Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
on Thursday said Washington should respect his country's judicial authority after the release of 65 alleged Taliban fighters triggered U.S. condemnation.
"Afghanistan is a sovereign country. If the Afghan judicial authorities decide to release the prisoners, it is of no concern to the U.S. and should be of no concern to the U.S.," Karzai told news hounds in Ankara.
"I hope that the United States will stop harassing Afghanistan's procedures and judicial authority".
The release of the prisoners on Thursday dealt a new blow to he relationship between Kabul and Washington, already badly strained by Karzai's refusal to sign an accord allowing some US troops to remain in Afghanistan after NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
's withdrawal this year.
The U.S. said those who walked free were responsible for killing NATO and Afghan soldiers as well as civilians. The U.S. embassy in Kabul called the releases "a deeply regrettable" move that could lead to further violence in Afghanistan.
NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen also criticized the releases as a setback to security and the rule of law in Afghanistan.
Karzai has called Bagram prison, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kabul, where the men were held, a "Taliban-producing factory" and alleged that some detainees were tortured into hating their country.
According to some analysts, Karzai hopes the releases could help kick-start moribund peace talks with the Taliban, who were ousted from power in 2001.
"The very presence of the Bagram prison is against the Afghan law and Afghan illusory sovereignty," Karzai said, after meeting Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Pak Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
in Turkey's capital.
Karzai said the prison was one of the most contentious issues between Kabul and Washington since 2007 because the United States judges the inmates there "prisoners of war, therefore ... outside of the judicial authority of Afghanistan".
"My government has been trying since then to remove this prison from U.S. control and to turn it into an Afghan facility in accordance with Afghan laws and in accordance with Afghan illusory sovereignty."