British Intelligence conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars

[Knightskye]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101126/wl_afp/afghanistanbritainintelligenceunresttaliban


LONDON (AFP) – British spies promoted an impostor whom they believed was a top Taliban commander key to the Afghan peace process, paying him several hundred thousand dollars, reports said Friday.

Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 believed the man to be insurgent leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad 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 Pakistan 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.

[Dripping Rain]

ROFL

Military Intelligence=oxymoron
-George Carlin

[Knightskye]

Apparently, he was either a shopkeeper or a conman. But not both. Course not. :D

[youngbuck]

I wonder how often this happens, and how often intel agents take revenge.

[Knightskye]

I wonder how often this happens, and how often intel agents take revenge.

This seems like an honest mistake. $300-400,000 seems like a drop in the bucket off of a military budget in the hundreds of billions. If someone misplaces $300,000, who's going to notice?