US and coalition commanders are no closer to knowing how deep the Taliban has penetrated Afghanistan’s security forces despite increased efforts to flush out infiltrators who are carrying out attacks against Americans.

"As for what percentage of the insider threat is related to infiltration or radicalization, I mean, it's really difficult to determine," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said Thursday. "I'm sure a certain percentage of it is. And we're treating it...as a threat," he told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Taliban double agents, posing as members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), are responsible for executing some of the deadly "insider" attacks that have killed 51 coalition troops, mostly from the United States.

In the most recent incident, Afghan forces on Saturday killed an international service member, later identified as an American, in an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press. A NATO contractor and two Afghan soldiers also died.

In response to the violence, Afghan and coalition leaders have expanded their counterintelligence efforts to pinpoint where and how Taliban operatives are working their way into the ANSF pipeline.

"We're looking really hard at co-option and infiltration" of the ANSF by the Taliban, Brig. Gen. Roger Noble of the Australian Army said during a briefing last Wednesday from Kabul.

Counterintelligence operatives have already been embedded within US military units and Afghan security forces at the battalion level and above, according to the Pentagon.

Gen. John Allen, head of all American forces in Afghanistan, has also instituted a so-called "after action" group that analyzes insider attacks to help determine the affiliations of the perpetrators.

Additionally, Afghanistan's military and intelligence leaders have begun planting dozens of intelligence officers within the military and national police forces across the country to ferret out Taliban operatives or sympathizers.

Afghan intelligence officials have even gone so far as to ban on all cellphones by new ANSF recruits as a way to limit potential communication between those recruits and Taliban commanders.

But in spite of this work, US and coalition commanders still only have a vague handle on the Taliban's hold among Afghan soldiers and police.

As insider attacks spiked over the past few months, DoD officials estimated that roughly 25 percent were either directly carried out by Taliban agents or by Afghan forces allied by the terror group.

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Editor's Note: Unacceptable...If the Afghan government can't guarantee loyalty to the very force that brought it to power, then the forces of liberty should leave, making absolutely certain that the Afghanis understand one thing: Should another attack on Western assets take place anywhere in the world as a result of planning or actions emanating from Afghanistan, the US will light the each and every government building and Taliban stronghold up like a candle...putting in place an all female government with totalitarian governmental abilities; the full forces of the West at their disposal. Enough is enough with this 7th Century barbarian mind set...enough.


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