Who burned the agent?
The report indicates that he was “turned” by the Taliban. Before they turned him they had to identify him. Maybe they used tradecraft, maybe a mole on our side burned him. I wouldn’t put it past someone on Senator Feinstein’s staff to have leaked the information to a “reporter” or some other false flag operator. The Congress micromanages intelligence and they and their staffs leak like sieves.
Who in their right mind would trust the United States under these circumstances?
Was he acting under compunction, which being turned implies? (Agents rarely turn for ideological reasons and someone acting out of greed won’t commit suicide.) What form could that compunction have taken? Or was he a Taliban plant all along and himself the mole from the begining?
Remember Eikenberry thinks that the Taliban should be part of the Afgan Government.
There is the leak.
You ask good and important questions.
good questions — I was wondering immediately if he was a mole/double-agent all along?? That could be less likely if he really did provide a lot of good intel, but who knows now? Sometimes real intel is provided, even intel harmful to one’s own side, in order to get a chance at a much bigger prize? We don’t know anything (of course) about what actual targets he provided....maybe we were blowing up empty buildings, or Maybe he was having our Predator strikes take out rivals of the Taliban? Maybe that’s far-fetched, maybe not.....
or maybe the Taliban caught onto him and offered him a simple choice: either the Taliban slaughters his entire family of all generations, or he agrees to become a suicide/homicide bomber and Allah will reward him etc.