Obama Administration Has Entered Direct, Secret Talks With Taliban Leaders: Report

The New Yorker:

On August 22, 1998, Mullah Omar, the emir of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, made a cold call to the State Department. The United States had just lobbed cruise missiles at Al Qaeda camps in his nation. Omar got a mid-level diplomat on the line and spoke calmly. He suggested that Congress force President Bill Clinton to resign. He said that American military strikes "would be counter-productive," and would "spark more, not less, terrorist attacks," according to a declassified record of the call. "Omar emphasized that this was his best advice," the record adds.

Read the whole story: The New Yorker

Comments

[Genosse Joe]

12:37 AM on 02/21/2011

Surrender monkey.

Frenchmen will be laughing at United States now.

[snoopbuzz]

12:32 AM on 02/21/2011

We talk with alot of countries who have done us wrong. It wasnt long after Pearl Harbor that we were talking with the Japanese. It wasn't long after Adolf was gone that we were talking with the Germans. I understand that we are still at a war for some reason or other, but to get to know those who have done us wrong is an important step in moving forward which is what we desparately need.

[swift goat pet for truth]

07:56 PM on 02/20/2011

So?

Talking is Free.

[Amalek]

07:44 PM on 02/20/2011

As long as he does not talk to Republcians.

[Genosse Joe]

12:38 AM on 02/21/2011

That's the spirit.
Tell me who is your friend and I will tell you...

[myaa]

06:18 PM on 02/20/2011

This has to be part of any plan out of Afghanistan (if we plan to withdraw any time in the next 100 years!)

[Icke Icke]

11:37 AM on 02/20/2011

"Secret talks?" Is that why we all know about it? Stupid. There are no more secrets.

[pleasebereasonable]

12:41 PM on 02/20/2011

It may be no "secret" that they talked. However what they talked about and obama promised them in return will always be a "secret".

[Icke Icke]

11:57 PM on 02/20/2011

LOL, sure, if you think ANYTHING will ALWAYS be a secret you're delusional.

[andnojusticeforanyone]

11:37 AM on 02/20/2011

Queue the right wing tr@//$ claiming obama is "palling around with terrorists" or "making this country unsafe" in five, four, three.....

[Pennsanic]

12:16 PM on 02/20/2011

They're already here. *sigh*

[jimmygeewhiz]

07:57 PM on 02/20/2011

Too bad your brain doesn't pal around with knowledge.

[andnojusticeforanyone]

08:02 PM on 02/20/2011

Wow, you are hilarious!! To bad you can't be reasonable like your ridiculous screen name implies, now move on tr@//.

[Duppy]

11:09 AM on 02/20/2011

Good. I am glad Obama is doing that. Cut a deal with them and lets move on.

[JTWallace]

10:56 AM on 02/20/2011

WAKE UP AMERICA! Tea Time in 2012!

[Duppy]

11:10 AM on 02/20/2011

did you say flea time ?

[SwimUpstream]

11:57 AM on 02/20/2011

Flush time is more like it

[JTWallace]

10:55 AM on 02/20/2011

What we need is a president with a hard nose to look at the facts and make decisions that Dems and Repubs can't make due to alliances which has in the past driven us into debt and in the pockets of Communist China and other countries where Clinton sent our jobs. Liberalism has cost us dearly for which gas has become out of sight due to the legislation they created to keep us from drilling our own oil on our own soil. We've funded needless welfare to illegals and neglected our own citizens who are out of work and running out of resources by the very government who is supporting illegals. We've funded institutions which forced banking institutions to allow anyone with a job to purchase homes without downpayments and or savings other than governmnt assistance. Look where it got us. And at taxpayer's expense. Unions are killing us due to their sky high expectations as to salaries which any out of worker would take in a heartbeat, yet, they stop production of basic goods to extort even more funds out of companies who eventually will send their companies overseas to survive. Wake Up America! We need a Tea Party type revolution and soon.

[Justice Goodyear]

10:07 AM on 02/20/2011

Obama also had direct talks with the Muslim Brotherhood.  If there is anyone out there who doesn't believe that Obama doesn't has an agenda for Muslim extremism control of the Middle East is just lying to themselves.

[Pennsanic]

12:23 PM on 02/20/2011

You need to go into the bathroom and wipe your conscience, dear.

[Justice Goodyear]

06:16 PM on 02/20/2011

I will admit that is a clever comment.  It doesn't, however, refute the claim.  It is true.

[a little revolution]

09:38 AM on 02/20/2011

Reagan had his ayatollahs (see Contragate). Obama has his mullas (Talibangate yet to be written). Different day, same cast of repugnant characters. On both sides.

[robertdaniel]

07:48 AM on 02/20/2011

This story takes place in the time of Clinton. And you used a picture of Obama because...

[SA Texas]

08:53 AM on 02/20/2011

It makes them feel good. Gratification in the worst way. SHAME ON THEM!

[dsouthard]

09:41 AM on 02/20/2011

No, the story does talk about the current administration:

"Holbrooke’s final diplomatic achievement, it turns out, was to see this advice accepted. The Obama Administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders, several people briefed about the talks told me last week. The discussions are continuing...."

[robertdaniel]

10:20 AM on 02/20/2011

Speed reading has its disadvantages. My bad. Thanks.

[Last chance]

07:15 AM on 02/20/2011

Dick cheney and george bush ( while still gov. of Texas) were doing business with them back in the late 1990`s....oil and gas pipeline negotiations.

[Happyexpat]

07:04 AM on 02/20/2011

" For too long, American political strategy in Afghanistan has been subordinate to military and intelligence operations. Thinking and learning through principled discussions with an enemy is an opportunity, not a trap." ♦

In seeking peace through secret talks, Obama is emulating JFK in his secret communications with the Soviet Union and Cuba. JFK knew that war is never the answer. His courage in choosing the path less traveled cost him his life at the hands of his own government and the world its freedom from the obscenities subsequently perpetrated on it by the MIC. One has only to think of what life would have been like without the Vietnam war.

The New Yorker claims that such secrecy is "unsavory" and that for the sake of the Afghan people talks must be transparent. Perhaps, but I would wager that Obama has kept such talks secret not from the Afghan people but from those in our own country whose lust for war is never ending.

We cannot ever aspire to world peace while thinking in terms of "the enemy", for in the words of the last real leader this country ever had, "our most common basic link is that we all share this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

[Justice Goodyear]

10:10 AM on 02/20/2011

JFK was a liar and a hypocrite.  We all are.  We are spending billions, maybe Trillions in Afghanistan.  We are negotiating with a group of people that hate women - they torture them, rape them and hold them as second class citizens.  They are negotiating with a group of people while American men and women are dying - totally different than when JFK was negotiating with Soviet Union. 

Please, enter the real world.  You have a president that is actively promoting the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.  Hard to swallow but it is true.