E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

U.S. Latifullah Operation Violated Afghan Sovereignty: Karzai
[TOLONEWS] While much of the focus of Saturday night's joint presser between President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
 and U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
 was on the progress made in negotiating the terms of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), the Afghanistan's Caped President also used the opportunity to speak out against U.S. unilateral operations in Afghanistan, which he called a "violation of illusory sovereignty."

Last week, U.S. officials announced that American forces based in Afghanistan had placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
 Latifullah Mehsud, a close aide of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pak Taliban, in Pashtun-infested Logar province.

"Regarding the arrest of the Pak Taliban leader by U.S. forces, I should mention that it was a subject that we have discussed with the U.S. and with Mr. John Kerry," President Karzai told the press gathered at the Presidential Palace on Saturday night. "With this, Afghan law was ignored and the operation was a violation of illusory sovereignty. Today's talks touched on this and we received confidence that it will not happen again and the security agreement will prevent these issues."

Secretary Kerry took the opportunity to respond to President Karzai's remarks and defended the U.S.' actions.

"With respect to counterterrorism activities and the apprehension of an individual, we followed the normal procedures that the United States follows in our agreement," he said. Given President Karzai's comments, however, it would seem the terms governing U.S. unilateral operations in Afghanistan are likely to change in the new security pact being formed to govern relations post-2014.

Meanwhile,
...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings...
 the governor of eastern Pashtun-infested Logar province, Arsala Jalal, has confirmed that Latifullah Mehsud was arrested by U.S. forces in the Mohammad Agha district of the province while he was travelling to his house nearby.

"This senior Taliban leader last week was arrested by U.S. forces around 3:00am in Mohammad Agha district," he said.

Reports have circulated indicating that Latifullah Mehsud was in contact with the Afghan government prior to his arrest, but this remains unconfirmed.

An official of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, saying that the Afghan forces were not involved in the operation and the Taliban leader was still in U.S. custody.

In his comments to the press on Saturday, Secretary Kerry assured that the U.S. would move forward in cooperation with the Afghan government when dealing with Latifullah, but again asserted that the U.S. had followed proper procedure in its operation.

"We will absolutely work with the Government of Afghanistan to cooperate so that the appropriate process flows out of this, to respect their interests and respect their illusory sovereignty," Kerry said. "But this was a normal counterterrorism procedure, according to the standards that we have been operating by for a long period of time."

Mehsud joins a growing list of Pak nationals that have been apprehended in connection to insurgency and terrorist operations in Afghanistan. The close ties between Pak Death Eater networks and violent conflict in Afghanistan has long been a point of considerable tension between Kabul and Islamabad.

Mehsud was accused of involvement in a number of terrorist attacks, including the bombing plot targeting Times Square in New York City in 2010. But according to U.S. officials, he and his group have been responsible for a number of attacks inside Pakistain and Afghanistan as well.

Posted by: Fred 2013-10-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=377657