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Two Diplos Expelled from Afghanistan on USA's Orders
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
The Telegraph - Dec 30, 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/30/wafghan130.xml
Diplomats expelled 'at behest of the US'
By Eleanor Mayne
Two European diplomats accused of holding secret talks with the Taliban
in Afghanistan were thrown out of the country following a complaint by
the US, intelligence officials in Kabul have told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mervyn Patterson, who is British, and Irish-born Michael Semple were
flown out of Kabul on Thursday after the Afghan government accused them
of "threatening national security".
The pair had been working for the United Nations and the European Union
respectively.
But according to a senior Afghan intelligence source, American
officials had been unhappy about meetings between the men and
high-level Taliban commanders in the volatile Helmand province.
The source claimed that the US alerted Afghan authorities after
learning that the diplomats were providing direct financial and other
support - including mobile phone cards - to the Taliban commanders, in
the hope of persuading them to swap sides.
"This warning came from the Americans," he said. "They were not happy
with the support being provided to the Taliban. They gave the
information to our intelligence services, who ordered the arrests."
A government source in Kabul said there were close links between
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the US Central
Intelligence Agency, adding:
"The Afghan government would never have acted alone to expel officials
of such a senior level. This was information that was given to the NDS
by the Americans.
" These claims will reinforce perceptions of a rift between the US and
its international partners in Afghanistan, including Britain.
Last year, US commanders expressed frustration with the British
decision to withdraw from Musa Qala and allow tribal elders to strike a
deal with the Taliban, who quickly reoccupied the town.
The American embassy has strongly denied any involvement in the
incident involving the two diplomats, saying it had "no knowledge" of
their activities.
Afghan officials, speaking anonymously, have accused the men of giving
support to the Taliban in the form of money, food and phone cards for
10 months.
*
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