The United States decided last week to blacklist the Pakistan-linked network as terrorists following a wave of attacks in Afghanistan. The fierce guerrilla group had once enjoyed US support as it battled Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
In a document released on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a State Department cable said that US officials met in May 1999 with the group's founder Jalaluddin Haqqani who was informally representing the Taliban regime.
In the meeting, a diplomat from the US embassy in Islamabad urged the Taliban to expel Osama bin Laden who was wanted over the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania three years before the September 11 atrocity.
The cable said that Haqqani insisted that the Taliban had placed "tight controls" on bin Laden and that the best solution for the United States may be for the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader to stay in Afghanistan.
Haqqani appealed for dialogue with the United States and voiced frustration over US pressure on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- US allies that with Pakistan were the only nations to recognise the Taliban government.
"Iran, China and Russia want to take over Afghanistan and run it for their gain," the cable quoted Haqqani as saying.
The "US and Saudi Arabia could help Afghanistan maintain its independence. Do not turn away from us anymore, but deal with us," he was quoted as saying.
The documents on the Haqqanis were released by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which obtained them through the Freedom of Information Act.
The 1999 cable said that Haqqani -- "stroking his black beard and adjusting his white turban" -- offered appreciation for US support against the Soviets but criticised the cruise missile strike ordered by president Bill Clinton after the embassy bombings.
A "hail and hearty" Haqqani started the talks with US diplomats "by darkly joking that it was 'good to meet someone from the country which destroyed my base, my madrassa and killed 25 of my mujahedin," the cable said, referring to Islamic schools and warriors.
Hearing Haqqani's remarks, his assistants "glared sullenly" at the US diplomats, the document said.
The cable did not specify the location of the meeting, although it appeared to take place somewhere in Pakistan. US officials often held Taliban meetings at the US embassy in Islamabad before the September 11 attacks.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, under pressure from Congress, last week agreed to declare the Haqqani network to be terrorists amid US outrage over a series of attacks attributed to the group including a hotel assault in June that killed 18 people and a siege last year of the US embassy in Kabul.
US officials had worried about the impact of relations with Pakistan. Admiral Mike Mullen said before stepping down last year as the head of the US military that the Haqqani network has become a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Another declassified US document described Haqqani as a military strategist and a comparative "social moderate" as his Zadran tribe of Pashtuns treated women more liberally than Pashtuns in Kandahar, the base of the Taliban whose 1996-2001 regime imposed draconian controls on women.
In the meeting with US diplomats, Haqqani hit back at the criticism of the Taliban. He was quoted as arguing: "Saudi Arabia, a friend of the US and Europe, treated women the same way as the Taliban."
Jalaluddin Haqqani is now in his 70s and frail and has passed on his seat on the Taliban leadership council to his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, who runs a fighting force of at least 2,000 men.
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To start with, Osama wasnt a taliban, but merely supported their cause financially through his high profile friends in saudi arabia. And they had placed “tight controls” on him till they were pressured by the US to hand him over, so they let him go. If we take in the whole picture, the US interest in Afghanistan is based on their oil depots and their strategic location on the map. So they apply the phrase "you're either with us, or against us" for their benefit.
@aslam: BAsically HAqani wanted the American gravy train to continue without being willing to hand over Osama. They thought they could use Osama as a negotiating card, just the way PAkistan currently thinks it can use Haqqanis. They were given a long rope - just as Pakistan has been given. Pakistan needs o to learn from their friends' experience.
As for all people who think Haqqanis are winning and US is losing ask yourself the question - Who is living in caves for last 11 years? - Is OBL alive? - HAs there been a single attack by a foreigner on US in the last 11 years? - Are US foreign policy goals being met? - Is there a better control and monitoring of funds to terror networks through the formal global financial systems?
In retrospect the most important message of that meeting was that the elder Haqqani asked the Americans, not to abandon them and stay engaged....after more than a trillion dollars on war expenditure, hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, fannung extremism and a totally polarized society in Pakistan besides a total economic meltdown,,,one is forced to believe that US policies in 99 and thereafter are the main reason for this CATASTROPHY,,,,
no comments..
Well they were either wrong or were just lying. I vote for lying.