News that an impostor posing as a high-ranking Taliban official fooled US, UK, and Afghan officials—and made a tidy profit to boot—is going over well among the real Taliban. One commander tells the Daily Beast: “Imagine if a shopkeeper from Quetta can make a fool of them and keep them engaged in talks for months, how do they believe they can defeat the Taliban?” He said the escapade—which wasn't coordinated by the group—also proved that reports of talks between the Taliban and NATO forces were untrue.
(More Taliban stories.)