Salon’s correspondent in Pakistan, Asra Nomani, recounts her visit with Mohammed Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban’s number two diplomat in Pakistan. The article isn’t sympathetic to Shaheen, it simply describes how he amd his family live and allows him to explain the Taliban from his perspective. The most interesting statement in the article:

“I like America. I like Americans,” he says. “I just don’t like American foreign policy.”

What is it that he likes about America, I ask. The spirit of rigorous research in all fields, he says. The professional work ethic. The strength of technology. Freedom of speech.

“I like that they can freely criticize,” he says.