http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/revealed-british-plan-to-build-training...
Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in
Afghanistan
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Monday, 4 February 2008
Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in
southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides,
intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a
memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.
The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the
Taliban without permission from the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, despite
Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain will not negotiate. The Prime Minister
told Parliament on 12 December: "Our objective is to defeat the insurgency
by isolating and eliminating their leaders. We will not enter into any
negotiations with these people."
The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr
Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a
plot to buy-off the insurgents.