Earlier this week, General John Allen, commander of Nato-led troops in the country, said more than three quarters of the population now lived in areas where local forces had taken the lead for security. And this week the Kabul government took control of Bagram prison – long seen as a symbol of American brutality and contempt for justice by locals – in a move hailed as a victory for Afghan sovereignty. Dr Baheer, who spent six years held by US forces at different prisons including Bagram, has met American officials three times in Kabul as part of a nascent peace process, which he now says holds no prospect of progress.