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| Afghanistan |
| Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan |
| 2008-02-04 |
| Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December. The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taliban without permission from the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, despite Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain will not negotiate. The Prime Minister told Parliament on 12 December: "Our objective is to defeat the insurgency by isolating and eliminating their leaders. We will not enter into any negotiations with these people." The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents. The row was the first in a series of spectacular diplomatic spats which has seen Anglo-Afghan relations sink to a new low. Since December, President Karzai has blocked the appointment of Paddy Ashdown to the top UN job in Kabul and he has blamed British troops for losing control of Helmand. It has also soured relations between Kabul and Washington, where State Department officials were instrumental in pushing Lord Ashdown for the UN role. President Karzai's political mentor, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, endorsed a death sentence for blasphemy on the student journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh last week, and two British contractors have been arrested in Kabul on, it is claimed, trumped up weapons charges. The developments are seen as a deliberate defiance of the British. An Afghan government source said the training camp was part of a British plan to use bands of reconciled Taliban, called Community Defence Volunteers, to fight the remaining insurgents. "The camp would provide military training for 1,800 ordinary Taliban fighters and 200 low-level commanders," he said. The computer memory stick at the centre of the row was impounded by officers from Afghanistan's KGB-trained National Directorate of Security after they moved against a party of international diplomats who were visiting Helmand. A ministry insider said: "When they were arrested, the British said the Ministry of the Interior and the National Security Council knew about it, but no one knew anything. That's why the President was so angry." Details of how much President Karzai was told remain murky. Some analysts believe Afghan officials were briefed about the plan, but that it later evolved. The camp was due to be built outside Musa Qala, in Helmand. It was part of a package of reconstruction and development incentives designed to win trust and support in the aftermath of the British-led battle to retake the stronghold last year. But the Afghans feared the British were training a militia with no loyalty to the central government. Intercepted Taliban communications suggested they thought the British were trying to help them, the Afghan official said. The Western delegates, Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson, were given 48 hours to leave the country. Their Afghan colleagues, including a former army general, were jailed. The expulsions coincided with a row within the Taliban's ranks which saw a senior commander, Mansoor Dadullah, sacked for talking to British spies. One official claimed the camp was planned for Mansoor and his men. The computer stick contained a three-stage plan, called the European Union Peace Building Programme. The third stage covered military training. Curiously, the European Union says the programme did not exist and there were no EU funds to run it. Afghan government officials insist it was bankrolled by the British. UK diplomats, the UN, Western officials and senior Afghan officials have all confirmed the outline of the plan, which they agree is entirely British-led, but all refused to talk about it on the record. President Karzai's office claimed it was "a matter of national security". The memory stick revealed that $125,000 (£64,000) had been spent on preparing the camp and a further $200,000 was earmarked to run it in 2008, an Afghan official said. The figures sparked allegations that British agents were paying the Taliban. President Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, accused Mr Semple and Mr Patterson of being "involved in some activities that were not their jobs." The camp would also have provided vocational training, including farming and irrigation techniques, to offer people a viable alternative to growing opium. But the Afghan government took issue with plans to provide military training, to turn the insurgents into a defence force. Afghan government staff also claimed the "EU peace-builders" had handed over mobile phones, laptops and airtime credit to insurgents. They said the memory stick revealed plans to train the Taliban to use secure satellite phones, so they could communicate directly with UK officials. Mr Patterson, a Briton, was the third-ranking UN diplomat when he was held. Mr Semple, an Irishman, was the acting head of the EU mission. Officially, the British embassy remains tight-lipped, fuelling speculation that the plan may have been part of a wider clandestine operation. A spokesman repeated the line used since Christmas: "The EU and UN have responded to inquiries on this. We have nothing further to add." But privately, the UN maintains it had no role in setting up the camp. Meanwhile, Mr Semple's EU boss, Francesc Vendrell, admitted he had very little idea what was going on. Yet the British ambassador, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, cut short his Christmas holiday to meet President Karzai and "spell out the Foreign Office paper-trail" which diplomats claim proves his government had agreed. They met twice, but it was not enough to stop Mr Semple and Mr Patterson being forced to leave. Gordon Brown has also said Britain would increase its support for "community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families modelled on traditional Afghan arbakai". |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #14 There are myriad instances in world military history where opposing camps offered benefits to enemy warriors-soldiers in order to promote an agenda, weaken or destroy an enemy = enemy advantage, or just to stop or win a specific battle, etc. NEITHER BRITAIN NOR AMERICA WERE THE FIRST, AND WON'T BE THE LAST. E.G AMERICA DID IT IN KOREA AND VIETNAM vv NVA-VC, SO DID THE COMMIES. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-02-04 17:03 |
| #13 that was funny allan |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-02-04 16:23 |
| #12 2x4, not to mention that they had a freakin' empire and were the biggest dog around. Now? I think any VFW post could take the UK without removing the cement from their cannon. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-02-04 14:53 |
| #11 Steve, it worked in the past because there was no multi-cult paradigm then. They knew what they were doing--simply an utilitarian-pragmatic approach. Does not apply nowadays. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2008-02-04 14:35 |
| #10 Brit foreign policy in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has traditionally been to split and co-opt the opposition. We're looking at 500 years of experience at work. Not saying this particular one is good or bad, but I think I understand where it came from. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-02-04 13:51 |
| #9 ..Think it was Citizen Soldiers by Ambrose - Patton's army trying to get into Germany, somthing about a castle. Any rate, that would have made a great ploy by the British in this case, in my world (except add sleeping gas exposures to go in and capture, next day other ticklebums would be hey what a great thing to capture, repeat etc.). |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-02-04 12:40 |
| #8 Maybe the Battle of Monte Cassino? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-02-04 12:19 |
| #7 Isn't there a story from WWII about Germans holding a series of bunkers around a castle - put up a good enough fight then retreated. When the Allied soldiers moved into the bunkers they were wired with explosives and zeroed by artillary? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-02-04 11:27 |
| #6 There is a decades old core group of Islamophile and Arabophile mandarins in the Foreign Office responsible for this. Then they would be the traitors I'm referring to. They need to go, I'd prefer it be the high jump for them. |
| Posted by: Graviling Dark Lord of the Welsh1001 2008-02-04 10:12 |
| #5 It is not just the socialists. There is a decades old core group of Islamophile and Arabophile mandarins in the Foreign Office responsible for this. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-02-04 09:15 |
| #4 The Brits have been "the enemy" for a while now. Elements of the British Government are certainly amongst the enemy. But I don't think that Britain as a whole is the enemy. There are plenty of Brits that are appalled by the actions of their Soci@list Government. I'm wondering just how long it is before the Armed Forces launches a coup, and drags the scurvy dogs in Parliament outside and puts them to the sword. It is overdue. First the traitors, then the enemy! |
| Posted by: Graviling Dark Lord of the Welsh1001 2008-02-04 08:57 |
| #3 Intercepted Taliban communications suggested they thought the British were trying to help them Well, ya. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2008-02-04 08:03 |
| #2 Why does it not surprise me that the State Department is also involved in this little scheme? |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-02-04 07:52 |
| #1 The Brits have been "the enemy" for a while now. Talk of how to "salvage" the Atlantic Alliance is just so much logorrhea... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-02-04 07:34 |