WAR: U.S. Held Meetings With Taliban in 2000

William B. Milam, Ambassador to Pakistan, held a secret meeting with Taliban officials in September 2000. The Ambassador sought to reassure the Taliban that the U.S. was not out to destroy them, and the only obstacle to normal relations was Osama Bin Laden. Turning over Bin Laden would remove international sanctions and open the door to a relationship with the U.S.. This information has come from recently declassified documents.




I'm not surprised that a diplomatic attempt was made to get at Bin Laden. It would be remiss not to do so. What I did find interesting is a warning issued by Milam in June of 2001 in which he states that the U.S. would hold the Taliban responsible for any action taken by Bin Laden. While many will point to a pre planned invasion of Afghanistan, it seems that this was simply an attempt to turn up the heat on the Taliban in an effort to get Bin Laden.

I am sorry but this really isn't news...even then it was known that we were talking to them if only because of the caspian pipeway project...I always heard that it was decided it was cheaper to overthrow them than to cut em in on the deal.

I am sorry, but according to our president, the Taliban were just as much of a threat as OBL due to the specific form of islam they ALL practice.
Does it serve any purpose to make a deal with the demons to get rid of the devil?
another demon just takes his place (as has already happened)

and FYI we have met with them on several occasions...

The US planned to go into Afghanistan even before 9/11.

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before the attacks on 9/11.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

Mr Naik said US officials told him of the plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin.

Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
............
and FYI we have met with them on several occasions...

First, please provide a link for this.

Second, what were the reasons for these supposed meetings.

Third, what exactly are you trying to imply here? After we see a response to one and two perhaps we will see if you are right in your assumption.

[edit on 22-8-2005 by Muaddib]

Unocal was lobbying Congress to bomb Afghanistan long before 9-11 as they had backed out of a pipline deal. We were wineing and dining the the evil Taliban regime in Texas for months before that. We also turned down an offer from the Tabliban to extridite Bin Laden, it was the third of fourth offer of his extradition we turned down from various countries. All they wanted was some evidence that he was directly involved in the 9-11 attacks, evidence we said we had and would supply, and never did.
Oddly enough, right after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Opium trade skyrocketed. This is hardly news Fred, another case of the US making friends in the wrong places and then bombing the piss out of them when we don't get our way out of them.
We were planning to bomb and invade Afghanistan long before 9-11...Proof? Well ok...
THE US GOVERNMENT INFORMED OTHER NATIONS OF THE PLAN TO INVADE AFGHANISTAN MONTHS BEFORE THE ATTACKS ON THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS!
ist-socrates.berkeley.edu...
And don't forget the Enron Angle...

The truth about the Taliban is actually a sickening expose of American Coporations, and how they own and manipulate our forigen Policy. If The reason we are in Afghanistan was Bin Laden, then why were they planning an invasion months prior to 9-11? Wake up people. Osama Bin Laden was being treated in an American Hospital and meeting with CIA agents in Dubai just a few weeks before 9-11, now does that make you wonder why we would be giving the most wanted terrorist in the world medical treatment and sending CIA agents to meet with him?

Originally posted by Muaddib
First, please provide a link for this.

Sorry to step into a conversation but I believe this is what he was refering to Muaddib.

BBC: Taleban in Texas For Talks on Gas Pipeline

Originally posted by Muaddib
Second, what were the reasons for these supposed meetings.

Quoted from the above link
A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan is in the United States for talks with an international energy company that wants to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan.

A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to spend several days at the company's headquarters in Sugarland, Texas.

Unocal says it has agreements both with Turkmenistan to sell its gas and with Pakistan to buy it.

Originally posted by Muaddib
Third, what exactly are you trying to imply here? After we see a response to one and two perhaps we will see if you are right in your assumption.

Well I dont know what the poster was implying, but what I'd be implying is that Cheney was severely undermined by his company making deals with the devil, so to speak.

[edit on 23/8/05 by subz]

I recently have been reading a book on Afghanistan entitled:

"Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx, and Muhajideen" by Ralph Magnus and Eden Naby.

The term "taliban" refers to a student in an Islamic madrasa.

The original motivations of the Taliban organization were merely to unify the many fractioned ethnic groups in Afghanistan (sources all from this book).


Majority group (Muslim allegiance):

Pushtun at 7 million (Sunni)


Others:

Tajik at 5 (Sunni)

Hazara 0.9 (Shi'a)

Uzbek 1 (Sunni)

Turkmen 0.15 (Sunni)

Nuristani 0.1 (Sunni)


Each ethnic group has been pushed and pulled in many directions both by internal conflicts and external conflicts, from Russia-British rivarly over Pakistan to Cold War rivarly of the US and Russia, to rivarlies with neighboring countries such as Iran, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.


The only thing they are ever in agreement with is about their Sunni dominated Islamic beliefs.


Allegiances with the Pakistani ISI organization and Bin Laden (and another gangster named Daewood Ibrahim, see also "The Most Dangerous Man in the World" by Gilbert King), created a dangerous situation for US interests.

Although there was an opportunity where the Taliban actually came to the US and told us that they would be willing to take out Bin Laden we did not take this opportunity. Early in the Taliban regime, Mullah Omar was seen as a hero to some of the locals, standing up to lawlessness, but the eventual unfortunate alliance led to the destruction of the US led bombing raids of post 9/11 coupled with Pushtun led rebellions against previously Taliban held interests. Mullah Omar was then added to the most wanted list.