Karzai aide blames British for Taliban impostor

Source: BBC

President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff has said British authorities brought a fake Taliban commander into sensitive meetings with the Afghan government. The British embassy refused to confirm or deny the remarks, made in an interview with the Washington Post.

A man described as Mullah Mansour, a senior Taliban commander, was flown to Kabul for a meeting with President Karzai. Now it is claimed he was really a Pakistani shopkeeper.

UK government officials told the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner that no British taxpayers' money was used to fund the bogus Taliban negotiator. They say the money paid to him was Afghan government money and was a fraction of the amount mentioned in some press reports.

But they confirmed the man in question has disappeared.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11845217

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Analysis

Paul Wood
BBC News, Kabul

Given the British policy of not commenting on "operational matters", all we have is the Afghan government's version of events, as given to the Washington Post.

That version smells of people trying to pass the blame. There may be enough blame to share around: the CIA, MI6 and the Afghans themselves.

Why, for instance, did Afghan officials not spot this man earlier? Mullah Mansour was civil aviation minister during Taliban rule.

The question remains: who is this man who met President Hamid Karzai? A Pakistani shopkeeper, a gifted conman or a junior member of the Taliban (or all three)?

(Continues at the link above)

• American Nato commander asked MI6 to develop contacts
• News contradicts Hamid Karzai's attempt to put blame on UK

Julian Borger in London and Jon Boone in Kabul
guardian.co.uk, Friday November 26 2010 18.06 GMT

Peace talks with an impostor posing as a Taliban leader, which led to a meeting with Hamid Karzai in Kabul and thousands of dollars in "goodwill payments", were started by the Afghan government and approved by the former American commander, Stanley McChrystal, the Guardian has learned.

This account sharply contradicts claims made by the Afghan presidency, which has put the entire blame on the British government, apparently supported privately by US officials.

In fact, the overriding desire to find a negotiated end to the conflict – particularly on the part of David Cameron – appears to have generated credulity on all sides, and led to an embarrassing debacle which has diminished trust and set back hopes of meaningful negotiations in the near future.

Sources close to the contacts said the impostor, who claimed to be Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the Taliban's deputy leader, was originally introduced by an insurgent commander in Kandahar to the then Afghan interior minister, Hanif Atmar.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/26/us-general-mcchrystal-taliban-impostor

:rofl:

Thanks for the morning laugh, I needed that.

:hi: