[QODLink]
Central & South Asia
Leaked Afghan security plan deemed authentic
Senior officials say Taliban-leaked security details for upcoming meeting to discuss relations with US were real.
Last Modified: 14 Nov 2011 15:54

A classified document leaked by the Taliban detailing security arrangements for an upcoming meeting to discuss strategic relations with the United States has been confirmed as authentic by senior Afghan officials.

Senior police and intelligence officials told Al Jazeera on Monday that although the leaked plan was real, almost all of the arrangements had been changed since the security breach.

In an email sent to journalists from a verified Taliban account on Sunday, the group’s spokesman said that "with help of infiltrators, we have obtained the security plan, maps, and some other important documents for the so called Loya Jirga [assembly of elders]".

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said: “We are being told that the plan that the Taliban sent to journalists was the security plan. And indeed we are being told that the security forces were forced into a hasty rewrite of some 80 per cent of the plan.”

The consultative meeting, known as the Loya Jirga, was scheduled to begin on November 16. The meeting brings together representatives from Afghan provinces, ethnic groups, and civil society to discuss stalled peace talks with the Taliban as well as crucial negotiations about the US.

Both the US and the government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, are hoping this meeting might provide the legitimacy necessary to sign an agreement which would pave the way for relations beyond 2014, when US forces are scheduled to withdraw.

Propaganda war

The confirmation of the leaked document comes as Afghan security forces on Monday shot dead a would-be bomber outside the meeting's venue.

The man, who was caught carrying a bomb near the entrance to the site, was shot before he could detonate the explosive, Sediq Sediqqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said. Two accomplices were arrested, Afghan intelligence service said in a statement.

“We seem to have an intensifying propaganda war as well as an actual war. On the one side, the Taliban seem determined to stop this [meeting] and are trying to intimidate some 2,300 delegates that are expected to attend the start of the jirga on Wednesday," Smith said.

He continued: “On the other side, you have the Afghan government that is determined this convention goes ahead because it wants to prove that at least in Kabul they have got the security ability to allow such an even to pass off peacefully."

The Taliban targeted last summer’s Loya Jirga with suicide bombers and rockets as the president addressed the assembled crowd of nearly 1,600 leaders.

The minister of interior and the chief of intelligence were fired immediately after the convention for failing to protect it

This year, the government has deployed extra forces across the city, hoping to protect the event as proof of a growing ability to control security in the country.

Source:
Al Jazeera
Topics in this article
People
Country
City
Organisation
Featured on Al Jazeera
The story of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and its emergence into the political arena after decades of suppression.
People & Power goes undercover to reveal how 'voluntourism' could be fuelling the exploitation of Cambodian children.
Facebook's now-public status may encourage its board and policy staff to respond to privacy, free expression concerns.
Two prominent figures in the American establishment break away from the mould and chastise the GOP - but is it enough?
Spotlight
Latest news and analysis as Egyptians elect first new president in post-Mubarak political era.
In-depth coverage of an escalating regional debate about Iran's geopolitical power and the West.
Violence continues as UN observers are deployed to monitor both sides' compliance with a peace plan.
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go