One of the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban is Sufi Muhammad. He was jailed in 2001, but released in 2008 after promising not to return to the organisation. There must be something more to this story. If anyone has any additional information I'd be very interested in hearing it (looking your way, Farhad...)

Not british, aussie.
4 corners is a 60 min type show on Australia's ABC channel.

Ah, my bad.

Another consequence of Bush's ineptitude. We blaze into Afghanistan, drive the Taliban into the mountains, let them escape into Pakistan, install a corrupt government, then divert resources to Iraq, ensuring that both Afghanistan AND Pakistan are now threatened with dissolution. Nice! And it only cost a trillion dollars.

Moving this video to ElJardinero's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

"The pro-Taliban group — known as the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammedi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law — is led by Sufi Muhammad, who Pakistan freed from custody last year after he renounced violence.

Muhammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Swat Taliban. Muhammad, who has long agitated for Islamic law in the region, said that after the formal announcement he will go to Swat and ask Fazlullah and his men to lay down their arms."

Swat Taliban has said that they would lay down their arms if Islamic law is implemented in their regions. They would respect government control in the region as well. This is politicking to try and defuse the situation instead of continuous warfare. However I don't think its sustainable because it shows appeasement and not all forces would be willing to abide to this. At least not as far as I believe.

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I wouldn't necessarily blame this squarely on Bush, the Great Game in Afghanistan has been waged ever since the collapse of the Afghan government and the incursion of Soviet forces. The parties involved ranged from the CIA, the ISI, the Saudi Wahhabists, Iran and individual non allied forces from within Afghanistan and the surrounding Central Asian States.

The CIA pulled out once the Soviet forces collapsed, they had no end game for Afghanistan and thus stopped their activities there. However the CIA had used the ISI's extensive network in Afghanistan to achieve their aims of supporting the Mujaheddin. Once the nation splintered and several forces started fighting for control, the Taliban emerged and started a successful campaign against other forces, they were sponsored by the ISI and Saudi Wahhabists, many fighters came from the border region madrases that advocated religious war to implement extremist Islam in Afghanistan.

The ISI basically wanted to create a Pushtun government in Afghanistan that they would influence. However the Taliban didn't basically roll over and abide for anyone. Instead they started to charge the ISI large fees for transportation to Central Asian States, remember this is a valuable trade route it lies at the center between South East Asia and Central Asian States, war over the years meant the routes were unsafe.

The Taliban always wanted to be considered a legitimate government but were only ever recognized fully by Pakistan, their stringent rule, public executions and support and keeping of Osama Bin Laden was contrary to Western wishes. They went on to also destroy the large drug trade in Afghanistan, opium, heroine and hashish crops were wiped out.

Then 9/11 occurred and we all know what happened then.

However I believe in the ensuing war Taliban forces started to seep back into Pakistan and start to take over large swathes of land knowing that the sophisticated NATO and American forces have no legitimate power to confront them there. Creating a base from which to launch more attacks into Afghanistan and solidifying their own control in the FATA and influencing NWFT forces.

It's a classic case of blow back.

*beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter ElJardinero.

*beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter ElJardinero.