As the Obama administration presses Pakistan to continue the battle against the Taliban in the tribal areas, Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, is courting Pakistan’s Islamists as part of the effort to listen to critics of American policy. One of the Islamist leaders Holbrooke met with was Fazl-ur-Rehman, a known supporter of the Taliban. Here is how Reuters described Rehman:

Holbrooke rejected the party’s complaints about a Western “assault” on Islam, saying “that could not be further from the truth” with Obama, who has roots in the religion, now in the White House.