Smart Diplomacy Fail: We Have Been Negotiating With a Fake Taliban
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]
Via the New York Times, which deserves credit for making “Teh Won” look like an idiot. It must have been hard for them:
Taliban Leader in Secret Talks Was an Impostor
For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the repeated appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.
But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel [A.W.: or a crappy 80's comedy], United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.
“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.
NATO and Afghan officials said they held three meetings with the man, who traveled from across the border in Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have taken refuge.
The fake Taliban leader even met with President Hamid Karzai, having been flown to Kabul on a NATO aircraft and ushered into the presidential palace, officials said.
(emphasis added.) So it’s bad enough we are negotiating with these bastards, but could we actually negotiate with the real bastards? Is that too much to ask?
And at what point do even liberals admit that Obama doesn’t know what the hell he is doing?
Update: Iowahawk tweets:
WH in secret talks with high level Taliban who turns out to be imposter…. In related news, media calls Palin stupid
Folks, you have two choices with a story like this. You can laugh, or cry.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Epic. Fail. That is all.
Comment by the bhead — 11/22/2010 @ 9:32 pm
How is this any different than what we are doing with the Palestinians?
Comment by daleyrocks — 11/22/2010 @ 9:36 pm
First I would say that negotiating with anyone in that theater of war is probably a fool’s game.
Second, I would say that it really doesn’t matter who is the president.
The radical arm of Islam has a very specific goal. Unfortunately, the entire nation of Islam has taken the tack to see how things play out.
I can’t blame Obama for being stupid in this case, only naive.
I can’t see how it would have played out differently no matter who is in charge.
Islam is an evangelical religion. It’s ultimate goal is to make everyone a Muslim, just as Christians want everyone to be Christian.
The difference, of course, is how the goal is accomplished.
Believing someone who says he or she represents a particular view of Islam should always be taken with a grain of salt.
By their own words, Islam is not simply the Truth, it is the Way.
We, as a nation, built on freedom of religion, would betray our foundation as a civilized society to prohibit any exercise of any one’s convictions.
However, we can cast a wary eye on anyone who would use religion to take the freedom of religion away.
I await my condemnation as a racist, xenophobe, window-licking fascist who wants to kill brown people.
Comment by Ag80 — 11/22/2010 @ 9:40 pm
Nothing new. Ask GWB
Comment by ajb — 11/22/2010 @ 9:45 pm
Well, that’s certainly a definitive site for truth.
Propaganda has many roots. If you like your propaganda, that is your choice.
But, hey, if that’s your life, enjoy it.
Comment by Ag80 — 11/22/2010 @ 10:02 pm
Sorry for the diversion.
Comment by daleyrocks — 11/22/2010 @ 10:10 pm
Right that’s why the BND had recruited Al Adwan, not the CIA, not nearly the same thing
Comment by narciso — 11/22/2010 @ 10:13 pm
Dear Leader’s policy of negotiating with whomever hates us today is of course naive in a Carter-esque (Carterian?) fashion, but a lot of the derision in this case should be heaped upon the State Department, especially the career bureaucrats in the State Department. Any agency in which Joe Wilson can rise to a level of semi-prominence is long overdue for a complete reorganization including the quick sacking of probably half the headcount.
Comment by JVW — 11/22/2010 @ 10:16 pm
This does not make the Nobel Peace Prize folks look very prescient.
Comment by daleyrocks — 11/22/2010 @ 11:06 pm
I’m pretty sure Putin is not laughing right now and telling his folks to rig up a reset button to offer Barky or Hillary next time he sees them. No sir, not Vlad.
Comment by daleyrocks — 11/22/2010 @ 11:09 pm
What someone who would joke with Putin, over what a great deal we got on Alaska,This just gets better and better
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/23/world/asia/AP-AS-Koreas-Tension.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimesworld
Comment by narciso — 11/22/2010 @ 11:11 pm
They first became suspicious when they realized that the only words that “Mansour” ever said were “Durka” and “Jihad”.
Their suspicion only increased when it became clear that they were talking to an old Asian woman.
Comment by The Departed — 11/22/2010 @ 11:22 pm
This sort of news, when reported on a TV news show, needs to be followed by an audio clip of hysterical laughter.
Comment by Blacque Jacques Shellacque — 11/23/2010 @ 12:19 am
Or that “Wha-wha-wha-whaaaaaaaaa” from the Price Is Right.
Comment by The Departed — 11/23/2010 @ 12:39 am
At least it was an honest mistake. Madeline Allbright and Wesley Clark put together a team of Albanian “actors” (to say it kindly) to pose as Kosovar resistance leaders in the prelude to the invasion of Kosovo. Once the bombs started falling, the “resistance leaders” were found in New Jersey with refugee green cards.
Comment by nk — 11/23/2010 @ 12:54 am
*invasion of Serbia*
Comment by nk — 11/23/2010 @ 12:55 am
New Jersey?
Jesus, would have been more humane to leave them in Kosovo…
Comment by The Departed — 11/23/2010 @ 1:51 am
Amerikkka’s gotta be thinkin’ ‘What the blue blazes does this magic schwartzer need ta do before his “personal approval” numbers drop?
What the hell does he have on these pipple? Dirty pictures of momma and farm animals?
Comment by gary gulrud — 11/23/2010 @ 1:56 am
Maybe Obama should have asked the guy for his birth certificate.
Comment by BT — 11/23/2010 @ 4:09 am
Yea. It looks bad.
It looks like the Taliban aren’t interested in negotiating in good faith when they send an impostor.
Comment by Neo — 11/23/2010 @ 5:15 am
Geeze, is “Stupid is as stupid does” sound like the proper phrase here?
Comment by GM Roper — 11/23/2010 @ 5:44 am
This is another measure of the worthlessness of the CIA I think. Something’s gone very very wrong with that very very smart (and expensive) club of neurotic jack-offs.
Comment by happyfeet — 11/23/2010 @ 5:53 am
First, ajb, tu quoque is not an argument. Second, we were all told that Obama was so much smarter than Bush, and that foreign policy would bet run more sensibly as a result.
Clearly, that’s not happening. Right now, your best defense is, “Hey, Obama’s just as bad as Bush.”
Comment by Some chump — 11/23/2010 @ 6:46 am
I’m seeing the scene in Monty Python & the Holy Grail, with the French knights huddling behind the wall, and after completely baffling King Arthur, their spokesman huddles back down telling his compatriots: “I told him we’ve already got one!” and they all snigger and giggle at the King’s stupidity.
Comment by Roscoe — 11/23/2010 @ 10:32 am
It seems our fake guys are negotiating with their fake guys. It’s a wonder anything gets done.
Comment by Birdbath — 11/23/2010 @ 1:07 pm
This could have made a great episode of What’s My Line.
I am a Senior Taliban Commander
No, I am a Senior Taliban Commander you ignorant goat f*cker
No, I am the Senior Taliban Commander, may your Imam find you pleasuring young boys.
Comment by daleyrocks — 11/23/2010 @ 2:00 pm
Pretend President hires Pretend Sec of State and their pretend diplomacy negotiates with pretend Taliban leader with pretend results.
But you get to keep your Doctor.
Comment by gus — 11/23/2010 @ 2:04 pm
AJB’s defense of the Empty Suit(tm) is pretty comical.
Comment by SPQR — 11/23/2010 @ 2:23 pm
Popehat has this hilarious bit
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Comment by Neha Anand — 3/25/2011 @ 5:32 pm
ESAD!
Comment by Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks ! — 9/14/2011 @ 3:35 pm