U.S. Secretary of State makes unannounced visit to Kabul for talks with Karzai

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to advance negotiations with President Hamid Karzai on a bilateral security pact which have hit a wall over two issues that have become deal breakers for the Afghan government.

The United States says it wants the deal done by the end of October, while Karzai has declared it can wait until after presidential elections in April next year, further straining what has become a rocky relationship between the allies.

U.S. officials, speaking en route to Kabul, said Kerry's visit was not intended to close a deal on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA).

"This is really about us building momentum for the negotiators and helping establish conditions for success of the negotiations going forward," a senior State Department official told reporters.

The deal will determine the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after most are withdrawn in 2014 and a failure to reach an agreement could prompt Washington to pull out all forces, an outcome known as the "zero option".

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/11/us-usa-afghanistan-kerry-idUSBRE99A0CL20131011

[Blue_Tires]

1. In a sane world, Kerry would be demanding that reptilian fuck return the millions he stole from us

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/karzai-cia-money/

[Demeter]

2. In a sane world, Americans would be in the streets demanding an end to the whole thing

[Blue_Tires]

3. Yeah, that too

I'm missing the forest for the trees

[blm]

7. I think the end is nearing.....

and, I don't mean 'end' in the Michelle Bachmann way. ; )

[awoke_in_2003]

11. In a sane world...

we wouldn't have jumped feet first into the Graveyard of Empires.

[blm]

4. He's been fearless in taking the biggest problems head on.

Imagine if Bill Clinton had shown the foresight and the humility to tap John Kerry as Sec of State after Warren Christopher. The global terror networks and the governing officials around the world funding them would have been tackled first and exposed before they had the chance to grow and spread.

This would be a very different world with far more global progress, far more trust amongst nations.

[Beacool]

5. Yeah, imagine that.

All foreign problems would be solved if he had been SOS in the 90s. Just who sets foreign policy anyway? The president that's who.

[blm]

6. So a Sec of State with vast knowledge of foreign policy has no influence

Last edited Fri Oct 11, 2013, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)

on a president's foreign policy? Are you certain of that?

Perhaps you weren't aware of the rise in global terror networks in the 80s and 90s and who were the international financiers and government officials deliberately funding the global terror networks, Beacool. Kerry was FULLY aware....and Bill Clinton knew it. He should have shown the guts to ignore Poppy Bush and tap Kerry for Sec of State after Christopher resigned. Yes - this world would be a far better place today with the extent of the global terror networks exposed, defunded, and significantly interrupted in the last 4 years of Clinton's presidency.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

Follow the Money

How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.
All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge.
>>>>>>>>

[Beacool]

8. I have no issue with Kerry.

I voted for him in 2004 in both the primaries and the G.E. What I object to is you constantly finding a way to bash the Clintons, even when the thread is not about them.

How do you even know whether Kerry wanted to be SOS back in the 90s?

[blm]

9. Doesn't matter if he wanted to - no one in the country knew more about

the global issues that would be confronting this nation and Kerry had already proved to be an able diplomat when he pretty much single-handedly handled the normalization of ties with Vietnam, especially when McCain cracked half-way through. Of course, Clinton singled out McCain in his book as the one who pulled it off, completely minimizing Kerry's role.

Ad you really need to wonder why, Beacool? In the past you excused Clintons' undermining of Kerry in the 2004 election as appropriate because they deserved to protect to own their plans for the future. In my view this nation needed Kerry to replace Bush in 2005. Country FIRST.

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. Let us hope no agreement is reached, and ALL the US and NATO troops come home.

We can live without an imperial war machine in place in the middle of Southwest Asia.