Obama endorses embassy for Taliban in Qatar as part of basis for peace talks-UK Times and earlier Wash. Post

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The likelihood of a US-approved Taliban political office in Qatar was reported by the Washington Post 5/16/11. Today's report is from UK Times.

9/12/11, "US backs 'embassy' for the Taleban," Times UK, by Catherine Philp and Jerome Starkey

"America has given its blessing for the Taleban to be brought in from the cold with a critical step towards reconciliation

• as the world paused to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The Times has learnt that Washington has endorsed plans for the Islamist network"

"to open political headquarters in the gulf state of Qatar by the end of the year. The move has been devised

• so that the West can begin formal peace talks with the Taleban."...

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An additional sentence from The Obama Report blog: "Hopes of an eventual truce came as President Obama and George Bush attended a memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, where relatives read the names of the 2,977 victims of the al-Qaeda attacks."...This sentence appears to be from the UK Times 9/12/11 article.
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The Qatar political office idea was reported in May 2011 by the Wash. Post:

May 16, 2011, "U.S. speeds up direct talks with Taliban," Washington Post, Karen DeYoung

"The Taliban has made clear its preference for direct negotiations with the Americans and has proposed establishing a formal political office, with Qatar under consideration as a venue, according to U.S. officials....

During a Feb. 18 speech, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States and the Afghan government

• would no longer insist on a public break between the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda as a precondition for talks....

The Taliban has transmitted its own list of demands, most of them long-standing, another official said. They include the release of up to 20 fighters detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — eight of whom are thought to be designated “high value” by the United States and two of whom have been designated for trials by military commissions — withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan, and a comprehensive guarantee of a substantive Taliban role in the Afghan government.

The Taliban proposal of a formal office has raised two immediate questions, one U.S. official said. “One, where is it? Second, what do you call it?...

“If the Afghans want it in Kabul, that’s okay,” the official said. “If they would support it in Qatar, that’s fine.”"...

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The first few lines were available on the front page of the Times website when I went there. The next couple of lines and the names of the authors were from the poster at Lucianne. Same snippet also here. Additional sentence here. US taxpayers donate $6 billion a month to the Afghanistan "war."

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7/25/11, "U.S. trucking funds end up in Taliban hands," Reuters

"The United States is spending more than $6 billion a month in the conflict."...

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8/19/11, "The Secret Alliance," New Republic, Vanessa M. Gezari, "A strange conspiracy theory takes hold in Afghanistan"

“There are times when I think the U.S. and the Taliban are working together,” he said."... (subscription for remainder of article)



UK Times article via Lucianne, Washington Post article via The Obama Report blog