Why I Don't Worry About The Threat Of A National Security State

If it weren't for the fact that lives are at stake, plus the last part of the quote, this story would be hysterically funny (subscription required for link to NYT; if you have it, link to original is provided).

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 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....

United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor.

--snip--

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

For anyone out of work, at least we now know how to get money from the feds. Dress up as a member of the Taliban.

This is so awesome in a frightening, sad kind of way.