THE IMPENETRABLE TALIBAN

Here’s an interesting point made by a reader. We were told for ages that one reason we had no intelligence on the Taliban or Muslim terrorists in general was that they were basically impenetrable. An American spy couldn’t effectively go under cover, we were told: they would be spotted and expelled immediately. So how come a red-diaper baby from the Bay Area managed to infiltrate Taliban ranks and find himself on the front-lines in Northern Afghanistan? In retrospect, all that hooey about the impossibility of human intelligence in these groups seems like defensive CIA spin. Has George Tenet been fired yet?