If the CIA can pull off that one, their Assange coup must have been easy. On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > from SLATE, 11/23/10: >>Con Man Subverts Afghan Peace Talks > >> Afghan officials thought they were negotiating with Taliban >> second-in-command Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour during secret peace talks >> orchestrated by NATO. Now, it turns out the man was not Mansour, but an >> imposter, rendering the negotiations largely pointless. "It's not him," said >> a Kabul-based Western diplomat involved in the talks. "And we gave him a lot >> of money." American officials became suspicious after a man who had known >> Mansour in years past whispered to Afghan officials that he looked >> different, reports the New York Times. The fraudster has now returned to >> Pakistan, but not before being flown to the presidential palace by NATO >> aircraft and greeted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai himself. The >> revelation comes as a severe blow to Afghan and American hopes for >> successful resolution of the conflict through the recent peace process. >> Theories abound as to the man's identity: Some say that the mysterious >> negotiator may have been a freelance opportunist, while others! suspect he may have been sent by the Taliban as a "game," or even by the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, as part of its "double-game" in Afghanistan. The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, has publicly denied any negotiation with Afghanistan or the United States. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
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