[Pak Daily Times] British spies promoted an impostor whom they believed was a top Taliban capo key to the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, paying him several hundred thousand dollars, reports said on Friday.
Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 believed the man to be bully boy leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, a figure capable of negotiating with US and Afghan officials, The Times and The Washington Post reported. Agents even flew the man on Royal Air Force transport planes from Pakistain to Kabul on several occasions, but it now appears he was either a minor rebel, a shopkeeper or even just a conman, the reports said.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai's chief of staff Muhammad Umer Daudzai said the British brought the man purporting to be Mullah Mansour to meet Karzai in July or August. But an Afghan at the meeting knew "this is not the man," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "This shows that this process should be Afghan-led and fully Afghanised," Daudzai said.
Britain's Foreign Office refused to confirm or deny the reports about the fake Taliban leader but admitted that it provides "practical help for Afghan reconciliation initiatives". The Times said MI6 initially believed it had made a "historic breakthrough" in promoting talks between the Afghan government and Mansour, an ex-Taliban government minister and currently second to Mullah Omar in its leadership. |