the district center. This is just a building.”
In the decades of war in Afghanistan, armed groups, whether fighting for the government or for someone else, have often changed sides to join the one they believe is winning. Often, after a time, they switch back.
In Helmand Province, the bodies of two female Afghan aid workers were found on a roadside Sunday, both having been shot to the death.
The women, one named Majabina and the other Nazaneen, ran a small vocational training center called Majooba Hejrawi, named for an Afghan poet. The center, in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, catered exclusively to women, who learned to sew, make clothing and cut hair, as well as how to prepare fruit preserves.
Majabina and Nazaneen were last seen Friday getting into a Toyota Corolla. Their bodies were found near the village of Tango Guzar, which lies between the towns of Marja and Nawa.
Marja was the target of a major American and NATO military operation against the Taliban earlier this year. Some aspects of normalcy have returned to both areas, but Taliban insurgents are fighting to retain a foothold.
Aid workers, particularly those linked to Western organizations, have often come under attack or been kidnapped or intimidated by the Taliban. Some insurgents — the deeply conservative ones — have also singled out groups that are working to improve the lives of women.
In this case, local officials said they had not figured out who might have killed Majabina and Nazaneen, if only because the women appeared to have no enemies. Majabina’s brother, in a brief interview, said he was baffled.
“We don’t know who killed my sister,” he said.
An Afghan employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Helmand Province.
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Taliban hold secret talks with Afghan president
The Associated Press By KATHY GANNON Sunday, October 31, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Three Taliban figures met secretly with Afghanistan's president two weeks ago in an effort by the Afghan government to weaken the U.S.-led coalition's most vicious enemy, a powerful al-Qaida linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.
A former Afghan official said the meeting in Kabul included an ex-Taliban governor, Maulvi Abdul Kabir. He comes from the same Zadran tribe as the leaders of the Haqqani network, an autonomous wing of the Taliban responsible for many attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces, the former official said over the weekend.
U.S. and Afghan officials hope that if Kabir agrees to quit the insurgency, it could split the Zadran tribe and undercut the pool of recruits from which the Haqqanis currently draw fighters. But it was unclear whether any progress toward that end was made during the talks.
Weakening the Haqqanis' grip over the Zadran tribe could help shift the power balance in eastern provinces where the network poses a major threat. The Haqqani network, led by ailing Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, is believed to be sheltering top al-Qaida leaders across the border in Pakistan.
Kabir served as governor of Nangarhar province and deputy prime minister during the Taliban rule, which ended with the U.S.-led invasion of 2001. He is believed to run the Taliban council in the Pakistani city of Peshawar but is not considered a powerhouse in the Taliban.
The two other Taliban who took part in the talks were Mullah Sadre Azam and Anwar-ul-Haq Mujahed.
Mujahed is credited with helping Osama bin Laden escape the U.S. assault on Tora Bora in 2001, the former official said. He has been in Pakistani custody since June last year when he was picked up in a raid in Peshawar, where one of several Afghan Taliban shuras, or councils, is located.
The men were brought by helicopter from Peshawar and spent two nights in a luxury Kabul hotel before returning to Pakistan.
The U.S. earlier this month acknowledged facilitating some Taliban trips to Kabul but provided no specifics. The Pakistani military has not commented on such reports
The former Afghan official, who asked not to be named because of his relationship with both the government and the Taliban, described Kabir and his associates as "midlevel" contacts because they have little, if any influence over more powerful Taliban factions.
A Western official confirmed a meeting had taken place but said he did not know who attended and whether progress was made. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to talk to media about the issue.
Karzai has formed a 70-member council to try to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political solution to the insurgency. The Taliban's top leadership has denied that any of their representatives have been involved in talks. They claim their leaders will not discuss peace with the government unless foreign troops first leave Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, last week said news reports of extensive discussions between Afghan government officials and senior Taliban commanders were off base. He told reporters in Washington last week that there have been no such talks or discussions, let alone negotiations.
However, Holbrooke did say that individuals who have fought alongside the Taliban - apparently not Taliban leaders themselves - have been reaching out. Holbrooke mentioned no names but said those who are making such contacts are "provincial leaders, individual commanders."
In a related development, Arsala Rahmani, an ex-Taliban who is now on Karzai's newly established peace commission, told the AP that the Afghan government has asked Pakistan to repatriate 31 suspected Taliban in its custody. The most senior Taliban in Pakistan custody, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's No. 2, was picked up in a joint raid with the CIA earlier this year. Pakistani authorities have quashed repeated rumors of his release saying he is still in custody.
---
Kathy Gannon is The Associated Press special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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District governor escapes blast, 2 bodyguards injured in N. Afghanistan
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bombing targeted car of district governor in northern Kunduz province injured two bodyguards on Monday, the district governor Habibullah Mohtasham said.
"The bomb planted on a motorbike and exploded by remote- control at 07:45 a.m. local time when my car was passing the area as a result two of my bodyguards were injured," Mohtasham told Xinhua.
Mohtasham who is serving as governor of militancy-hit Ali Abad district said,"I escaped the blast miraculously and received no injury."
He blamed Taliban militants for the attack but the outfit has yet to make comment.
A relatively peaceful province until last year, Kunduz has been experiencing increasing Taliban-led insurgency since early this year.
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Proliferation of armed groups threatens aid work
KABUL, 1 November 2010 (IRIN) - The increasing number of armed groups hired by the government or allied foreign military forces, and armed criminal gangs, are inhibiting humanitarian work in Afghanistan and pose serious risks to civilians, aid agencies warn.
The government and its allies are recruiting more and more local auxiliary forces to counter insurgents or criminal gangs.
"We are entering a new, seemingly more murky phase in the conflict in which the multiplication of armed actors threatens the ability of humanitarian organizations to access people in need," Bijan Fredric Farnoudi, a spokesman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN.
Negotiating with different armed groups - which may have competing agendas - for access or security, has become complicated, he said.
“The ICRC cancelled several assistance projects because it was not possible to get security guarantees from all armed actors," he said, adding that it was difficult to determine the real number of armed actors on the ground.
ICRC’s concerns were echoed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): “The intensity of the conflict has increased and spread to more regions, so when more fighting is going on there are more fighters, more commanders and more people that we have to deal with in order to maintain the safety of our beneficiaries and staff,” said MSF’s head of mission, Michiel Hofman.
MSF returned to Afghanistan in 2009, after it lost five staff in an attack in June 2004.
Profits to be made
In theory, Afghan government forces (police and army) together with troops from 47 NATO-member and allied countries are fighting three main insurgent groups - the Taliban, Hizb-e-Islami and the Haqqani group.
In practice, there is a plethora of militia groups, which fight each other, engage in criminal activities, or provide security services to anyone interested, Thomas Ruttig from the Afghanistan Analyst Network (AAN), a Kabul-based research group, told IRIN.
“In Afghanistan, military logic drives the conflict, and armed groups for hire turned that into a system of political economy, i.e. they profit from the fighting and are not interested for it to stop,” said Ruttig who studies and writes about the Afghan conflict.
He accused foreign intelligence agencies, powerful warlords and even some government officials of running illegal armed groups for security, economic and political purposes.
Under a controversial plan which enjoys donor support, the government has been recruiting thousands of armed men to stave off the insurgents in insecure parts of the country.
Six militiamen allied to influential warlord Matiullah Khan from the volatile southern province of Uruzgan have even travelled to Australia for training with Australian Special Forces.
Afghanistan’s multi-billion dollar narcotics industry, which supplies 90 percent of the world’s illicit heroin, also uses militia groups for protection, smuggling and other services, experts say.
“Vicious circle”
The fact that many new militia groups lack awareness of international humanitarian law, the Geneva conventions and the principles of aid work is a matter of grave concern for aid agencies.
"Our biggest concern is that more armed groups usually mean more violence and suffering. However, more armed groups also reduce our ability to access people and deliver vital assistance. It is a vicious circle," said ICRC's Farnoudi.
Another aid worker with extensive experience in Afghanistan, who preferred anonymity, said: “Reaching an understanding with all armed actors is not feasible.”
Over half of Afghanistan is already inaccessible to UN agencies and other international aid organizations due to insecurity.
After several difficult years, some aid agencies recently told IRIN access and acceptance of humanitarian work was improving, but rapid changes in the number and characteristics of security actors threaten this modest progress.
Over the past nine years, the Afghan government, technically and financially backed by donors, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars disarming and demobilizing militia groups in a bid to ensure peace and stability.
However, as the July 2011 deadline for the gradual withdrawal of US forces approaches, efforts are intensifying to fill the gap with private militias in order to stave off a quick return of the Taliban, Ruttig says.
This bodes ill both for aid agencies, which will find it even harder to reach deals on access or security with a hotchpotch of armed groups, and for civilians in need of protection and assistance.
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Kabul slams joint U.S.-Russian anti-drug raid in Afghanistan
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The reported first-ever joint U.S.- Russian anti-drug operation in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province has angered the Afghan government and prompted President Hamid Karzai to seek explanation.
The operation, according to Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, an official with Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, was conducted in an area bordering Pakistan on Thursday which led to destruction of four heroin labs and seizure of nearly one ton of illicit drug.
However, Afghanistan's Presidential Palace described the operation as violation of its sovereignty.
"The Afghan government condemns this action and declares that such arbitrary action is a blatant violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty and international laws and any repetition of such acts will prompt necessary reaction by our country," Karzai's office said in a statement on Saturday.
"The government of Afghanistan has maintained friendly relations with the Russian Federation and seeks to further expand it in various areas including in the common fight against narcotics. However, Afghanistan wants this joint struggle to be enhanced on the basis of bilateral agreement between the two countries," the statement added.
Karzai has also demanded NATO-led coalition force in Afghanistan explain the joint anti-narcotics raid with Russian agents in Shinwar district of Nangerhar province.
The first-ever joint NATO-Russian anti-drug operation in Afghanistan has also provoked Afghanistan's Mushrano Jirga, or the upper house of parliament, to urge the government on Sunday to react seriously against the joint raid.
Senator Shahnaz Ghawsi said: "NATO has failed in Afghanistan and that is why it has asked for help from Russia in the operation. "
Anayatullah Nazari, an official with the Afghan defence ministry, said that the ministry had not been informed of the operation.
Amid government criticism, the interior ministry official in charge of counter-narcotics Baz Mohammad Ahmadi has denied the reported involvement of Russian force in the anti-drug operation.
"Afghan Special Counter-Narcotics Police and NATO-led force launched a joint operation on Thursday but there were no Russian personnel involved in the raid as reported in a section of media," Ahmadi told a press conference here.
However, Ahmadi confirmed that two Russian drug specialists from the Russian embassy in Kabul had taken part in the raid to observe the operation.
The operation, according to Ahmadi, had led to the destruction of four heroin labs and confiscation of 932 kg heroin.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy described the crackdown as "an operation agreed to by the Afghan government," and the Russian counter-narcotics agents took part in Thursday's operation "in accordance with a Russian-Afghan intergovernmental agreement."
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NATO is not looking for deployment of Russian forces in Afghanistan: spokesman
KABUL, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Spokesman of NATO's Civilian Representative in Afghanistan on Monday said that the military alliance is not looking for Russian force to be deployed in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.
"NATO is not looking for Russian forces to be deployed in Afghanistan; it is not that something the Russian government wishes to do and it is not something the government of Afghanistan has requested," Dominic Medley told reporters in a joint weekly press conference with Brigadier-General Josef Blotz spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) here.
Earlier section of media reported that Russian forces are expected to be deployed in Afghanistan to take part in training of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
However, he said the upcoming meeting of NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen with Russian officials in Moscow will be a preparation for NATO member-states summit due on November 19 and 20 in Lisbon of Portugal.
"And there will be in essence be I think work between now and the Summit on, three areas in which we can deepen NATO-Russia cooperation," he empathized.
The first area will be on Afghanistan, he said, adding there will be work to see if we can enhance cooperation on training counter-narcotics officials, secondly, broadening the transit arrangements and third to see if we can see NATO secretary general 's proposal that Russia could provide helicopters and other supporting elements to ANSF.
"For Afghanistan one of major issues will be to agree the plan for 2011-2014 transition," he said, adding the subject will be discussed at the upcoming NATO summit.
The Key issue for this period is that the ANSF continue to take the lead for security responsibility across the country as outlined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he stated.
Briefing the journalists on operational updates the ISAF spokesman Blotz said that dozens of Taliban militants have been killed and detained over the past one week throughout Afghanistan.
"On Saturday, an operation in Darah-ye Pech district of eastern Kunar province resulted in at least 25 insurgents dead," the spokesman of over 140,000 forces added.
According to Blotz over 30 other militants were killed on the same day Saturday as coalition forces repelled an insurgent attack on a combat outpost in the Bermal district of Paktika province in eastern part of the war-torn country.
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Three Questions: Pakistan and Afghan Talks with Taliban
Voice of America Ira Mellman 31 October 2010
Washington - Even though the US special representative in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, says high level talks between Afghanistan and Taliban members are not taking place, there could be enough talking that is going on to make some members of Pakistan's government upset.
Although Holbrooke denied the existence of high level talks, he did admit to reporters in Washington last week that there had been some communication between Afghan officials and some individual Taliban commanders who are "not hard-core ideological Taliban."
Some recent press reports have indicated that Pakistan is being excluded from whatever reconciliation efforts that may be taking place. The reports indicate Pakistani officials will not blindly support any Afghani peace process without being assured their interests would be protected.
Dan Markey is Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Washington based Council on Foreign Relations.
What are Pakistan’s concerns?
I think Pakistan is worried they can get cut out of this negotiating process. Pakistan also probably reads more into the negotiating process than is currently there, and doesn’t trust Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan is probably a little overly worried at this stage of the game, but I think they were hoping that they could use their influence with Afghan Taliban leadership residing inside of Pakistan to really drive these talks, to really control these talks. For one reason or the other, they feel really left out than in control.
So I don’t think they have a legitimate concern but I can understand why they are worried. I think that in general, like a lot of our talks in Afghanistan are too Karzai centric.
Can you explain that last comment?
I’m not convinced that Karzai has the clout, the standing in the Afghan national community to really pull off any kind of serious negotiated settlement. I’m not sure that the Taliban take him seriously, I’m not sure he can deliver a wide spectrum of Afghan public opinion in favor of any kind of settlement he might be able to engineer with the Afghan Taliban. So this is flawed and problematic in a lot of different ways. And one final way is that the United States appears to be, in some very limited ways, facilitating these pre conversations potentially leading to these negotiations, but we are not leading them. We’re not deeply involved, we’re not guiding them and we’re not setting down a clear set of rules or red lines that everybody needs to understand. So I think we’re going to find ourselves in a very reactive mode rather than driving the process in a constructive way, and I think that could be dangerous for us.
Could or should the United States trust the Pakistani government with the history of the connection between the ISI (Pakistan Secret Service) and the Taliban?
Trust, I think is a little bit strong in terms of what the United States should see in relationship with Pakistan on these issues, but Washington needs to understand that whether it trusts Pakistan or not, Islamabad intends to be involved in this outcome. Islamabad will want to have some influence over whatever dispensation and merges in Kabul and Afghanistan and will make it relevant. So if that means spoiling any kind of process toward a negotiated settlement, if that means upping the ante in terms of violence, and if that means being marginally helpful, it will do any of those things as long as it stays involved. So the United States needs to recognize that even if it doesn’t trust that Pakistan could necessarily deliver something, it would be beneficial to the United States to understand that Pakistan is important to the outcome.
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Iran Cash Spending Details to be Announced
November 1, 2010 Tolo news
The spokesman for President Karzai said Monday that the Afghan government will soon provide information on what Iran cash has been spent for
Erstwhile the spokesman for Ministry of Finance said the money has been paid to President's Office and that the Ministry is not aware of expenditure details.
After the Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed that his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, had received Iran's cash aid on his instructions, it turned into a controversial issue.
"In one or two days, the President's Office will talk to the Afghan people very transparently, and details on Iran's cash will be presented to them," said the spokesman for President Karzai, Wahid Omar.
On the other hand, Mr Omar said President Karzai wants to avoid unnecessary expenditures by the government and the Ministry of Finance is planning to make an initiative about it.
It is believed that the money that is secured after unnecessary expenditures are avoided, will be allocated to capacity building of students.
Recently, a number of MPs urged the Afghan President and the Finance Minister to shed light on the money aid to President's Office.
The MPs find the Iran cash aid to the President's Office shocking and against Afghanistan's constitution.
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Former Taliban leader Mehsud's brother killed in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Former Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud's brother was gunned down in North Waziristan tribal area, northwest Pakistan, local TV channels reported Monday.
Local residents have identified the dead as Yaqoob Mehsud, a brother of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, according to the private TV channel Express.
However, the official sources have confirmed the assassination but not his identification as Mehsud's brother yet.
According to the details, Yaqoob was shot dead by unidentified militants in sub district Mir Ali, an administrative town in the troubled North Waziristan that borders Afghanistan.
Baitullah, the top leader of disbanded Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan was killed in August 2009 along with his wife and bodyguard in a United States drone strike.
He was succeeded by Hakimullah Mehsud who is leading the insurgency in the area. Hakimullah had survived a drone strike in January 2010 and resurfaced in May in a video release promising more attacks on U.S. interests in the region.
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Three Questions: Pakistan and Afghan Talks with Taliban
October 31, 2010 VOA News Ira Mellman
Washington - Even though the US special representative in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, says high level talks between Afghanistan and Taliban members are not taking place, there could be enough talking that is going on to make some members of Pakistan's government upset.
Although Holbrooke denied the existence of high level talks, he did admit to reporters in Washington last week that there had been some communication between Afghan officials and some individual Taliban commanders who are "not hard-core ideological Taliban."
Some recent press reports have indicated that Pakistan is being excluded from whatever reconciliation efforts that may be taking place. The reports indicate Pakistani officials will not blindly support any Afghani peace process without being assured their interests would be protected.
Dan Markey is Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Washington based Council on Foreign Relations.
What are Pakistan’s concerns?
I think Pakistan is worried they can get cut out of this negotiating process. Pakistan also probably reads more into the negotiating process than is currently there, and doesn’t trust Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan is probably a little overly worried at this stage of the game, but I think they were hoping that they could use their influence with Afghan Taliban leadership residing inside of Pakistan to really drive these talks, to really control these talks. For one reason or the other, they feel really left out than in control.
So I don’t think they have a legitimate concern but I can understand why they are worried. I think that in general, like a lot of our talks in Afghanistan are too Karzai centric.
Can you explain that last comment?
I’m not convinced that Karzai has the clout, the standing in the Afghan national community to really pull off any kind of serious negotiated settlement. I’m not sure that the Taliban take him seriously, I’m not sure he can deliver a wide spectrum of Afghan public opinion in favor of any kind of settlement he might be able to engineer with the Afghan Taliban. So this is flawed and problematic in a lot of different ways. And one final way is that the United States appears to be, in some very limited ways, facilitating these pre conversations potentially leading to these negotiations, but we are not leading them. We’re not deeply involved, we’re not guiding them and we’re not setting down a clear set of rules or red lines that everybody needs to understand. So I think we’re going to find ourselves in a very reactive mode rather than driving the process in a constructive way, and I think that could be dangerous for us.
Could or should the United States trust the Pakistani government with the history of the connection between the ISI (Pakistan Secret Service) and the Taliban?
Trust, I think is a little bit strong in terms of what the United States should see in relationship with Pakistan on these issues, but Washington needs to understand that whether it trusts Pakistan or not, Islamabad intends to be involved in this outcome. Islamabad will want to have some influence over whatever dispensation and merges in Kabul and Afghanistan and will make it relevant. So if that means spoiling any kind of process toward a negotiated settlement, if that means upping the ante in terms of violence, and if that means being marginally helpful, it will do any of those things as long as it stays involved. So the United States needs to recognize that even if it doesn’t trust that Pakistan could necessarily deliver something, it would be beneficial to the United States to understand that Pakistan is important to the outcome.
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