With Release of Prisoners, Afghan Leader Again Defies U.S. Wishes

[DonViejo]

Source: New York Times

By MATTHEW ROSENBERGJAN. 9, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Thursday ordered the release of dozens of prisoners accused of having American blood on their hands, saying there was not enough evidence to hold them and intensifying his showdown with Obama administration officials after weeks of warnings that he risked losing American troop support.

The move threatened to plunge relations to a new state of crisis even as a broader, long-term security agreement between the two countries has been held up for weeks. American officials have said that the prisoners were dangerous Taliban militants and that releasing them without a trial would violate an agreement on detainees last year..

The prisoner deal was considered a cornerstone of the security pact, known as the bilateral security agreement, which would allow for a continued American troop presence and aid past 2014.

Still, just a week after some American officials insisted that such a prisoner release would prove that Mr. Karzai could not be trusted to honor a security deal, the initial American response on Thursday was cautious. Officials were critical of the release, but also careful to say that the move would not harm the security deal and that they were still trying to get a full accounting for the decision.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/world/asia/afghanistan-to-free-prisoners.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

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[Comrade Grumpy]

1. He's a real card, that Karzai. Driving Americans crazy from the beginning.

[mtasselin]

2. out

Lets get the hell out of there now, not next year, month or week but now.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Hey, thanks, Bob Gates, for not being able to STFU:

"Mr. Karzai was also said to be upset over the reported revelations in a new memoir by the former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates about Mr. Obama’s apparent dislike of the Afghan leader and his lack of faith in the American war effort here." When we totally withdraw, we can blame Gates for when it all falls apart--which we should do anyway.

[another_liberal]

4. Time to leave.

How many more hints do we need?

Let the Afghans run Afghanistan. It is, after all, on the other side of the fucking World from us!

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. the NYTimes always gets so rightously indignent whenever somebody in the world "defies US wishes"

That said, I'm not quite sure what Karzai's plan is. The Taliban more or less correctly view his government to be unpardonable agents of the occupation forces, so I'm not sure precisely what he has to gain by releasing some of their fighters. I don't think there's any favour to be obtained by courting the more hardline commanders that run the movement after the seizure of Mullah Baradar a few years ago (--he has since been released, and apparently remains a more conciliatory commander, but has considerably less influence after his detention).

That is assuming that the NYT and unnamed "American officials" correctly identified the affiliation of the militants in question. Some of the other resistance factions have indicated less implacable hostility to the present government--Hekmatyar and other nationalist forces, for example--, directing their efforts primarily against the US/NATO occupation forces and Afghan soldiers that directly collaborate with the enemy. Perhaps Karzai hopes for some alliance with these factions in place of apparently crumbling relations with the occupation forces?

Or there is the more likely scenario, that the US and Karzai (as a loyal lackey) are just putting on a show for all of the above and it's more or less 'business as usual' going on as always.