The Globe and Mail

There were a few comments on the page from people asking for a retraction because I wrote “Two years ago, Jack Layton was ‘Taliban Jack' for suggesting, among other things, that Canada enter into negotiations with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.”

My point wasn't that Layton used the term "al-Qaeda" himself. My point was that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are closely linked and any negotiation with the Taliban is, by definition, a negotiation with al-Qaeda.

This is a broadly-held understanding of those who grasp the situation in Afghanistan.

For instance, here is a speech by Afghani MP and women's rights activist Malalai Joya that refers to the “medieval-minded Taliban and their Al Qaeda masters."

I'm surprised some of the commentators hadn't heard the speech.

After all, it was given to the national NDP convention in Quebec on September 9, 2006.

But clearly Jack Layton heard the speech. He knows al-Qaeda and the Taliban are linked.