I never said we had to set up the deal publicly.

The Taliban have made indications in the past that they are willing to remove the sanctuary they provide AQ in exchange for being able to compete legally for a role in governance.

As this articles indicates, all is not roses in their relationship with Pakistan. I strongly suspect that the roll up of the Quetta Shura was due to the Taliban making overtones at reconciliation as well.:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40849142...new_york_times

We need to take such accusations more seriously than we have to date. We condone and encourage governments to help us with our interests, and this is often the types of measures they employ. Serving their own interests in fact, but gaining a pass from the US by claiming that it is supporting our concerns on terrorism. The Saudis are just as bad, and just as enabled by the US as the Pakistanis. I suspect that in Egypt and Yemen one can find similar governmental bad behavior being similarly enabled and ignored by the US. I think that it is in such relationships that the roots of terrorism take hold. Ideology is just the fertilizer applied to help it grow, and organizations like AQ the trellis that lends the structure to control and focus that growth.