What is this?

This Independent story seems slanted, but the importance to my reading is that the British are secretly negotiating with the Taleban in Helmand around the Karzai government in order to build a sympathetic militia, similar to the US efforts in Iraq.

I think it's also telling of Karzai's weakness that his only response is to publicize this. There's really nothing else he can do.

(And what does it say that the effort is no longer to build the Afghani forces?)

Also, despite claims by a NATO spokesman that the Taleban is "contained," McClatchy has an update,

Islamic insurgents are expanding their numbers and reach in Afghanistan and Pakistan, spreading violence and disarray over a vast cross-border zone where al Qaida has rebuilt the sanctuary it lost when the United States invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

There is little in the short term that the Bush administration or its allies can do to halt the bloodshed, which is spreading toward Pakistan's heartland and threatening to destabilize the U.S.-backed governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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