In an interview at his home in the Afghan capital, Saleh described plans to negotiate with insurgents as a “disgrace,” and said one of the main reasons he had quit was because Karzai had ordered a review of Taliban prisoners in detention.

He denied being forced out, saying he had contemplated quitting for a “very long time.” Last week’s attack on the peace “jirga” or tribal council meeting, was just the last straw.

“A number of reasons had accumulated and it needed a tipping point and the jirga was the tipping point,” he said. He also spoke out strongly about what he called Pakistani involvement in attacks in Afghanistan, describing Pakistani intelligence as “part of the landscape of destruction.”

Clearly this is not the first time Saleh has pointed his finger at the ISI. It won’t be the last, judging from this interview. Saleh has been intelligence chief since 2002, and before that he worked for Ahmed Shah Mahsood. I half-want to buy a plane ticket to Kabul to camp outside the dude’s door until he grants me an interview. Now, he’s basically saying there’s little difference between Karzai’s outreach to the Taliban and capitulation.