One Of Secret Contacts Between U.S. and Taliban Missing
One of the contacts in the secret cease-fire negotiations between the U.S. government and leadership of the Taliban is missing and several Pakistani sources claim he has been kidnapped.
The story of the secret negotiations was first reported by this blog on Dec 1; see U.S. Reportedly Seeking Negotiations With Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The missing contact is a former associate of the Pakistani Islamic Fundamentalist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, a businessman named Arif Qasmani. Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the Pakistani politician identified as a main contact between U.S. intelligence and the Taliban announced Mr Qasmani's disappearance. Paracha believes that Qasmani has been abducted by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).
Paracha is now naming the two other members of the negotiation team that met with American intelligence. They are, besides Paracha and Qasmani, Khalid Khawaja (formerly ISI) and Shah Abdul Aziz, a Pakistani politician from the North-West Frontier Province.
The story of the secret negotiations was first reported by this blog on Dec 1; see U.S. Reportedly Seeking Negotiations With Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The missing contact is a former associate of the Pakistani Islamic Fundamentalist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, a businessman named Arif Qasmani. Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the Pakistani politician identified as a main contact between U.S. intelligence and the Taliban announced Mr Qasmani's disappearance. Paracha believes that Qasmani has been abducted by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).
Paracha is now naming the two other members of the negotiation team that met with American intelligence. They are, besides Paracha and Qasmani, Khalid Khawaja (formerly ISI) and Shah Abdul Aziz, a Pakistani politician from the North-West Frontier Province.
posted by Effwit at 1:29 PM
4 Comments:
What's your take on the involvement of ISI in this? Are they trying to undermine Musharraf in this? Is Musharraf part of the effort to broker a cease-fire between the U.S. and the Taliban?
DrewL:
I think that Musharraf would be fully briefed on the negotiations, and at least paying lip service to our endeavor.
Whether he is actually helping or hindering the process is unknown at this time.
The ISI may be the wild-card here. They have been alleged to go behind Musharraf's back to help Islamic extremists in the past. On that point,however, we only have Musharraf's word that he does not secretly share their goals.
In other words, I doubt that even U.S. intelligence knows the true motivation of either Musharraf or his ISI.
I've often wondered how much the U.S. should trust Pakistan, as they tend to be a bit duplicitous at times. Musharraf talks a good game of supporting the U.S., but how much of that is real and how much is fluff?
ISI seems to be a perpetual wildcard, from what I've read. Weren't they allegedly involved in Khan's sharing nuclear secrets with North Korea?
The U.S. has to trust Musharraf or someone filling the role of pro-American strongman, since as you point out, they have the Muslim bomb.
The American diplomatic nightmare is that we will do or say something that fires up the "street" over in Pakistan, sweeps Musharraf out of power, and hands the nukes to the fundamentalists. Thats why we treat Musharraf with kid gloves. He may be a duplicitous prick, but he is our duplicitous prick.
About the ISI, I have heard that there are pro and anti-American factions at HQ in Islamabad. Although I question how pro any pro-American faction can be, with the A.Q. Khan business and the allegations of funding some of the 9-11 hijackers.
Good comments on your part as usual.
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