Afghan Taliban ♥ Pakistan, Haqqanis

The Afghan Taliban issued an official statement today addressing the recent US accusations that Pakistan supports the Haqqani Network. The statement was published on the Voice of Jihad; I’ve republished it here in full as the website is often taken down or the URL is switched. There are plenty of interesting tibits in here, but the two main takeaways are:

1) The deferential, even subservient tone taken by the Taliban toward Pakistan. In fact, the statement can be read as a defense of Pakistan.

2) The Taliban’s insistence that the Haqqani Network is a part of the Taliban, and the reiteration that Jalaluddin Haqqani sits on the Taliban’s executive council. This is a message that has been pushed for years by both the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban. For more information on the subject of the Haqqanis’ relationship with the Taliban, see Threat Matrix post, ISAF spokesman bungles Haqqani Network’s relationship with the Taliban.

The full text of the Taliban statement is below:

Statement of Islamic Emirate regarding the recent American accusations

With the uptick in the thunderous strikes by the Mujahideen Islamic Emirate, the American officials have once again embarked on a mission in a confused and puzzled state to keep the ordinary minds busy in order to temporarily hide or explain their ignominious defeat. In this connection they want to attribute the decisive and staggering attacks by Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate to the neighboring country of Pakistan and similarly want to depict disunity in the ranks of Islamic Emirate, from which it desires to gain the following:

  1. America wants to depict the strength of Islamic Emirate as feeble and attribute its attacks to others.
  2. Due to American officials and especially General Petreaus repeatedly lying and feeding wrong information to its nation about them having the upper hand in the Afghan situation, now that these false claims are unraveling, it has compelled them to suggest an intervention from Pakistan. This is because they have supposedly weakened the Afghan resistance so these new attacks are from Pakistan’s intervention!?
  3. This years operation by Islamic Emirate christened as ‘Badr’ have been so successful that a lot of the members from the occupying coalition forces have reached a conclusion that they cannot win this war and are contemplating removing their forces as swiftly as possible and in this regard are also facing pressure form their people. So America wants to show them that the internal situation of Afghanistan is under control and this current resistance is being supported by Pakistan hence if they put pressure on Pakistan and stop this intervention then the situation will come under control and in this way they also want to deceive the members in its coalition for a bit longer.
  4. America, through its lies wants to spread the mentality that one of Jihad’s prominent personalities and a member of Islamic Emirate’s Leadership Council, Al Hajj Maulawi Jalaluddin Haqqani is a separate force and is tied to others. On the one hand, they want to show Mujahideen as disunified and on the other; they want to give a bad name to our prominent figures by tying them to foreign intelligence.
  5. America wants to spread chaos in Pakistan through various means, weaken its government and make it dependent upon them. That is why it is trying to make this government collide with its citizens and with this excuse, make them fight each other to show that there is what they like to call terrorist sanctuaries there.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again wants to propagate to the world that Islamic Emirate is at its strongest and unified more than it has been at any other stage. It is also enjoying the vast support and backing of its nation and has control over more than half the regions of Afghanistan. Neither are our bases in Pakistan nor do we need residence outside of our country in uncertain conditions. All the military and civilian activities in the country are our own initiatives and our own actions. The respected Maulawi Jalaluddin Haqqani is Islamic Emirate’s honorable and dignified personalities and receives all guidance for operations from the leader of Islamic Emirate.

In our view, instead of baseless accusations, more casualties and a constant attempt to conceal losses and failures, it would be better for America and her allies to put an end to the occupation of Afghanistan as quickly as possible and do now what must inevitably be done.

Regarding the ongoing situation we must tell our Believing and Mujahid Afghan nation that they should not lend an ear to the enemy’s baseless accusations and propaganda. Like how the nation already knows that against the American idol, our nearing victory Jihad is a pure Islamic and national Jihad just like the rest of our struggle for independence. Attributing it to others are only satanic designs and a maneuver to bring about a climate of mistrust. Our nation which is not indebt to anyone in our struggle for independence except for Allah’s divine victory should be proud of its independent leaders and gallant Mujahideen and should strengthen them even more with their lives and wealth.

Our advice to the people of Pakistan and its government is that it should deliberate on America’s two faced and implacable politics. It should always give precedence to its Islamic and National interests and they should have a firm belief that America will never be happy with them until they loot all their material and moral assets.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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11 Comments

  • jack says:

    The full text of the Taliban statement…..Yeh!….Its the text, as dictated by ISI(Pakistan army) to the Haqqanis,Afghan Taliban!
    Pakistan army is getting billions of dollars from USA for the war on terror,how on earth would Pakistan army ever want this war on terror to stop,how on earth would Pakistan army dry up the inflow of this easy billion dollars from USA!
    It’s in the Pakistan army’s interest to keep this war alive for eternity!
    USA sleeps with an ally;”Actually,USA is sleeping with it’s enemy”….the writing on the wall is so clear that the real enemy of the USA is ‘Rogue Pakistan army(ISI)”….But, the USA is foolish in thinking that this enemy would one day become an ally!
    The ISI(Pakistan army) is blackmailing USA by holding its war supply routes,running terror camps,double crossing CIA and finally nuclear missiles!
    Yes, the country which is the exporter of terrorism and an islamic state has weapons of mass destruction.It says to USA that if the country collapses,these weapons would go to the hands of terrorists…..well’ this thought is enough to give USA sleepless nights, and USA keeps supporting the Pakistan army inspite and despite knowing that Pakistan army generals take the US tax payer for a ride!!!

  • Paul D says:

    Written by the Pak army/ISI?

  • mike merlo says:

    Interesting article. I like the ‘heart.’ I wonder how long before the Pathans/Taliban of Pakistan & the pan-Islamist’s cooperating with them reach ‘critical mass’ & complete their secessionist efforts vis-a-vis Pakistan & declare themselves a sovereign entity.

  • gudien says:

    Pakistan military government will swallow Afghanistan whole once their agents, the Taliban, are sitting in Kabul.
    Having lost the eastern half of their country (Bengaladesh) to the Indian military in 1971 the Pakistani government is replacing lost territory with new lands to their west (Afghanistan).

  • Charles says:

    So declare the ISI a rogue organization so as to bring international legal and financial sanctions against it. Sure lots of Pakistani officials wear many hats–including the ISI hat. But it would be good to let them know that the ISI hat is poison.
    Right now the ISI is given every incentive to wage war with the USA–by the USA itself. Its profitable to wage war on the USA. The Pakistanis wage war with the USA by way of the Haqqani network. The Pakistanis bear no costs themselves. Hey the USA likely pays more money into ISI and Taliban coffers than the Saudis and the UAE by way of military aid, bribes to let trucks run to afghanistan–plus reconstruction kickbacks within Afghanistan.
    Peace with the USA would be unprofitable.
    Its a win win for the Pakistanis. Why? Continued War means more profits for the ISI at no cost to them. But if peace comes it would still be profitable. If the US pulls out then of course the ISI still wins. they go into the mining business–in Afghanistan–or they charge the Chinese for their afghan mining franchises. Who would stop them from doing so? The Chinese?
    Declaring ISI a rogue organization might not change Pakistani behavior but it would raise their costs of doing business.

  • Mr T says:

    we must tell our Believing and Mujahid Afghan nation that they should not lend an ear to their leaders baseless accusations and propaganda but should look for peaceful nonviolent means to attain their goals.
    After all, more Muslims dying than ever before does not mean strength and unity. It means Muslims are dying in large numbers which should not be good news for any Muslim. Our plan is not working.

  • Ben says:

    As against allegations that ISI has contacts with Haqqani Network fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan, RAW has contacts with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighting Pakistani state in Swat, South Waziristan and elsewhere in the tribal region. RAW is many steps ahead of ISI in this respect. It is fanning and fuelling insurgency in Balochistan and FATA and is funding and actually equipping TTP and Baloch insurgents. Some target-killers arrested in recent Karachi unrest confessed to have received training from RAW. No wonder, some call Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan as Tehreek-e-RAWliban Pakistan. Some pundits argue that Haqqani network, based in North Waziristan, has never attacked an official target in Pakistan – further evidence of its collusive relationship with that country’s security services. When their struggle is focused on fighting foreign occupation forces and their collaborators including India, why should they insist the network attack Pakistan which has no role in Kabul? By this flawed logic, TTP fighting Pakistan and having killed 35000 civilians and 3000 security personnel provide collusive relationship with RAW and CIA. And mind you, this fight is taking place right inside Pakistan. By all definitions, TTP and Baloch insurgency is proxy war being fought by RAW inside Pakistan. Major objectives of this proxy war are keeping Pakistan away from Afghanistan to give India decisive role in Kabul, keeping China away from Gwadar-China energy corridor and depriving Pakistan from natural resources of Afghanistan. Read more at: http://pksecurity.blogspot.com/2011/09/pakistan-bashing-prelude-to-deliver.html

  • villiger says:

    Ben, i sincerely hope you’re right about all that RAW activity in Pakistan, especially with regard to the Baloch and FATA insurgencies. The Baloch and Pashtun peoples deserve their own nation and freedom from the trigger-happy, self-serving Punjabis.
    As far as the civilian casualties are concerned, its’ people like you who could care less about it. Your security apparatus is seriously over-rated, chickening out and failing every test–and the results are the sad proof of that distasteful pudding.

  • Raven says:

    Ben:
    I your raw analysis, you forgot to add zionist, Israelis to the list…
    I feel incomplete without seeing all three (CIA, Mossad and RAW). Please, complete your list and prove how broad your thinking is.
    Just saying.

  • Jack Walker says:

    Ben,
    Your ISI handler just called. You need to check in with him immediately.

  • Anonymous says:

    To all American supporters of this war , stop being such a bunch of cry babies. How many despots , dictators etc has America supported and continues to support for it’s own
    interests? Self interest is what all countries pursue. If Pakistan is doing the same at Americas expense why are they crying ? It’s just that they are not used to being given a taste of their own medecine. I am afraid they have to face the facts and understand that regional countries such as Pakistan , Iran and especially China don’t want them around. Pakistan has to live with Afghanistan as their Neighbour for ever and they will do anything it takes to ensure that any government is not hostile to them. It’s common sense . No country wants to be surrounded by hostile Neighbours. Secondly I suppose the Chinese will be quite interested in seeing the Americans leave their sphere of influence and if a Pak friendly government is ruling Afghanistan they may benefit on terms of access to resources.The Iranians also obviously don’t Want a permanent US presence on their borders.

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