Former Taliban Officials Say U.S. Talks Started

[alp227]

Several Taliban negotiators have begun meeting with American officials in Qatar, where they are discussing preliminary trust-building measures, including a possible prisoner transfer, several former Taliban officials said Saturday.

The former officials said that four to eight Taliban representatives had traveled to Qatar from Pakistan to set up a political office for the exiled Afghan insurgent group.

The comments suggested that the Taliban, who have not publicly said they would engage in peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, were gearing up for preliminary discussions.

American officials would not deny that meetings had taken place, and the discussions seemed to have at least the tacit approval of Pakistan, which has thwarted previous efforts by the Taliban to engage in talks.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/world/asia/taliban-have-begun-talks-with-us-former-taliban-aides-say.html

[tabatha]

1. I hope they get this right.

[Pirate Smile]

2. The Obama Administration had to save this from Congresspeople screwing it up:

U.S. lawmakers' meeting sets back Obama's Afghan agenda

Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: January 27, 2012 07:04:04 PM

WASHINGTON — The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan had planned to use his latest foray to the region to build Afghan government support for the nascent U.S. effort to kindle peace talks with the Taliban. Instead, Ambassador Marc Grossman found himself last week putting out a fire ignited by a meeting between four U.S. Congress members and Afghan opposition leaders in Germany. At that meeting, the American lawmakers discussed constitutional reforms that would devolve power from Afghanistan's central government to the provinces — triggering suspicions that the United States was secretly plotting to partition Afghanistan along ethnic lines.

The U.S. Embassy said there was no such plan, and immediately denounced the reports. But the damage had been done.
Karzai was "incredibly angry," said a former Afghan official who maintains close contact with the presidential palace and who, like others interviewed by McClatchy, requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. Karzai's ire was on display in a Jan. 21 speech to Parliament in which he denounced "foreigners" for using Afghanistan "to do their political experiments."

The episode dealt a setback to the U.S. bid to launch peace talks, which began with the opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar earlier this month. It also reinforced just how difficult it will be for the Obama administration to broker a settlement that's robust enough to allow U.S. and allied combat troops to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014 as planned.

The Berlin meeting "played a very damaging role, convincing Karzai for a time that the (United States) had a secret plan to partition Afghanistan," said a U.S. official. "As a result, Karzai did not want to support a Taliban office in Qatar."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/01/27/v-print/137178/us-lawmakers-meeting-sets-back.html

[Scootaloo]

4. Dana Rohrabacher, Louie Gohmert, Steve King, and Loretta Sanchez

Three Republicans and a blue dog... but I repeat myself.

Say, aren't there rules about the Legislative branch trying to take on State Department affairs? Does no one else question that these four ass-hats apparently did their best to scuttle an effort to close our part of the war in Afghanistan?

[Pirate Smile]

7. I don't know why this hasn't been a bigger deal. This seems huge to me.

[Gore1FL]

3. My biggest fear...

...is the Taliban will demand the extension of the Bush tax cut.

[DCBob]

5. and..

repeal Obamacare.

[DCBob]

6. This is good news I think.

I thinks all parties are weary of war and ready to end the aggression. I suspect the idiot Republicans will say we are being appeasers and negotiating with the devil. If there is a deal they will claim it means nothing and just legitimizes a terrorist organization. Warmongers dont like peace.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Meanwhile: Afghan President Hamid Karzai 'plans talks with Taliban'

The Afghan government is planning to meet the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to jump-start peace talks, the BBC has learned.

The landmark meeting will come in the coming weeks, before the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar, according to Western and Afghan officials.
...
Senior officials in Kabul say the Taliban have agreed to the meeting.
...
President Karzai was angered by US and Qatari efforts to kick-start the peace process without consulting his government fully.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16779547