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The Battle For Hope In Iraq
It's easy to forget the utter hopelessness that had settled on Washington with regard to Iraq less than two years ago.
much of the Bush administration had concluded that America's only option was to manage defeat. CIA chief Michael Hayden told the Iraq Study Group in November 2006 that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around."
it's easy to forget the nearly universal skepticism that greeted President Bush's announcement of a new strategy in January 2007. Again, it wasn't just Democrats such as Sen. Barack Obama who doubted that a surge would relieve the violence but Republicans such as Sen. Chuck Hagel war supporters such as the Post editorial board and the nation's top generals.
With public opinion, Congress, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and most of his administration pushing toward a "consensus" option of managed failure, Bush insisted on a policy that would yet provide a chance of success.
Woodward's fourth volume on decision making inside the administration, "The War Within," also confirms that Bush never would have been in position to make the hard but correct call had it not been for his national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley.
Almost defiantly colorless, invariably courteous and even-toned, Hadley hasn't sought the celebrity of such predecessors as Henry Kissinger or Zbigniew Brzezinski, nor has he advertised a close personal tie with his boss like that of Brent Scowcroft with the first President Bush or Condoleezza Rice with the second.
Yet on the most consequential issue of Bush's second term, as most of the administration remained wedded to a losing strategy of handing control as quickly as possible to an incapable Iraqi army, Hadley pushed for change -- for a counterinsurgency strategy that would provide enough security, especially in Baghdad, to give political reconciliation a chance.
Hadley wasn't alone in his insight. Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman, former senator Chuck Robb, NSC staffer Meghan O'Sullivan, strategist Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, retired Army general Jack Keane and a few others were pushing in the same direction. Eventually it would take the new leadership of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in Iraq to translate opportunity into actual strategy.
Hadley made something happen. With the State and Defense departments opposed, Congress in Democratic hands, and the public skeptical of anything Bush would say on Iraq, he realized the limits of the president's power. A decree from the White House that was seen as directly opposing Pentagon wishes would undermine morale, confuse the country and fail in implementation.
So Hadley patiently worked the interagency system, the tedious task forces and review groups, to garner at least the appearance of consensus. He didn't seek credit and in fact tried not to be viewed as an advocate of any one idea. But he made sure that the one idea that counted would not get quashed. "You have got to give the president the option of a surge in forces," he told an interagency task force in November 2006, as Woodward recounts. "You can all take your positions for or against or in between, but you have to present him that as an option."
Hadley's goal from the start was to right Iraq policy sufficiently to remove it as a toxic issue in the presidential campaign -- to allow the next president to win without making any rash and irrevocable promises and to take office with at least a prospect of success. Improbably, he has succeeded.
A new conventional wisdom seems to be settling on Washington -- that the U.S. job in Iraq is nearing completion. If, as seems likely, the celebration is premature and U.S. troops will be needed in Iraq for some time to come, we can hope that the next national security adviser again has the strength to resist the crowd and the deftness to steer the country in the right direction. It's easy to forget the utter hopelessness that had settled on Washington with regard to Iraq less than two years ago. ... more -
Time to go home, Nouri al-Maliki tells Britain
British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times.
In an exclusive interview in Baghdad, Mr al-Maliki also criticised a secret deal made last year by Britain with the al-Mahdi Army, Iraq’s largest Shia militia. He said that Basra had been left at the mercy of militiamen who “cut the throats of women and children” after the British withdrawal from the city.
The Iraqi leader emphasised, however, that the “page had been turned” and he looked forward to a friendly, productive relationship with London. “The Iraqi arena is open for British companies and British friendship, for economic exchange and positive cooperation in science and education.”
Of Britain’s presence in southern Iraq, Mr al-Maliki said: “We thank them for the role they have played, but I think that their stay is not necessary for maintaining security and control. There might be a need for their experience in training and some technological issues, but as a fighting force, I don’t think that is necessary.”
Gordon Brown is expected to cut troop numbers significantly next year from the 4,100-strong contingent as Britain’s mission evolves to a more diplomatic presence. But even the status of British non-combat personnel is in doubt because negotiations on their presence beyond this year have yet to begin, Mr al-Maliki said.
A status of forces agreement (Sofa) between Baghdad and London is needed to authorise the presence of any British forces in the country beyond December 31, when a UN Security Council mandate expires. Mr al-Maliki said that he did not know why negotiations had not begun, speculating that the world financial turmoil had distracted the British. “We had decided to start them,” he said.
Britain wants to base its agreement on a similar deal being hammered out between Baghdad and Washington. But divisions on certain issues, in particular the immunity of US troops from Iraqi prosecution, have delayed the signing of that accord.
Mr al-Maliki hopes that the pact with the US will be approved by the end of the year. Failure to do so would force him to ask the UN to extend its mandate for all foreign troops to stay in Iraq. However, if a US-Iraq deal is clinched in time, Britain could be caught out.
(rest at link) British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Ir... more -
Britain may hold people for 42 days without charges
Dozens of renowned British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation Sunday, publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge for up to 42 days.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently expressed his firm commitment to extending the pre-charge detention period from 28 to 42 days. The counterterrorism measure is one of several that Britain has considered or adopted since suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in 2005.
The proposal is expected to meet serious opposition Monday in the House of Lords. The legislation narrowly made it through the House of Commons this summer.
Some police leaders say the measure is needed because terror cases are complex and others say existing powers are strong enough.
Europe's top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, recently said such police power could run afoul of European rights conventions. Dozens of renowned British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation Sunday, publishing a collection of satire, essays, ... more -
We're NOT Losing Afghan War Says Top General
The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.
But U.S. Gen. David McKiernan also said he needs more military forces to tamp down the militants, and he depicted a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. He said better governance and economic progress were vital.
It is true that in many places of this country we don't have an acceptable level of security. We don't have good governance. We don't have socio-economic progress. We don't have people that are able to grow their produce and get it to market. We don't have freedom of movement, we don't have progress as evenly or as fast as many of us would like, but we are not losing Afghanistan," he told a news conference in Kabul.
In the country's wild south, meanwhile, Taliban militants launched a surprise attack on the provincial capital of Helmand, sparking a battle that killed about 60 insurgents, an Afghan official said.
Ahmadi's death tolls could not be verified independently. Journalists are not able to travel to remote and dangerous battle sites. Afghan officials have been known to exaggerate death tolls in the past.
Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,800 people - mostly militants - this year, according to an Associated Press count of figures from Western and Afghan officials. A record number of U.S. and NATO soldiers have died in 2008. The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Tali... more -
Postponing the election: it's a joke, or is it?
Thank heavens for the Internet; it's put the surprise back in October Surprise. Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory, which has been gathering strength on the blogosphere the way a hurricane feeds on Caribbean waters: It is widely believed, both online and, increasingly, offline, that the Bush administration intends to declare martial law and postpone next month's elections. To prevent Barack Obama's inevitable ascension to the Oval Office, obviously.
This theory/rumor/delusion dates back almost a year and a half, with the appearance on the White House website of National Security Presidential Directive 51, which outlined a policy for "continuity of government" in the event of a national emergency. Such emergency is defined as "any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel says the new directive supplants a Cold War-era emergency memorandum that is no longer valid in the post-9/11 world, with the country at risk of a "no-notice terrorist attack." But on websites with names such as justanothercoverup.com and abovetopsecret.com, the public document - often described as "secret" - was read quite differently. "FEMA Official States Bush Is Planning to Implement Martial Law," is a headline from justanothercoverup. "Pelosi Declared Martial Law Last Night," was a September headline from abovetopsecret.
Like a much-awaited Messiah (I am channeling the famous sociological text "When Prophecy Fails"), the date of the martial law takeover keeps moving forward. This spring it was to coincide with the bombing of Iran, this summer with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike. In the minds of conspiracy theorists, the current economic crisis seems like a propitious moment for the suspension of the November election.
The martial law paranoia has an engaging adjunct: the "FEMA coffins" story. If you Google those words, you will find pictures, videos, and reams of text explaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has stockpiled 30,000 - or is it 50,000? - coffins (or are they coffin liners? or . . . boxes?) in anticipation of a vast civil disturbance, presumably triggered by the imposition of martial law. "We do not have FEMA coffins," says spokeswoman Debbie Wing.
On the one hand you say, OK, this is Internet madness. On the other hand, you note that Ireland's largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, is laying 20-1 odds that the American election will be postponed. When I first checked that site on Tuesday, the odds were 40-1.
We've seen this movie before, right? Writer Ron Rosenbaum remembers a 1972 story averring that Richard Nixon asked the RAND Corporation to study whether he could postpone that election, which he won, handily. University of California historian Kathryn Olmsted, author of the forthcoming "Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11" notes that Franklin Roosevelt's many enemies were convinced that he would assume dictatorial powers and cancel the election of 1944, which he won handily ...
By Alex Beam Thank heavens for the Internet; it's put the surprise back in October Surprise. Here is the latest big-picture conspiracy theory... more -
US nuns come home to discover 'terrorist' status
Two Roman Catholic nuns whose non-violent action against nuclear weapons landed them with prison sentences returned home to Baltimore to learn they had been listed as terrorists, they said Friday.
Sister Ardeth Platte, 72, and Sister Carol Gilbert, 60, came back from two weeks out of town to find letters from the Maryland State Police saying they had been wrongfully listed as suspected terrorists in a federal database in 2005-2006.
"To be labelled a terrorist is really very hard to hear and to accept, when your whole life has been one of loving nonviolence," Platte said.
Maryland State Police have sent letters to a total 53 activists wrongfully labelled as terrorists, inviting them to look at their entries in the database -- after which the files would be deleted.
The Dominican nuns broke into a US nuclear missile silo in Colorado in 2002 and painted crucifixes with their own blood -- earning Platte and Gilbert prison sentences of 41 and 33 months respectively.
"If they can label us as terrorists, they can label all kinds of people as terrorists," Gilbert said. "So then people become afraid to speak out against what the established government might be saying -- and that is the demise of democracy." Two Roman Catholic nuns whose non-violent action against nuclear weapons landed them with prison sentences returned home to Baltimore ... more -
US believes nuns have a habit for terrorism
Two Roman Catholic nuns jailed for non-violent action against nuclear weapons were also listed as terrorists by US authorities.
Sister Ardeth Platte, 72, and Sister Carol Gilbert, 60, came back from two weeks out of Baltimore to find letters from the Maryland state police saying they had been wrongfully listed as suspected terrorists on a 2005-2006 federal database.
"To be labeled a terrorist is really very hard to hear and to accept, when your whole life has been one of loving nonviolence," Platte said.
Maryland State Police have sent letters to 53 activists wrongfully declared terrorists by authorities, inviting them to look at their entries in the database, after which the files would be deleted.
The Dominican nuns broke into a US nuclear missile silo in Colorado in 2002 and painted crucifixes with their own blood, earning Platte and Gilbert prison sentences of 41 and 33 months respectively.
"If they can label us as terrorists, they can label all kinds of people as terrorists," Gilbert said. "So then people become afraid to speak out against what the established government might be saying - and that is the demise of democracy. Two Roman Catholic nuns jailed for non-violent action against nuclear weapons were also listed as terrorists by US authorities. ... more -
Body of Lies is an ambitious and cynical look at the War on Terror
The latest in the line of sophisticated thinking - although not so sophisticated that there can't be an explosion or a gunfight every 15 minutes - is Body of Lies, a spy story that seems to come out of Iraq by way of John Le Carre in his special-effects period. The latest in the line of sophisticated thinking - although not so sophisticated that there can't be an explosion or a gunfight e... more
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Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactiv...
Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be mandatory viewing Army-wide -- in which soldiers will play the role of an anguished infantryman and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or, in the worst case, shoot himself in the head.
"This is you: Specialist Kyle Norton," a male narrator begins, putting soldiers in the boots of a 19-year-old Midwesterner after a bomb-clearing mission in Iraq.
The video, titled "Beyond the Front," leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which Norton is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scrapes with the law -- what Army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide. Norton is blindsided by an e-mail from his fiancee, who has become pregnant by another man. He is devastated further when one of his best friends is killed in an ambush.
Questions pop onto the screen at key moments, prompting the viewer to decide whether to get help -- by opening up with buddies, Norton's sergeant or a chaplain. Depending on the choices, Norton edges toward recovery or sinks deeper into suicidal thoughts. The goal is to immerse the viewer into Norton's life in a way that makes preventive lessons stick, say Army officials and the video's creators.
The video is one of several initiatives launched by the Army to try to stem the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. That rate increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year.
This year, 93 active-duty soldiers killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In all of 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003.
If the trend continues, the death rate this year is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said -- which has not happened since the Vietnam War Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be m... more -
U.S. Officers' "Phone Sex" Intercepted; Senate Demanding Answers
Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), called the allegations "extremely disturbing" and said the committee has begun its own examination.
"We have requested all relevant information from the Bush Administration," Rockefeller said Thursday. "The Committee will take whatever action is necessary."
"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.
Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."
Another intercept operator, former Navy Arab linguist, David Murfee Faulk, 39, said he and his fellow intercept operators listened into hundreds of Americans picked up using phones in Baghdad's Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007.
The accounts of the two former intercept operators, who have never met and did not know of the other's allegations, provide the first inside look at the day to day operations of the huge and controversial US terrorist surveillance program.
But the accounts of the two whistleblowers, which could not be independently corroborated, raise serious questions about how much respect is accorded those Americans whose conversations are intercepted in the name of fighting terrorism.
Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.
"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.
Faulk said he joined in to listen, and talk about it during breaks in Back Hall's "smoke pit," but ended up feeling badly about his actions.
"I feel that it was something that the people should not have done. Including me," he said.
In testimony before Congress, then-NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden, now director of the CIA, said private conversations of Americans are not intercepted. Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have... more -
Maryland Police Put Peaceful Protestor's Names On Terror Watch Lists
The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday. The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state... more
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LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV!
LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV!
Il 4 Marzo 2001 (potete verificare la data ovunque) andò in onda sui network televisivi americani, il telefilm "The Lone Gunmen", i cui protagonisti principali sono i "consulenti" di Fox Mulder in "The X-Files", Langly, Byers e Frohike, i cosidetti "Pistoleri Solitari".
Ebbene in questo "spin-off" di X-Files, nella prima puntanta intitolata "Pilot" si trova la "profezia" di un atroce evento che sarebbe avvenuto qualche mese dopo. Nella puntata pilota si vede un Boeing 747 di una comune linea aerea, pieno di passeggeri, dirottato sul... Word Trade Center. Inoltre l’aereo è dirottato “da remoto” sfruttando il pilota automatico e la natura dei mandanti dell’attentato.
Nel telefilm l’attacco sarebbe organizzato da alcuni settori del Governo Federale allo scopo di “giustificare l’aumento delle spese militari e l’attacco ad un paese con un regime non affine agli Stati Uniti“.
E' solo una coincidenza oppure c'è davvero un sospetto (legittimo o meno che sia) che dietro le idee di Chris Carter (ideatore della serie "X Files" e di "The Lone Gunmen") ci sia la supervisione di qualche ente governativo e di "intelligence" USA?
Sopra alcuni spezzoni del telefilm RILEVANTI (in inglese con i sottotitoli in italiano) rispetto ai tragici eventi che sarebbero realmente accaduti 6 mesi dopo...
Commenti? LA TRAGEDIA DEL 911 ANTICIPATA SEI MESI DA UNA SERIE TV! ... more -
Pakistan Faces Bankruptcy, Wants $100bn Handout | Crooks and Liars
Demonstrators outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange in July
The UK's Daily Telegraph reports that Pakistan may be the first nation to go bankrupt as a result of the continuing global financial meltdown.
Officially, the central bank holds $8.14 billion (£4.65 billion) of foreign currency, but if forward liabilities are included, the real reserves may be only $3 billion - enough to buy about 30 days of imports like oil and food.
Nine months ago, Pakistan had $16 bn in the coffers.
The government is engulfed by crises left behind by Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler who resigned the presidency in August. High oil prices have combined with endemic corruption and mismanagement to inflict huge damage on the economy.
Given the country's standing as a frontline state in the US-led "war on terrorism", the economic crisis has profound consequences. Pakistan already faces worsening security as the army clashes with militants in the lawless Tribal Areas on the north-west frontier with Afghanistan.
... Mr Zardari told the Wall Street Journal that Pakistan needed a bail out worth $100 billion from the international community.
"If I can't pay my own oil bill, how am I going to increase my police?" he asked. "The oil companies are asking me to pay $135 [per barrel] of oil and at the same time they want me to keep the world peaceful and Pakistan peaceful."
The ratings agency Standard and Poor's has given Pakistan's sovereign debt a grade of CCC +, which stands only a few notches above the default level.
The economic crisis might yet end Pakistan's newly elected government, which is facing a crisis of confidence already as it battles 25% inflation, a drowning currency and a President with a reputation as "Mr 10%" for past corruption. It's also unclear that even a $100 billion bailout would be enough to stave off Pakistan's money woes, since the security situation is itself feeding the economic crisis there - investors don't want to know about a nation so obviously on the verge of failure.
Nor is it certain that even the US and Western allies will care to throw such a large sum of money into Pakistan. Sure, they could probably secure protestations of working harder to enact economic reforms after the mismanagement of the Musharraf years and to more strongly pursue the War on Terror, but what would those promises be worth? The question "whose side is Pakistan on?" is being asked in NATO circles nowadays, and more are coming to the conclusion that the Pakistani feudal elite are content to play the West for all it is worth while caring precious little for their own people's fate. Then again, Pakistan has nukes and the prospect of a truly failed state there is a terrible one to contemplate. As usual with that nation, the situation is a Gordian Knot created by decades (dating back at least to Reagan and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan) of local and Western leaders ignoring very real problems. It's a knot with no easy, or short-term, solution. It will take decades of strategic containment, careful stick and carrots, law enforcement outwith Pakistan to catch the terrorists it gives safe haven to and some simple truth-telling to roll all that back. There are no fixes with a timeline of less than decades.
And, as John Robb at Global Guerrillas writes, don't expect Pakistan to be the last nation to find itself on the financial brink.
The global financial system is much LARGER, FASTER, and COMPLEX than the nation-states that are trying to bail them out. As a result, nation-state intervention won't return things to the status quo. What it will do, however, is tightly couple western nation-states to the now inevitable failure in the financial system (this is akin to lashing a dingy to the Titanic to prevent it from sinking). The rampant proliferation of bankrupt and hollow states is now likely inevitable. Demonstrators outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange in July ... more -
The Taliban: News & Videos about The Taliban - CNN.com
An airstrike by Pakistani fighter jets killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including one believed to be a high-ranking commander, a government spokesman said Saturday. An airstrike by Pakistani fighter jets killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including one believed to be a high-ranking commander, a ... more
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Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit - CNN.com
Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit
Story Highlights
Photos of Taliban in the uniforms of dead French soldiers provokes outrage
Magazine Paris Match features photos of Taliban and their commander
10 French troops were killed and a further 21 injured in an ambush Furor over pics of Taliban in dead soldiers' kit Story Highlights ... more -
Afghan general: Politics needed to end war
Afghan general: Politics needed to end war
Story Highlights
Wardak: People need help to find work, and everyone must accept constitution
Wardak echoes British commander who tells Sunday Times war will not be won
British commander also reportedly says deal with Taliban might be on the table
Western leaders say reconciling with hardcore militants will be difficult Afghan general: Politics needed to end war Story Highlights ... more -
Poland: 'CIA Prisons' Just a Cover?
Kiejkuty is a least suitable place for maintaining secrecy. A spy satellite photographs it every 15 hours. And the photo is so detailed you can recognise the breed of the dog in front of the kennel, says a former high-ranking intelligence officer. Kiejkuty is a least suitable place for maintaining secrecy. A spy satellite photographs it every 15 hours. And the photo is so detaile... more
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CIA prisons in Poland: a story of revelation
Politicians of almost all parties in Poland have kept denying whether the CIA illegally held terrorists in secret prisons in Poland.
The first to report about secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons in Europe where alleged Al Qaeda members were held was the Washington Post on 2 November 205. The story was based on anonymous sources within the CIA.
The history of the article's publication (Dana Priest won a Pulitzer for it) is dramatic. President George W. Bush intervened when the newspaper was to go to print, asking for certain details - the names of the countries where the detention centres were located, and the names of the prisoners - to be withheld.
On 7 November, Human Rights Watch, the human rights organisation, said the prisoners had been held in Poland and Romania, among other places. In December, ABC News reported the names of twelve terrorists who had supposedly been held in Poland, among them Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the mastermind of the World Trade Centre attack.
(continues) Politicians of almost all parties in Poland have kept denying whether the CIA illegally held terrorists in secret prisons in Poland. ... more -
Taliban split with al Qaeda
Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.
King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia hosted meetings between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a source says.
King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia hosted meetings between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a source says.
The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source.
The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies. Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are sever... more -
Afghan "Allies" And Bin Laden Video
Osama Bin Laden is on the radio and hailed as a great warrior and hero leader of the Jihad by the people whom we are considering our allies. Osama Bin Laden is on the radio and hailed as a great warrior and hero leader of the Jihad by the people whom we are considering our a... more
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