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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan peace talks impostor paid by Britain's MI6: report |
| 2010-11-27 |
| [Pak Daily Times] British spies promoted an impostor whom they believed was a top Taliban capo key to the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, paying him several hundred thousand dollars, reports said on Friday. Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 believed the man to be bully boy leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, a figure capable of negotiating with US and Afghan officials, The Times and The Washington Post reported. Agents even flew the man on Royal Air Force transport planes from Pakistain to Kabul on several occasions, but it now appears he was either a minor rebel, a shopkeeper or even just a conman, the reports said. In an interview with The Washington Post, Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai's chief of staff Muhammad Umer Daudzai said the British brought the man purporting to be Mullah Mansour to meet Karzai in July or August. But an Afghan at the meeting knew "this is not the man," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "This shows that this process should be Afghan-led and fully Afghanised," Daudzai said. Britain's Foreign Office refused to confirm or deny the reports about the fake Taliban leader but admitted that it provides "practical help for Afghan reconciliation initiatives". The Times said MI6 initially believed it had made a "historic breakthrough" in promoting talks between the Afghan government and Mansour, an ex-Taliban government minister and currently second to Mullah Omar in its leadership. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 There's a book there AM, go for it! All you'll need is a few real (as opposed to I heard this on tyhe interwebs) sources. |
| Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where 2010-11-27 13:07 |
| #3 I don't believe this for a minute. MI6 doesn't pay foreigners, it just promises to pay them. Even during WWII, when some foreign agent had built up enough credit to want to cash in, they would offer him a boat ride to England for his pay. There would be an accident en route, in which he would accidentally fall overboard. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-11-27 12:15 |
| #2 Headline for the Irony Times. Shock as massive opaque bureaucracy wastes cash... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-11-27 06:28 |
| #1 Ah yes, negotiating with the Taliban is the sophistcates' way of solving the problem... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-11-27 01:14 |