Mullah Baradar Freed In Pakistan

[Firdousi]

Mullah Baradar Freed In Pakistan | TOLOnews

This are too many coincidences now. Key Taliban leaders are being freed. USA and the Taliban have reached some sort of agreement. I am sure in the coming weeks some new stuff will be disclosed.

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

I bet if you tossed a generous donation to the Taliban collection pot, all this hoopla they mumble about "reacting" and "foreign intervention" would dissipate. It works for Russia and Iran.

[khushal]

No coincidences, its just that the US is giving up on their failed endeavor and MIC lackeys crys and screams are getting less attention.

[marwat]

Mullah Baradar Freed In Pakistan | TOLOnews

This are too many coincidences now. Key Taliban leaders are being freed. USA and the Taliban have reached some sort of agreement. I am sure in the coming weeks some new stuff will be disclosed.

who says this is a coincidence? this is a preliminary steps for peace talks, and t was one of the demand of karzai government that Pakistan should release senior taliban leader.
remember Pakistan put him in jail, when kabul government started reaching out to taliban, bypassing pakistan. the guy was deputy to Mullah Omar and was pro talks. paksitan at once leaked his where about to CIA, and in a joint operation arrested him. thus ending the dialogue.

[Firdousi]

Diplomatic circles see Khalilzad behind Baradar’s release
- Newspaper - DAWN.COM

So I was right. There is something brewing.

[Firdousi]

who says this is a coincidence? this is a preliminary steps for peace talks, and t was one of the demand of karzai government that Pakistan should release senior taliban leader.
remember Pakistan put him in jail, when kabul government started reaching out to taliban, bypassing pakistan. the guy was deputy to Mullah Omar and was pro talks. paksitan at once leaked his where about to CIA, and in a joint operation arrested him. thus ending the dialogue.

Release of high Taliban officials makes absolutely no sense in "preliminary" talks. You lose your leverage. Its pretty obvious those talks have already passed that stage and some important and serious agreement has been reached.

[khushal]

It looking like preliminary: Baradar carries much weight with ordinary rank and file Taliban. You need all the senior guys to back it otherwise it wont work. The Times is saying Baradar is in Afghanistan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/taliban-5-freed-from-us-military-prison-now-in-qatar-office/2018/10/30/47cb8304-dc12-11e8-8bac-bfe01fcdc3a6_story.html?utm_term=.2eb53f345f27

Only agreement is that they will meet again. It wont work with the current constitution or the current Parliament. Rank and file wont accept or listen IMO.

[Insight]

No coincidences, its just that the US is giving up on their failed endeavor and MIC lackeys crys and screams are getting less attention.

Exactly, there is no other spin to this. This is why McCain hated Trump with regards to Afghanistan

[randolph85]

It was Karzai’s insistant that the brother be released because he was receptive to peace talks. A decade later, they gave “Khal” a worthless gift, a guy who has been out of the loop for a decade and probably only has some honorary status but not operational. Pakistan is not stupid, they would not just give up a formerly high profile person like that for no reason, the same way he wasn’t arrested for no reason initially.

[khushal]

It was Karzai’s insistant that the brother be released because he was receptive to peace talks. A decade later, they gave “Khal” a worthless gift, a guy who has been out of the loop for a decade and probably only has some honorary status but not operational. Pakistan is not stupid, they would not just give up a formerly high profile person like that for no reason, the same way he wasn’t arrested for no reason initially.

This was at the US urging not the Afghan gov. The US also intercepted TTP commander Latifullah Mehsud from Afghan gov and then handed him over to Paki. The CIA controls who gets freed and who doesn't. Guantanomo bay is closing up and the CIA would rather have these people in foreign gov hands like Paki, Saudi, or Egypt then GB or US soil(which would give people rights under US law) since the CIA has to answer to Congress who controls their purse.
US forces capture Pakistani Taliban commander | News | Al Jazeera

[randolph85]

This was at the US urging not the Afghan gov. The US also intercepted TTP commander Latifullah Mehsud from Afghan gov and then handed him over to Paki. The CIA controls who gets freed and who doesn't. Guantanomo bay is closing up and the CIA would rather have these people in foreign gov hands like Paki, Saudi, or Egypt then GB or US soil(which would give people rights under US law) since the CIA has to answer to Congress in some regard since Congress controls their purse.
US forces capture Pakistani Taliban commander | News | Al Jazeera

At the same you could say he Karzai govt couldn’t initiate negotiations with the Taliban without their blessings. It’s more realistic that Pakistan was acting like the spoiled child of US foreign policy and wanted to thwart any significant peace process that they were not in control of.

As for the article, I have always seen that time as the Afghan government trying to court the TTP, make them what the Afghan Taliban was to Pakistan but reversed. Karzai was rightfully enraged when the US military went over his head with the arrest. It would of been a good intelligence coup for the Afg govt if they could of gotten the TTP on board, but I am sure after that they wanted nothing to do with Afg intel.

[khushal]

The Afghan gov is mistaken to believe that they will ever be more important to US foreign policy than Paki.
The purpose of a client regime in Kabul is to contain Paki from central Asian ambitions, not for Kabul to have leverage over Paki and never for the two to cooperate in any way. Divide and influence policy.

[maneatinglizard]

Mullah Baradar Freed In Pakistan | TOLOnews

This are too many coincidences now. Key Taliban leaders are being freed. USA and the Taliban have reached some sort of agreement. I am sure in the coming weeks some new stuff will be disclosed.

There are rumors that Trump is going to announce a total withdrawal after the midterm elections:

The president, it’s said, wants to announce a timetable for a troop withdrawal after the November midterm elections, a drawdown that would begin in 2020.

Donald Trump’s Desire to ‘Get the Hell Out’ of Afghanistan Amid Taliban Gains Could Lead to Catastrophe

The US military and diplomatic institutions are trying hard to secure an agreement with the Taliban, because they know 100% of their leverage is gone if/when Trump announces the withdrawal.

I doubt they've already reached an agreement. Trump's administration is too leaky for something like that to happen without it being leaked out. Everything we've heard so far indicates the talks are still preliminary.

As for the article, I have always seen that time as the Afghan government trying to court the TTP, make them what the Afghan Taliban was to Pakistan but reversed. Karzai was rightfully enraged when the US military went over his head with the arrest. It would of been a good intelligence coup for the Afg govt if they could of gotten the TTP on board, but I am sure after that they wanted nothing to do with Afg intel.

The funny thing is Paki nationalist morons are still convinced to this day that the TTP works for the Afghan government, despite the fact that they're actually allied with the Afghan Taliban.

[maneatinglizard]

The Afghan gov is mistaken to believe that they will ever be more important to US foreign policy than Paki.
The purpose of a client regime in Kabul is to contain Paki from central Asian ambitions, not for Kabul to have leverage over Paki and never for the two to cooperate in any way. Divide and influence policy.

Pakistan has no ambitions in Central Asia aside from Afghanistan, and I think the US knows that.

Pakistan is obsessed with India and would completely ignore their western border if they weren't extremely afraid of the possibility of Afghanistan invading.

I don't think the US created a puppet regime in Afghanistan to keep Pakistan in line. I think they did it because they saw Afghanistan as one of the key focal points of Islamic Jihadi and revivalist movements, and see a victory in Afghanistan as a victory against all those groups.

[Admin Khan]

Pakistan has no ambitions in Central Asia aside from Afghanistan, and I think the US knows that.

Pakistan is obsessed with India and would completely ignore their western border if they weren't extremely afraid of the possibility of Afghanistan invading.

I don't think the US created a puppet regime in Afghanistan to keep Pakistan in line. I think they did it because they saw Afghanistan as one of the key focal points of Islamic Jihadi and revivalist movements, and see a victory in Afghanistan as a victory against all those groups.

Reasonable point. I always wondered if we exaggerate the importance of Central Asia; why can’t Pakistan circumvent Afghanistan altogether and take a relatively longer route for trade, or influence.