Taliban impostor 'dupes Afghans and vanishes with cash'

Taliban impostor 'dupes Afghans and vanishes with cash'

www.bbc.co.uk

An impostor posing as a leading Taliban negotiator held secret talks with Afghan officials, report US media.

The Afghans thought they were dealing with Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour, a top Taliban commander.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.nytimes.com
www.washingtonpost.com

This is a funny piece of reporting. The Afghan government along with NATO all got fooled by a shopkeeper of Pakistan as BBC reports:

The fake Taliban leader was flown to Kabul on a Nato aircraft and taken to the presidential palace to meet Mr Karzai, unnamed Nato and Afghan officials told the New York Times.

The Washington Post quoted Afghan officials as saying that the man was a lowly shopkeeper from the Pakistani city of Quetta.

From New York Times

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

Seriously what is wrong with these guys. How they even got to negotiate with someone without even knowing who he was. This would be a major embarrassing moment for the Afghan Govt. and NATO.

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

From the Washington Post link which I forgot to add initially

Some speculate that Pakistan's intelligence service might have sent the man to test the waters, to see what the Afghan government was offering. They also suggested this might have been a business opportunity, as senior insurgents potentially stand to make large sums of money if they defect.

"He could have been sent by the ISI," said one of the Afghan officials, referring to the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, Pakistan's spy agency.

Could ISI be involved in this? Whatever the case Karzai and NATO seems to be running in circle.

Ahahaha thats awesome. Nice set of cahones on that sir. What's he got to lose anyways.

I skimmed over the Ny times article. Why where they giving who they thought a top taliban leader " Alot of money."?

Originally posted by Your_Number_One_Fan


Why where they giving who they thought a top taliban leader " Alot of money."?

That's just what they do, they're really really nice guys, anyone trying to link this with bribery just doesn't get the vibe of the new lovely fluffy NATO, it could be bailout money in the hope that the Taliban would buy some US made kit.

reply to post by Prince Of Darkness
Karzai says it's a lie:

"We have not met anyone named Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour has not come to Afghanistan," Mr Karzai said in Kabul.

"Do not accept foreign media reports about meetings with Taliban leaders. Most of these reports are propaganda and lies," he added.

If it's a lie, who started it and what do they have to gain from the propaganda?

If it's not a lie, why would Karzai lie?

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by Prince Of Darkness
If it's not a lie, why would Karzai lie?

edit on 23-11-2010 by Arbitrageur because: fix typo

Why won't he? His entire govt. just got fooled by a shopkeeper from Pakistan plus he lost lot's of money bribing the fake Taliban.

This is actually good news.
The dichotomy here is that this might serve as the catalyst for CAPITALISM in a Taliban world.

Originally posted by Prince Of Darkness
Why won't he? His entire govt. just got fooled by a shopkeeper from Pakistan plus he lost lot's of money bribing the fake Taliban.

I'm not buying it. They had people that know what the guy looks like.

The story even says that's how they know he was an impostor. So why would they give a known impostor lots of money? That makes no sense.

Also it was a western diplomat who said "we" gave him money, does that "we" mean the west? I didn't think Afghanistan had a lot of money.

Nice work there, US intelligence. They gave money to Borat. "Very niiice..."

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
I'm not buying it. They had people that know what the guy looks like.

Isn't that amazing they still got scammed. To be honest I am deeply entertained by this event. I realize the importance of the talks between the 2 entities, but this is a beauty of a scam, well pulled off.

The story even says that's how they know he was an impostor. So why would they give a known impostor lots of money? That makes no sense.

It seems they found it out a tad bit late. The Western diplomat may have had some doubts during the negotiation as one of the news article suggests but they only found clearly the whole thing was scam after the fake Taliban left.

Also it was a western diplomat who said "we" gave him money, does that "we" mean the west? I didn't think Afghanistan had a lot of money.

Yes I think he meant that.

Like its the first time its happened over there!!!! Big suprise.....not

We may laugh but lets not forget.This is the same "intelligence" who told us of WMD`s in Iraq and the same "Intelligence" who send drones into these countries, killing scores of innocent civilians.
Our troops are being guided by the same "Intelligence" !

Originally posted by Prince Of Darkness
It seems they found it out a tad bit late. The Western diplomat may have had some doubts during the negotiation as one of the news article suggests but they only found clearly the whole thing was scam after the fake Taliban left.

That's what the article says, but does it make sense?

How is the guy going to identify the impostor after he's already left?

There's more to this story than we are being told.