A FORMER EU delegation leader was employed as an advisor to the then Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin – despite being expelled from Afghanistan over accusations he held direct talks with the Taliban.
Afghani president Hamid Karzai claimed that Michael Semple had held unauthorised meetings with the country’s former ruling militia – and ejected him from the country in December 2007.
The claim is contained in a US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks and published today by the Irish Independent.
But Semple, who had been living in the Middle East for almost two decades and who was the acting head of the EU’s mission to Afghanistan at the time, was retained as a ministerial advisor to the now Fianna Fáil leader because he was considered well-versed in the politics of the region.
The UN had objected to Semple’s ejection from Afghanistan, saying it was a “misunderstanding”. Semple is now a fellow at the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard University.
Our previous coverage of Irish cables:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say