Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Fucking hopeless

This may be the ultimate example of how fucked it all is in Afghanistan:

For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

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


He must have also said he was a banker.

10 comments:

Poorly Received Snark said...

More like "Lifted from a sitcom..."

StonyPillow said...

ISI.

Montag said...

Spending on intelligence has nearly quadrupled in the last decade, and a significant amount of that is on private contractors.

Guess that money bought a lot of vacation homes and Mercedes, and not much else.

Athenawise said...

He took the money and built his own soccer stadium for stonings, hangings and beheadings.

Major Woody said...

What a waste, giving money to that imposter! I knew they were getting played for fools, because my neighbor's cousin is Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour's pool boy and I saw him over there at a cookout once. If they'll just give me 100 million dollars, I'll see it gets to him and the Taliban will surrender, I promise.

pansypoo said...

is he related to chalabi?

omen said...

in 2001, rumsfeld confessed the pentagon cannot account for $2.3 trillion dollars missing.

that figure is probably higher now. when are we going to get an accounting?

Anonymous said...

he knew what the playahs wanted and stuck it to them in true capitalist fashion, by fraud and deceit.
Just doin the entrepreneur thing of weaving fantasies out of the ether.
vox

Mr. Hedley Bowes said...

Enough to buy a couple of dozen GOP districts?

karma sutra positions said...

What else can be new in Afghanistan? The Taliban cannot be trusted and so are others. But I guess this is not a surprise that these are4 happening in Afghanistan. The country is in turmoil and no concrete stability is in order yet. No one can be trusted as well so I bet it will still be in turmoil until a miracle happens.