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LONDON:U.S. and Afghan officials have slammed Britain’s intelligence service for allowing an impostor to hold talks with high-level members of NATO and Afghanistan’s government.
The London Times reports that the U.K.’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) paid a man they believed to be Akthar Mohammad Mansour — a former aviation minister in the pre-2001 Taliban government, and second only to Mullah Omar in the insurgency’s leadership — from May to October in the hope that he could negotiate on behalf of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.
“Mansour” met with officials three times and was even flown to Kabul to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai. His cover was finally blown last month when an Afghan official who had previously met the real Mansour said he didn’t recognize the man. At this point, the faker disappeared, taking several hundred thousand dollars of British taxpayers’ cash with him.
Afghan intelligence officials told The Washington Post earlier this week that they suspect the man was a lowly shopkeeper from Quetta, the Pakistani town where the Taliban leadership relocated after the U.S. invasion. The London Times, however, notes that the impersonator may have been a low-level Taliban commander.
Karzai’s chief of staff today told the Post the faking was evidence of why foreigners should stay out of negotiations between the government and Islamic insurgents. “The last lesson we draw from this: International partners should not get excited so quickly with those kind of things,” said Mohammad Umer Daudzai. “Afghans know this business, how to handle it.”
An American official familiar with the case also pinned the blame on MI5, the British Security Service, telling the paper the phony Mansour was “the Brit’s guy.” Other U.S. sources suggested MI5 agents could have been suckered by the impostor’s story, as the British government, unlike the Obama administration, is eager for a quick political settlement to end the nine-year-long war.
A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office in London refused to answer the criticisms, telling The New York Times, “We do not comment on operational matters.”
But perhaps the blame should be distributed a little more evenly. The Times of London reports that the U.S. used signal intelligence to check the background of the man believed to be Mansour. And Bill Harris, who retired this month as the most senior U.S. representative in Kandahar province, told the paper, “Something this stupid generally requires teamwork.”
And another U.K. intelligence insider suggested that perhaps the Afghans should have flagged their concerns earlier. “Sometimes NATO doesn’t know one bearded, turbaned Taliban leader from another,” the insider told the newspaper. “But surely it was up to the Afghans, who know all the key Taliban players, to have pointed out that this was not Mohammad Mansour.”
U.S. and Afghan officials have slammed Britain’s intelligence service for allowing an impostor to hold talks with high-level members of NATO and Afghanistan’s government.
The London Times reports that the U.K.’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) paid a man they believed to be Akthar Mohammad Mansour — a former aviation minister in the pre-2001 Taliban government, and second only to Mullah Omar in the insurgency’s leadership — from May to October in the hope that he could negotiate on behalf of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.
“Mansour” met with officials three times and was even flown to Kabul to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai. His cover was finally blown last month when an Afghan official who had previously met the real Mansour said he didn’t recognize the man. At this point, the faker disappeared, taking several hundred thousand dollars of British taxpayers’ cash with him.
Afghan intelligence officials told The Washington Post earlier this week that they suspect the man was a lowly shopkeeper from Quetta, the Pakistani town where the Taliban leadership relocated after the U.S. invasion. The London Times, however, notes that the impersonator may have been a low-level Taliban commander.
Karzai’s chief of staff today told the Post the faking was evidence of why foreigners should stay out of negotiations between the government and Islamic insurgents. “The last lesson we draw from this: International partners should not get excited so quickly with those kind of things,” said Mohammad Umer Daudzai. “Afghans know this business, how to handle it.”
An American official familiar with the case also pinned the blame on MI5, the British Security Service, telling the paper the phony Mansour was “the Brit’s guy.” Other U.S. sources suggested MI5 agents could have been suckered by the impostor’s story, as the British government, unlike the Obama administration, is eager for a quick political settlement to end the nine-year-long war.
A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office in London refused to answer the criticisms, telling The New York Times, “We do not comment on operational matters.”
But perhaps the blame should be distributed a little more evenly. The Times of London reports that the U.S. used signal intelligence to check the background of the man believed to be Mansour. And Bill Harris, who retired this month as the most senior U.S. representative in Kandahar province, told the paper, “Something this stupid generally requires teamwork.”
