In February the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar during a raid in Pakistan was considered to be a major breakthrough in the Afghanistan conflict. At the time of his arrest Baradar was the Taliban’s supreme commander in Afghanistan and American officials had hoped that the Karzai government would be able to secure his return to Kabul to be tried. The Pakistani government allowed U.S. access to their celebrated prisoner after his arrest, however they would not release Baradar to the Afghan government.   Late last week it was reported that U.S. General David Petraeus confirmed that safe passage had been provided to high ranking members of the Taliban for travel to Kabul for preliminary peace talks with the Alghan government. U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said that “There have been an increasing number of people associated with the Taliban who’ve reached out and said ‘We want to talk about an...(Read Full Post)