The Taliban rushed to take responsibility for the attack, stating that the shooter was a sleeper agent planted to kill NATO soldiers. Afghan police and the army scrambled to find ways to eradicate the insurgents in their ranks. Screening of new recruits and soldiers escalated.
But when a joint investigation was completed some time later, Afghan and American investigators concluded that the gunman, a man named Ezzatullah in a small village in the Province of Nangarhar, where the attack occurred, was not a sleeper agent at all, but a good soldier overcome by personal stress, including the insistence of his father that he accepts a contract of marriage with a young girl.
Fears about infiltration of the Taliban in the forces of Afghan national security arose again this week after the insurgents in Afghan military uniforms attacked three locations in highly secure Government. The latest attack came Monday the Ministry of defence headquarters in downtown Kabul and killed two Afghan soldiers.
The attacks have fuelled concerns among Afghan officials, who are uncomfortable about their own safety and the fate of a country whose military and they worry the police forces could be impregnated with enemy insurgents. Some in the Senate on Wednesday called the resignation of the Minister of defence, Abdul Rahim Wardak, calling it unable to defend his own Department, much less the country.
But preliminary investigations show that the authors of at least two of the attacks were not used members of the Afghan army or the police, according to two senior intelligence officers NATO and an advisor to NATO informed on investigations. They are also suspicious that the person in the attack remaining was a member, while the investigation continues.
In fact, responsible intelligence not gathered any evidence suggesting that the infiltration is very widespread, as Taliban claims according to the officers, who spoke the condition of anonymity because of the nature of their positions advising Afghan forces. Nevertheless, officials know that the Taliban claims of infiltration breed distrust and are difficult to refute.
"Their goal is to separate the coalition of the Afghan national army, and is an excellent tool for them, whether they have or not," one police officer said.
Infiltration or not, the recent attacks were exposed other security issues, including the severity of the controls for the identification and research to points of control and input and the easy availability of official-looking uniforms and military equipment in stores and bazaars throughout Kabul and the provinces of the body. Investigators were also examining if any guards took bribes to let the insurgents across.
"At least two of them are very clearly the guys who had already obtained a uniform and had been helped," said NATO's Security Advisor. "This is really what we are concerned about - is the enemy capable of penetrating through this filtering system, or that they are actually able to co-opt or use uniforms and equipment that they could collect out on street weaknesses and exploit them in the physical security of these sites."
Concerns about the sleeper agents still run high among afghans and NATO officials. After the attack of November in Nangarhar, forces Coalition intensified abruptly training Afghan intelligence agents. It is their work to identify possible insurgents between Afghan forces and look for signs of military personnel who, acting either financial or personal stress or threats to their families, might fall under the influence of the Taliban. About 200 officers are now in the field, and this number is expected to more than double by the end of the year.
Since September 2009, when the NATO forces began to intensify the efforts to strengthen the national security forces, all recruits are required to go through a process of screening of eight steps. In it, recruits must undergo a criminal history and testing audit and must submit two letters of the elders of the village to the respondents for their character.
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