U.S. Reviewing Taliban Links with Al-Qaeda

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed that the U.S. is reviewing the links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, shortly after the former organization issued a statement seemingly attempting to distance itself from the latter.

Whilst emphasizing that there are no plans for a change in overall strategy and that the goal is still "disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida and its extremist allies" Ms Clinton, who the Guardian reports was speaking to BBC Radio 4, conceded that "Not everyone who calls himself a Taliban is necessarily a threat to the UK or the US". The Los Angeles Times also reported in recent days that the Obama administration is looking at concentrating the efforts of the military more on destroying al-Qaeda , whose leadership is allegedly based in Pakistan rather than Afghanistan and whose operatives are active along the Afghan-Pakistani border, and less on fighting the Taliban. Such a shift in strategy is seen as a possible way to avoid supplying the extra troops that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has requested. However U.S. officials appear anxious to ensure that any shift in strategy is not interpreted as a willingness to allow the Taliban to regain power in Afghanistan, one official having supposedly said of the organization that governed the Afghan nation between 1996 and 2001:

Are they violent adversaries? Yes. And we would not tolerate their return to power as they were before 9/11

And Bruce Riedel, a member of the CIA who helped the Obama administration shape its current strategy with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has warned against thinking that chooses to separate the Taliban from al-Qaeda, saying that it is a "fundamental misreading of the nature of these organizations to think that they are anything other than partners" and that "al-Qaeda is embedded in the Taliban insurgency, and it's highly unlikely that you're going to be able to separate them". Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman, expressed a similar opinion when he said:

The Taliban hosted and encouraged al-Qaeda. And the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the idea for them -- was hatched in the Taliban-run Afghanistan. So I think that we do see the Taliban as a threat to U.S. security for that reason

Nevertheless Ms Clinton asserted that the U.S. had learned from the conflict in Iraq that those involved in the fighting may not be there by choice, but rather had been "coerced or intimidated". She related the lessons learned in Iraq to the situation in Afghanistan and said:

There may well be a number of people currently who are considered Taliban who are there, frankly, because they get paid to fight or because they see no alternative

The Taliban apparently wishes to portray itself as a movement whose only interests are Afghanistan and Pakistan, in contrast to what the Los Angeles Times says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has called the "global, transnational, jihadist" agenda of al-Qaeda. Indeed the Taliban issued a statement in English, via a website, last week which read:

We did not have any agenda to harm other countries, including Europe, nor do we have such agenda today. Still, if you want to turn the country of the proud and pious Afghans into a colony, then know that we have an unwavering determination and have braced for a prolonged war

With growing doubts in the U.S., amongst politicians and the public alike, as to the value of the country's presence in Afghanistan, and considerable skepticism regarding the manner in which the recent Afghan elections were conducted, officials at times seem divided and unsure of how exactly to proceed. Ms Clinton acknowledged during her interview with the BBC that the relationship with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai did require some realignment and indicated again the rethink that is underway in Washington when she noted:

You should never doubt our commitment or our leadership. We will not rest until we do defeat al-Qaeda, but we want to be smart about how we are proceeding