KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 30, 2007
Taliban: We'll Never Negotiate With Karzai
Insurgent Leadership Rejects Peace Overtures From Afghan President
-
Photo
Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar for peace talks, and even said he would accept requests for places in the government for the insurgents if they agree to end violence. (AP)
-
Interactive
Rebuilding Afghanistan
Learn about the nation's geography, history and people and find out what is being done to rebuild.
-
Special Report
War On Terror
Complete coverage of the military's battle against terrorism.
Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency in recent weeks, Karzai said he was willing to meet with the reclusive leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.
"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said. "Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?"
But a Taliban spokesman on Sunday said the militant group will "never" negotiate with Afghan authorities until U.S. and NATO forces leave the country.
"The Taliban will never negotiate with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign forces," Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press, repeating an earlier position. "Even if Karzai gives up his presidency, it's not possible that Mullah Omar would agree to negotiations. The foreign forces don't have the authority to talk about Afghanistan."
Karzai said he has contacts with Taliban militants through tribal elders but that there are no direct and open government communication channels with the fighters. Omar's whereabouts are not known, although Karzai has claimed he is in Quetta, Pakistan, a militant hotbed across the border from Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
Quote
I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai"If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, 'President, we want a department in this or in that ministry or we want a position as deputy minister ... and we don't want to fight anymore,' ... If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan," Karzai said.
"I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position," he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has said it does not support negotiations with Taliban fighters, labeling them as terrorists, although the U.N. and NATO have said an increasing number of Taliban are interested in laying down their arms. NATO's ambassador to Afghanistan, Daan Everts, said this month that the alliance would look into the possibility of talks.
President Bush met with Karzai on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday where the two discussed the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban, but it has not been made public whether the two talked about negotiations with militants.
A State Department duty officer said he could not immediately comment on Karzai's offer to meet with Omar, noting that most policymakers were still in New York.
Saturday's explosion - the second deadliest since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 - ripped off the roof of the bus and tore out its sides in Kabul, leaving a charred hull of burnt metal. It was reminiscent of the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion, when a bomber boarded a police academy bus at Kabul's busiest transportation hub in June, killing 35 people.
Police and soldiers climbed trees to retrieve body parts. Nearby businesses also were damaged.
"For 10 or 15 seconds, it was like an atom bomb - fire, smoke and dust everywhere," said Mohammad Azim, a police officer who witnessed the explosion.
Karzai said 30 people were killed - 28 soldiers and two civilians. The Health Ministry said another 30 were wounded. Two women were among the dead, and 11 people whose bodies were ripped apart so badly had yet to be identified.
"It was a terrible tragedy, no doubt an act of extreme cowardice," Karzai said. "Whoever did this was against people, against humanity, definitely against Islam. A man who calls himself Muslim will not blow up innocent people in the middle of Ramadan," the Muslim holy month.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed the militant group was responsible for the blast in a text message to The Associated Press. Mujahid said the bomber was a Kabul resident named Azizullah.
The bus had stopped in front of a movie theater to pick up soldiers when a bomber wearing a military uniform tried to board early Saturday, army spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
"Typically there are people checking the IDs of soldiers who want to board the bus," Azimi said. "While they were checking the IDs the bomber tried to get on the bus and blew himself up there."
Karzai earlier this month renewed a call for talks with the Taliban. But he said Saturday he would not meet demands that foreign troops must first leave the country.
"It should be very clear that until all our roads are paved, until we have good electricity and good water, and also until we have a better Afghan national army and national police, I don't want any foreigners to leave Afghanistan," he said.
He said he still wanted negotiations with Taliban militants of Afghan origin "for peace and security." He ruled out talks with al Qaeda and other foreign fighters.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said one of its soldiers was killed in eastern Afghanistan during combat operations on Saturday. ISAF did not release the soldier's nationality, but most in the east are American.
Four employees with the International Committee of the Red Cross, kidnapped earlier this week while negotiating the release of a German hostage, were also freed Saturday, the ICRC said.
The four men - two Afghans, a Macedonian and a man from Myanmar - said they were treated well. A Taliban commander said he ordered the four held hostage because he thought they were spies but let them go once it was proven they were Red Cross workers, according to a video obtained by AP Television News.
The four had traveled to Wardak province in hopes of helping free a German man held since July. The workers said that the German was still alive and that they had seen him.
The number of kidnappings in Afghanistan has spiked in recent months after the Taliban secured the release of five insurgent prisoners in exchange for a captive Italian journalist in March - a heavily criticized swap that many feared would encourage abductions.
The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans in July, a hostage crisis that scored the militants face-to-face talks with South Korean government delegates. Two of the Koreans were killed; 21 were eventually released.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 187 CommentsIt appears like a bull that was stung by a hornet and then thrashes itself to death smashing everything it can see. The bull finally collapses, exhausted, bloody and bruised. The hornet, in my analogy Bin Laden, survives.
Why are we so stupid? Are we meant to destroy ourselves? Will the American public ever find either the morality or the intelligence, one or the other, needed to survive?
The rest is History.
The lesson here, which Karzai already knows--and when the money lessens, Al Maliki will have to concede--is that outsiders cannot dictate the future of a country--and when rebels have support of the majority--you either find a way to share power--or end up being a puppet regime whose days are numbered.
the fact is, the day we withdraw our support for Iraq, is the day even the Shia population will storm the green zone and destroy Al Maliki and the rest who profitted from our presence. There are no real governments in either Afghanistan or Iraq--just our frontmen. Karzai is trying to really run his country-while Al Maliki merely pretends to, while he enriches himself and friends and buys time to set up his own army--to become the next Saddam.
Probably a bad idea, but as toldyouso says, we have to face realities in Afghanistan. And that may mean power-sharing with the Taliban.
Source: Ahmed Rashid : Islam,Oil, And The New Great Game In Central Asia
Before the Iraq occupaion, the centrist Fatah Party held 68 of the 88 legislative seats in the Palestine Legislative Council. After our invasion, Hamas won 74 of the 132 seats in the expanded PLC. Six seats are resrved for Christian representatives. There is little argument that Americas presence in the region was the major cause of the shift.
Al Qaeda was is a fringe loony group whose popular support in the Mideast was roughly analagous to the support of the KKK in the United States before our military ventures in the Mideast.
The American people have supported policies which encourage jihad. You can''t undo what has been done, and not all the effects have been against our interests, but we need to stop throwing gasoline on the fundamentalist fire.
You either believe in self-determination or don''t.
I wonder if Karzai consulted the NATO Commissars before making this proposal...or if the intent is a too obvious attempt to promote talks that go nowhere under a truce to give NATO and the drug pushing war lords a breather for a prospective action against Iran? If NATO and the Americans call the shots from the shadows, there will be no real peace and the talks will drag out like those between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
If I were the Taliban, I would negotiate but continue to press forward with my campaign...if they leave the roads open for the free passage of agents and troops, they will be making a strategic error.
If Karzai has gone rogue and doesn''t correct his course, as al Maliki, most humorously, has had to do, then there will be a ''regime change''.
If Iraq''s current government used that logic, Sadaam would have been invited back as vice president instead of a rope weight.
Unless you want a North American Union and a new currency the "Amero" split with Canada and Mexico. And lose all your rights and freedom. Vote For Ron Paul 2008!
So my advice is to bypass the media and spread the word to your family and friends about him. The power of the People is far greater than a campaign spending 10''s of million to buy an image. Because this man is a real American Hero. He has dedicated his life to this country and everyone in it, and now he is trying to save it from disaster.
Spread The Word! Go Ron Paul 2008!
Ron Paul Has Raised 838,000 in 5 Days from people who really love this country and their freedom!
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Join The ReVoLuTiOn:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities
The Talliban is not so bad, says former Unocal puppet ruler, Hamid Karzai (the "Mayor of Kabul"):
"UNITED NATIONS%u2013Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to forge peace in his country through talks with the "majority" of Taliban who have no links to Al Qaeda or terrorism."
Why are we waging an unjustifiable war of aggression against the people of Afghanistan again?
URL to Karzai-puppet''s Taliban appeasement proposal:
www.thestar.com/News/article/259681
Do not be to quick to endorse a gold standard...the same evil men who control the FED, control the gold and will just pick up where they left off as they did after the "Crime of ''73", when they began the last engagements of the war on silver so as to institute the gold standard, making their gold more valuable and the debts denominated in gold far more valuable-- just ask the farmers who lost their land as their debts increased in value with deflation.
The gold could also sit in a vault and dollars could be issued against it--something else that was done in the past. Treauries actually bought gold for paper representing the gold and paid slightly more for it, or would borrow gold, pay interest on it and issue paper money against it...but nothing like the paper money circus we have today where the Rederal Reserve Note has no backing at all...save the comical ''full faith and credit of the United States.''
Unless you want a North American Union and a new currency the "Amero" split with Canada and Mexico. And lose all your rights and freedom. Vote For Ron Paul 2008!
So my advice is to bypass the media and spread the word to your family and friends about him. The power of the People is far greater than a campaign spending 10''s of million to buy an image. Because this man is a real American Hero. He has dedicated his life to this country and everyone in it, and now he is trying to save it from disaster.
Spread The Word! Go Ron Paul 2008!
Ron Paul Has Raised 838,000 in 5 Days from people who really love this country and their freedom!
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Join The ReVoLuTiOn:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities
I agree with what you are saying, generally speaking, but the gold standard required the feds to buy up dollars held by foreign banks in gold.
--- This is why the Federal Reserve needs to be removed. Afterall it is a private corporation. It is not part of the Federal Government. This is where the term Greenback came from when Lincoln designed it. It is a currency printed by the US Government for the people with no interest attached. This is the true definition of a Greenback. So there would be a new currency not a "Note" or a "Debt" given to the people to spend. So Ron Paul would bring the Greenback into play into the economy to create prosperity and grow the economy and eliminate the Federal Reserve and the Central Bankers from the US Economy. For detailed information go to:
http://thetruth07.110mb.com
Go Ron Paul 2008 - The Last Honest Politican!
Posted by tuckerndfw
-- The profit from a FIAT Currency is by the Hidden Inflation Tax when the costs of goods go up and the value of the dollar goes down just like what is happening now. So the profit is by STEALING From the American people especially the Middle-Class & The Poor. And this is what Ron Paul wants to eliminate. We as Americans should feel so honored to have a honest man as Ron Paul running for us and to teach people the truth and why ethe economy is so terrible and only getting worse. We need to back him up 110% because there will never be another one like him. It''s sad but true. This is why they Fear him and are doing a Media Blackout on him
For Details: http://thetruth07.110mb.com
I agree with the Greenback scheme. The German miracle in the 1930s was achieved by not creating more paper currency than you have created goods to buy. The politicians just gave this power to create money to JP Morgan and friends and said, "Create Money and charge the Rubes interest!" The ''Progressives'' who backed this give-away were the same kind of clueless people that are busy backing so-called ''Liberals'' today. I don''t know when you went to school, but when I went, the teachers always sold the Progressives as being the best thing since sliced bread....what a fraud...what a wholesale and naked fraud.
China will rule the world by 2020 watch and America will be a thing of the past, just a dream!
This is why Ron Paul is a target and blacked out by the media because he is Educating People to the Fraud! They don''t want people to know the truth.
Those are the same years I spent waiting to get out of school.
I think our great grand parents should have tarred and feathered these oligarchs...and we shouldn''t have let them drag us into two world wars and waste our substance fighting the ''cold war'' and financing the Commies through the back door.
Americans need to come to the realization that they are in a class war and only one side is fighting--the ruling class. I don''t know which I despise the most, the Oligarchs or the Communists...I''m sure both of them would make a very satifying as they hit the ground.
The problem with Afghanistan is that it main economic base is OPIUM, and if the formal government cannot cash in on this business, it will lose to faction that do. Best to leagalize and tax the business. The US is not helping to sustain the Afghan economy, but undermining it with demands of Opium crackdown. For this year what else are the people to make money from?? RUGS??!?!
Every country needs economically viable industries to maintain contentment and power.
No purely military solution is workable for Afghanistan either - - just like Iraq. A means for longer term stabilization must be sought.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues
Generally--and there are wonderful exceptions--they counsel ''getting along'' at all costs...Orwell, I believe it was, wrote that ''in poor families, men headed the household, while in middle class families, it was the woman--or the child.'' That is, of course, one of the main reasons behind the attack on white males in America--it serves to weaken their resolve and willingness to go for the throat of the ruling class, because ''mama wants a new pair of shoes''...and that is even among those of us who aren''t distracted by college game day and ''rasslin''. Playing the race card helps with general divide and conquer strategy-- and that is one of the reason the borders are open...pretty soon we will see the Oligarchy playing the brown Americans off, against both black and white.
Why Don''t You Know Ron Paul??????
The corporate media will not give Ron Paul any Exposure. Because, NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world''s largest war-makers. They make things
that go boom. They make $Billions on war. A Ron Paul administration would be bad for business. CNN is owned by AOL. Majority share holder is Saudi Royal Talal who is also partners with GHWBush in The Carlyle Group. Another major warmaker. And on and on. You get the picture. This is why they are doing
a Media Blackout on him.
Because they don''t WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH!
Who is Ron Paul?
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about
Join A ReVoLuTiOn Group In Your City:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/
Ron Paul Has WON 10 Straw-Polls!
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/straw-poll-results/
RESTORE YOU LIBERTY & FREEDOM
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT RON PAUL 2008!
** Stop Iraq War Immediately
** Eliminate IRS
** Eliminate Federal Reserve
** Eliminate Government Wasteful Spending
** Restore America''s Work Force & Values
** Restore America''s Freedom!
HE HAS RAISED ALMOST 1 MILLION DOLLARS IN 5 DAYS!
Check out www.ronpaul2008.com
GET UP AND GET ACTIVE TODAY!!!
VOTE RON PAUL 2008!
Posted by ozonmojo,
Can''t really blame him though. The Taliban were powerful enough to take the country only recently, and they are still battle hardened and able to take it again. Bushit only wanted his oil pipeline, and installed his puppet to ink the deal. Now Karzai recognizes that the US won''t protect him forever (he should have seen this coming). The Taliban will win, and now the dead man walking is trying to at least hold on to Bush''s pipeline, as well as his life. He is doomed, as is Bush''s policy is Afghanistan.
However, now, the republicans'' "sure thing pick" to run the country now wants to negotiate with the terrorists.
Their own man has now swung so far left that even lefties like me are going "huh?".
The world is a strange place.
If Karzai has gone rogue and doesn''''t correct his course, as al Maliki, most humorously, has had to do, then there will be a ''''regime change''''.
Posted by Prinzowhales at 11:52 AM : Sep 29, 2007
-Haven''t we already said those Taliban are a stiff people and hard to beat. Having pushed out of their country the stiffest occupation armies, namely the USSR, they will succeed to push Nato''s armies out and form the government in which Karzai will be begging for a seat... Now, will they give him one? That is the question. LOL!
Posted by grazinggoat,
Oh yeah, they''ll give him a seat, you''ll see a white canvas body bag propped up in a chair, with his name placard in front of it.
Karzai worked for Unocal. Oil Slick *** wants a pipeline in Afghanistan. The CIA trained Osama bin Laden well.
Previously, American interests in Afghanistan were promoted by a private-sector organization, the Foreign Oil Companies Group. Among the Group%u2019s most active members were Mr. Henry Kissinger, a former Secretary of State but now an advisor to the Unocal Corporation; Mr. Alexander Haig, another former Secretary of State but now a lobbyist for Turkmenistan; and Mr. Richard Cheney, a former Secretary of Defense, but now the CEO of the Halliburton Corporation affectionately known as Oil Slick ***.
The covert Bush organization had provided Osama bin Laden with billions of dollars and terrorist training. But one American company in particular, Unocal, found Bridas intolerable and fought back vigorously, hiring a number of consultants in addition to Mr. Kissinger: Mr. Hamid Karzai, Mr. Richard Armitage, and Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad. (Armitage and Khalilzad would be active members of the Project for the New American Century, and would join the Arbusto regime in 2001.)
To be continued...
The Washington Regime calls all of its opponents "terrorists" so the word really has no real meaning any more when it comes from their spokesmen''s lips...when freedom-fighters and patriots fighting to expel colonialist forces are labeled "terrorists".
I don''t see how they can call a man who sacrifices his life to kill 30 of Unocal-Karzai''s hirelings can be called "cowardly."
Why Don''t You Know Ron Paul??????
The corporate media will not give Ron Paul any Exposure. Because, NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world''s largest war-makers. They make things that go boom. They make $Billions on war. A Ron Paul administration would be bad for business. CNN is owned by AOL. Majority share holder is Saudi Royal Talal who is also partners with GHWBush in The Carlyle Group. Another major warmaker. And on and on. You get the picture. This is why they are doing a Media Blackout on him. Because they don''t WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!!!!
Who is Ron Paul?
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about
Join A ReVoLuTiOn Group In Your City:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/
Ron Paul Has WON 10 Straw-Polls!:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/straw-poll-results/
RESTORE YOUR LIBERTY & FREEDOM
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT RON PAUL 2008!
He Will:
** Stop Iraq War Immediately
** Eliminate IRS
** Eliminate Federal Reserve
** Eliminate Government Wasteful Spending
** Restore America''s Work Force & Values
** Restore America''s Freedom!
GET UP AND GET ACTIVE TODAY!!!
Paul Is America''s Last Hope!
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- next
See all 187 Comments