US News

Bam team ‘talking’ to Taliban

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban officials, according to a published report.

The talks were characterized in the New Yorker magazine piece as an attempt by the administration “to assess which figures in the Taliban’s leadership, if any, might be willing to engage in formal Afghan peace negotiations, and under what conditions.”

Earlier yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that only a political solution will end the war in Afghanistan.

“We will never kill enough insurgents to end this war outright,” she said during a speech in New York.

Clinton voiced hope for splitting off rank-and-file Taliban from al Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan.