Last week at a staff meeting, one of the Program Managers was talking about how one of the districts where we work is “full of Talibs”.

Well, apparently, the provinces outside of Kabul are not the only place. Consider this warning from the National Defense Service:

NDS sources report that HiG (Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin)are becoming the dominant group within Kabul district. The source reported that the grouping had been conducting a

successful recruiting campaign in the districts surrounding Kabul. As a result

an increase in attacks is expected with HiG expected to operate in

Police Districts 12, 7 and 6 of the capital. TB are traditionally strong in the Dih Sabz

area (PD9) which accounts for the concentration of attacks on Jalalabad road. (Recall the Jalalabad Road is the road one has to travel to get liquor, as well as being the road the Coalition uses in and out of Kabul.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with HiG:

"Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) has long established ties with Osama Bin Ladin. (HIG) founder Gulbuddin Hikmatyar offered to shelter Bin Ladin after the latter fled Sudan in 1996. HIG has staged small attacks in its attempt to force U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, overthrow the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA) and establish a fundamentalist state."

Gulbuddin Hikmatyar is the one who castrated Najibullah (the President of Afghanistan under the Soviets), shot him and hanged his body in Ariana square.

So the Taliban is in Kabul and ready to fight.

Not really news, but now people are talking about negiotiating with the Taliban.

My organization has been in Afghanistan for a while, so we negotiated with the Taliban to have access to provincial areas pre-2001. Last year, while implementing a shelter program in the East, we also met with Taliban leaders in one district so that supplies could be carried in. I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, talking to the Taliban is a necessary evil; we are non-partisan and are working in the interests of the people. On the other hand, I feel like it lends them some legitimacy and reinforces the notion that they are the decision makers. Moreover, this could possibly undermine the fragile Afghan government in areas where their power is waning; having to ask the Talibs for permission to do our work might tip the balance.

Anyway, after one month this is NOT MY PROBLEM.