Aide: Karzai 'very angry' at Taliban boss' arrest

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL (AP) -- The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated President Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.

The detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar - second in the Taliban only to one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar - has raised new questions about whether the U.S. is willing to back peace discussions with leaders who harbored the terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Karzai "was very angry" when he heard that the Pakistanis had picked up Baradar with an assist from U.S. intelligence, the adviser said. Besides the ongoing talks, he said Baradar had "given a green light" to participating in a three-day peace jirga that Karzai is hosting next month.

The adviser, who had knowledge of the peace talks, spoke on condition of anonymity because of their sensitivity. Other Afghan officials, including Abdul Ali Shamsi, security adviser to the governor of Helmand province, also confirmed talks between Baradar and the Afghan government. Several media reports have suggested that Baradar had been in touch with Karzai representatives, but these are the first details to emerge from the discussions.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHAN_TALKING_TO_TALIBAN?SITE=NYONI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Dr.Phool]

1. It's a bitch when your puppets turn on you.

Heeerr's Chucky!

[Downwinder]

2. Karzai's phone taped?? n/t

[iandhr]

3. Our friend in fighting terrorism

objects when we capture a terrorist

this is good news :sarcasm:

[customerserviceguy]

5. He's not yet done

piling away filched wealth in his Swiss bank account. You don't expect him to live well on a few hundred million, now do you?

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Can't have peace break out. That is why we have a war department.

[Robb]

6. That ought to do it.

Adios, Karzai. Time to go write your book.

Edited to add: the brilliance of this is that it doesn't matter if he actually was in talks with Baradar -- which is exceedingly unlikely, by the way. Karzai's been trying to inject himself into any vision of post-war Afghanistan, in any way he can, lately trying to hold "peace talks" with low-tier Taliban (which haven't been going very well). With this news out there, he's seen as (1) possibly an appeaser to the Taliban with the worst reputation for violence in the country, and (2) in the dark on what the US and Pakistan are actually doing. Perfect recipe if you want to remove Karzai.

[Flaneur]

8. Remove Karzai? Who would remove him?

After all, he's the duly elected--cough, cough--president of the country. Would his imperial overlords remove him? And what would that say about what it is we are fighting and dying for over there? "Making the world safe for...our latest puppet?"

Talk like this smells suspiciously like Vietnam circa 1963.

[Wilms]

7. No. 2 n/t