IPFS News Link • Afghanistan
MI6 'promoted Taliban impostor'
• www.breitbart.comIntelligence agents paid the man several hundred thousand dollars, convinced he was a senior commander with the authority to negotiate with senior American and Afghan officials on behalf of the insurgents.
It is now believed that he was either a minor Taliban figure or simply a con-man.
A senior Afghan government official told the newspaper: "British intelligence was naive and there was wishful thinking on our part."
MI6 believed it had contacted Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, an ex-Taliban government minister and second to Mullah Omar in its leadership. They flew him to Kabul on numerous occasions.