Stardate 20011004.0534 (On Screen): Things continue to deteriorate diplomatically for the Taliban. The US sent a classified document to Pakistan showing the evidence connecting Al Qaeda to the 9/11 attack, and
the Pakistani government says that the evidence is convincing. Now comes a revelation by the Taliban itself which should pretty much settle the question of negotiations: their ambassador to Pakistan (their sole remaining diplomatic representative outside Afghanistan itself) says that even if evidence of bin Laden's guilt was given to them and was convincing, they
still wouldn't hand him over. Rather, they'd try him themselves. I think even American pacifists would have to admit that this is not acceptable. It also reveals the emptiness of the Taliban's plea for negotiations, in as much as they never intended to negotiate in good faith. Neither did we.
We have a non-negotiable position and we've said so, and as a result we've refused to participate in negotiations. That's honest. The Taliban's position was equally non-negotiable, but they wanted negotiations anyway as a delaying tactic. That's lying. The Taliban cannot be trusted. The reason they want to see the evidence is twofold: finding out what we know will tell them what we don't know, and finding out what we know will indirectly tell them how we found out. They want to see the evidence so they can fix their security leaks. (discuss)
