According to the
New York Times, the peace talks unfolding between Afghan/NATO officials and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban took place with someone
pretending to be the 2nd highest-ranking official in the Afghan Taliban, thought to be behind only Omar and just ahead of Mullah Zakir, the current military leader. Theories being tossed around is that the man could have been sent by the Taliban or the ISI, Pakistan's main spy agency.
Mansour and Zakir are
widely thought to have split the duties once occupied by Mullah Baradar, the former operational commander of the Afghan Taliban. If it had been Mullah Mansour, it would have been very significant. But it wasn't.
Here's the kicker. We gave the guy an undisclosed sum of money, according to the Times. We did this before even checking to see if it was really Mansour. The ruse apparently ended after someone showed up at one meeting who had known Mullah Mansour, and said it wasn't him. Whoever the imposter was, they even met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Imagine if this imposter was able to bring a weapon of some kind into such a meeting. Imagine the significance in scale and scope of this screw-up, if this report is true.