USS Clueless              Voyages of a restless mind

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Stardate 20011017.0624 (On Screen via long range sensors): According to this report, the Taliban foreign minister has defected. It's reported by Knight-Ridder news service. You'd think that this story would be picked up by everyone else, wouldn't you? But I can't find any other report of it. I found this which includes a denial by the Taliban (which doesn't prove anything) and I found this which mentions it and dismisses it as being disinformation. There was a report a couple of days ago about the foreign minister travelling to Pakistan without saying what he was there for, and that also wasn't heavily covered.

There's two possibilities here. First, he really did defect, but they're trying to keep it quiet because he provided a lot of valuable strategic information, and second that it really is disinformation and Knight-Ridder got conned. I'm leaning towards the second position. If he did actually defect then the Taliban leadership would know even if it wasn't publicized, and anything critically important he would be able to tell us (like where Mullah Omar was hiding) would become obsolete in hours. On the other hand, the propaganda value of the defection if it was publicized would be enormous; I simply can't see why they'd keep it secret. (discuss)

Update: Of course, I could be wrong. There's another possibility: he didn't defect, he just fled. If that's the case, once it becomes clear that it's true it will indeed be a propaganda victory. I don't understand why it hasn't been publicized more, though. Maybe they're just waiting until they're certain of it.

Update: This just keeps getting more confusing.

Update: Yet another theory: he's making an unauthorized trip to try to negotiate an end to the war. This strikes me as being one of the most likely possibilities.