It looks like Britain’s new Prime Minister is the weak kneed leader we all thought he was. Agents from MI6 entered secret talks with Taliban leaders despite Gordon Brown’s pledge that Britain would not negotiate with terrorists.
Officers from the Secret Intelligence Service staged discussions, known as “jirgas”, with senior insurgents on several occasions over the summer. Readers might recall it was not long ago that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held “jirgas” with the same people in hopes that the Taliban would agree not to hang out with Al-Qaeda anymore. Of course they did agree, and of course they lied.
The Prime Minister had denied reports of talks with the Taliban under questioning from David Cameron, the Tory leader, in Parliament just 24 hours prior to the London Telegraph breaking the story.
The disclosure comes only a fortnight after the Prime Minister told the House of Commons: “We will not enter into any negotiations with these people.”
The Government was apparently prepared to admit that the talks had taken place but Gordon Brown was thought to have “bottled out” just before Prime Minister’s Questions on Dec 12, when he made his denial instead.
Not surprisingly the U.S. government is “extremely unhappy” that our closest ally has been trying to negotiate with terrorists who supported the September 11th attackers.
This is the kind of crap we have come to expect from some allies, but Britain is not one of them. Ironically, under the leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy, France has finally located it’s balls and is fast becoming our staunchest ally and a favorite of President Bush.
The idea that Islamic fanatics like the Taliban are ever going to live up to any agreement is absurd, and Britain knows better.
-Chris Jones
