...The Taliban are still laughing....

Posted by: exsgtbrown at December 26, 2007 4:25 PM

I note that when the British press publishes some juicy item like this, the lede always says, "the Daily Telegraph can disclose, the Times can reveal, etc., etc.

I take this to mean that the juicy item in question has been cleared for publication by whomsoever is administering Britain's Official Secrets Act. Can any Britons confirm this?

Posted by: Papa Whiskey at December 26, 2007 5:13 PM

They should do to Brown what they did to Rudolf Hess when he wanted "talks".

"Treason doth never prosper,
What's the reason?
For if it doth propser
None dare call it treason."

- Sir John Harrington (16th century, paraphrasing Seneca.)

Posted by: profitsbeard at December 26, 2007 6:10 PM

Hmmm...next thing you know, the British PM will step before the news cameras, wave the signed pages of an "historic agreement" in the air, and babble some ridiculous drivel about "peace in our time".

God help the British. They appear to have forgotten what happened to them the last time they chose to appease a vicious gang of totalitarian supremacist thugs.

Posted by: lilgadfly at December 26, 2007 8:23 PM

Posted by: lilgadfly

Hmmm...next thing you know, the British PM will step before the news cameras, wave the signed pages of an "historic agreement" in the air, and babble some ridiculous drivel about "peace in our time".

Hmmm Shades of Disraeli

http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2007/12/brown-not-first-brown-nosed.html

"The barbarian power, which has been for centuries seated in the very heart of the Old World, which has in its brute clutch the most famous countries of classical and religious antiquity and many of the most fruitful and beautiful regions of the earth; and, which, having no history itself, is heir to the historical names of Constantinople and Nicaea, Nicomedia and Caesarea, Jerusalem and Damascus, Nineva and Babylon, Mecca and Bagdad, Antioch and Alexandria, ignorantly holding in its possession one half of the history of the whole world."
Cardinal Newman:

Posted by: shiva at December 26, 2007 10:06 PM

Cant beat um, join um.

Posted by: GrennBeck at December 27, 2007 12:16 AM

The PC,Leftwing,'yuman rites' spouting, Multi Culti, Guardianista Moonbats in UK who infest Politics, the Judiciary, Academia, the Social Services and the Police in UK have absolutely no comprehension at all what they are dealing with. In their fevered worldview Islam is as Islam SAYS not as Islam DOES and no amount of dead bodies will change their minds about the Religion of Peace. This is very sad but very true and is proved time and again by events such as this and unregulated immigration and refusal of deportation even for Violent Non British Criminals who murder British nationals and are REWARDED with light prison sentences and then given safe houses and Police protection in UK for them AND their NON British relatives. You could not invent the insanity the Yuman Rites act and PC Nu Labour have inflicted on UK. Just look at the Afghani AIRCRAFT HIGHJACKERS who were REWARDED with POLITICAL ASYLUM in UK and GIVEN houses and Social Security payments AND allowed to import their relatives.

Posted by: Realist at December 27, 2007 12:23 AM

lilgadfly

Please remember that GWB flew out the entire Saudi family the day after 9/11. Bush and co were funded by Saudi petro $$$. Cheney held high level meetings with top official Taliban leaders months before allied attacks on the Taliban, they even flew the leadership to NYC to discuss $$$ and oil. The marines flew out hundreds of Taliban troops before tora bora.

The British troops are doing an outstanding job in Afganistan, considering their numbers they are basically keeping NATO afloat in the Helmand region. SAS and US special forces are fighting side by side, fighting like brothers, and we sit here like armchair warriors, complaining about tactics and military intelligence. We need to congratulate them, so what if MI6 are talking to the Taliban, good! At least they can get info, check on morale, negotiate hostages, next plan of action, see who is still in high command of the taliban, take hidden video etc. This is straight forward intelligence work, hence the name, Military Intelligence 6.

I commend them for this. Now, what are you doing in the face of jihadist Islam?

Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at December 27, 2007 12:31 AM

I think i'd be most concerned if the Brits are negotiating issues which are properly the concern of the legal government of Afghanistan. If they want to abandon the conflict that's one thing, but if they're making governance proposals, that's another thing entirely...not that the Brits haven't done it before.

Posted by: DaninVan at December 27, 2007 1:35 AM

I think i'd be most concerned if the Brits are negotiating issues which are properly the concern of the legal government of Afghanistan. If they want to abandon the conflict that's one thing, but if they're making governance proposals, that's another thing entirely...not that the Brits haven't done it before.

Posted by: DaninVan at December 27, 2007 1:36 AM

Ok; THIS time I'm blaming it on the fact I'm using a friend's Mac...

Posted by: DaninVan at December 27, 2007 1:38 AM

From the article:""The SIS officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban with them coming across as some sort of armed militia. The British would also provide 'mentoring' for the Taliban."

Ah, ain't that sweet.

NATO and Taliban are into mentoring.

One to file under

"How can the Jihadists take this kind of punishment"

So, if you ally yourself with Bin Laden, then NATO will punish you thoroughly by giving you a good "mentoring"

The Taliban must be shitting their britches.

Posted by: ewha1 at December 27, 2007 4:56 AM

"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."

What a total joke this Labour government is in all areas.

Posted by: Celsius at December 27, 2007 5:32 AM

And this piece from Voice of the Mirror in today's (27/12/2007) Daily Mirror is indicative of the wishful thinking and total absence of knowledge in much of our press and media:

Talking will save lives

Talking to terrorists is one of the toughest decisions any leader ever has to make.

Gordon Brown is right to rule out negotiations with fanatics who dream of another atrocity like the July 7 bombings that killed 52 in London.

But the PM is also right in trying to separate more moderate Afghan rebels from Taliban hard-liners.

A battle is going on here to isolate the few dangerous extremists from the moderate British Muslim majority.

It would be madness not to pursue the same policy in Afghanistan.

Alun Hicks, whose son David died fighting there, sees Northern Ireland as a beacon of hope. Peace there was only won after secret contact with the IRA in the 70s and 90s.

So appealing to moderates inside the Taliban is no sign of weakness.

If talks stop one drop of British soldiers' blood being split they will be worthwhile.

So there it is. The boilerplate response of trying to kid ourselves that there is such a thing as a 'moderate Taliban', and pretending that we can apply the Northern Ireland model to Afghanistan. How many who write in the Daily Mirror know anything about Islam? How many have studied the texts of the Koran, Sira and hadith, or the history of Islam, the 1,400 years of Jihad, the so-called treaties designed to be temporary, the never-ending Jihad. The Taliban aren't the IRA. What is happening in Afghanistan isn't down to nationalism. It is all about Islam. Talking has been tried throughout most of the 1,400 years of Jihad, but the only people who have had success against it are those who fought it without mercy like Charles Martel, Pelayo and Jan Sobieski. And this article shows just how corrosive modern political correctness is and the dangerous wishful thinking it leads to. Had John Quincy Adams been around to read this article, heaven knows what his response would be, but anyone who dared write the sort of things about Islam which he wrote in his papers on http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={F3F5C99B-338A-4BC1-A4B2-585EFE643619} would immediately be branded as a racist by the Daily Mirror.

Posted by: Spirit Of 1683 at December 27, 2007 5:48 AM

I have absolutely no criticism of our soldiers and commend the duties they must endure. I am though, saddened by the fact that they must reside, at this moment of time in the hell that is Afghanistan.
However, what does concern me is that a "buffoon" and his shambolic government are giving the orders. Brown and his circus act have no morals, scruples or shame. Just a bungling hypocrisy that would put a third world democracy to shame. With this Labour party I always have that, (throbbing headache) of a feeling that they would sacrifice "their own" men, for credibility and praise among their heroes of the politically correct elite!!!.

Posted by: U.K. TODAY. at December 28, 2007 5:26 PM

U.K. TODAY

Lions led by donkeys. Bring our boys home and set about freeing the UK.

Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at December 29, 2007 9:37 PM

RE Leonthepigfarmer: How dare you compare our governing masters with that of a donkey???. DONKEYS ARE A NOBLE BEAST!!!.

Posted by: U.K. TODAY. at December 31, 2007 12:24 PM

LTPF:" Bring our boys home and set about freeing the UK."

Well said.

Posted by: ewha1 at December 31, 2007 9:12 PM