Taliban fraudsters
2010-11-23 15:18:48.168305+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments
A hike topic a few years ago was "how much it must suck to be the #3 guy in the Taliban". Because every few months U.S. forces killed the #3 guy. We talked about what the line of succession must be like, how there's this big backlog about #4, "no, I'm good, I don't need the promotion right now", a lot of political infighting to get enemies promoted.
A search on "'number 3' Taliban" brings up an inkling of how many #3s U.S. forces have claimed to have killed. Enough that you might suspect that "#3" is a stand-in for "we thought he was important", that U.S. intelligence services were utterly clueless, and "#3" was press release speak for "perpetrator" or even "suspect".
Well, a little more evidence towards that side of the balance: NY Times: Taliban Leader in Secret Talks Was an Impostor.
“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”
American officials confirmed Monday that they had given up hope that the Afghan was Mr. Mansour, or even a member of the Taliban leadership.