By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
A Taliban suicide bomber posing as a messenger of peace blew himself up near Afghanistan's newly appointed intelligence chief on Thursday, seriously wounding him, officials said.
Assailants gunned down a prominent anti-Taliban tribal leader as he was praying in a mosque Tuesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, authorities said, the latest in a steady campaign of assassinations of pro-government officials.
U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials this week have offered contradicting accounts about the purpose of the Taliban establishing an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
A decision by the Afghan Taliban to set up a liaison office in Qatar is the first concrete step in a decade by the militants toward a peace deal, but it shuts out a key negotiating partner — Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that if security concerns make it impossible to set up a Taliban political office in Afghanistan, then it should be established in another Islamic country, like Saudi Arabia, or in Turkey.
President Hamid Karzai received a resounding endorsement Saturday from a traditional national assembly to negotiate a security agreement that could keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan past 2014, when most international forces are to have left. The size of the force is subject to negotiations but a future deal could keep thousands of American troops here for years.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday demanded that Pakistan step up the fight against terrorists within its borders, delivering a blunt message that Pakistanis "must be part of the solution" to the ongoing conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan on Thursday warned Afghanistan to behave responsibly following Kabul's move to sign a strategic pact with Islamabad's archenemy, India, at a particularly sensitive time in relations between the two countries.
Asif Khan sits on a dirty, once-white blanket in an abandoned cinema and fights back tears of desperation.
Pakistan warned Afghanistan to behave responsibly Thursday following Kabul's move to sign a strategic pact with Islamabad's archenemy, India, at a particularly sensitive time in relations between the two countries.
Afghan intelligence officials said Wednesday that they had broken up a cell that plotted to kill President Hamid Karzai, arresting six people in Kabul who they claimed were affiliated with al Qaeda and the Haqqani militant group.
The assassination of Afghanistan's former president was plotted in Pakistan, the government said Sunday, increasing pressure on its neighbor that already is facing heat from the Obama administration about its ties to recent terrorist attacks.
The Afghan government needs to see Pakistan make "tangible progress" on pledges to use its influence to help end the Taliban insurgency, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who for years pushed for reconciliation with the Taliban, now says attempts to negotiate with the insurgent movement are futile and efforts at dialogue should focus instead on neighboring Pakistan.
An Afghan working for the U.S. government killed a CIA contractor and wounded another American in an attack on the intelligence agency's office in Kabul, officials said Monday, making it the latest in a series of high-profile attacks this month on U.S. targets.
In September, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who led the High Peace Council, was assassinated by a man who said he was a Taliban negotiator.
"People too soon saw how the foreigners behaved, doing night raids, checking homes with women inside and bombs killing innocent people and children," he said. "And now ... the Taliban are in government, in police. They are very strong today."
