SUCH is the rising paranoia, the Afghan farmer was prepared to speak but only if he wasn't identified. Concealed by the thick stone walls of his home in war-torn Helmand Province, where most British troops are based, he made it known that although he had helped allied forces and his government in the past with information it was unlikely he would do so again.
• US troops on patrol in Kandahar Province, the scene of recent attacks. Pic: Manpreet Romana/Getty
"Everyone is already afraid," he said. "Each day the Taleban get stronger and we see no help from the coalition forces.
"Everyone here knows if you help the coalition you will be decapitated. How can we have trust now that our information won't end up with the Taleban?"
He was referring, of course, to the now notorious leaks of 90,000 intelligence documents to the WikiLeaks website, which were published online last week to the horror of the western intelligence establishment. As some of the documents contained the uncensored names and locations of Afghans who have shared information with government and Nato forces, the implications were obvious.
Following the online publication, Taleban officials lost no time in getting out the message that they were poring over the documents to learn what they could about who had been collaborating with their enemy. Local politicians said the flow of information was already starting to dry up as news of the leaks spread slowly into rural communities.
So far, dire predictions of mass executions do not appear to have been realised, but whether that is because Taleban forces are otherwise engaged with the new US-British attack in Helmand - Operation Black Prince - or whether those named have fled the zone in anticipation of reprisals is not yet clear.
One factor is that although the conflict - and breaking news stories on it - is instantly reported around the globe, communications are still relatively poor in the Afghan countryside. A snapshot survey of Afghan villagers showed that only two out of 12 were so far aware of the WikiLeaks row being covered so prominently in the western media.
Kandahar MP Khalid Pashtoon said the leak had so far received little coverage in the local media but in time everyone would become aware of it. "And when they do, those providing information to the international military will be scared," he said.
Pashtoon said none of his constituents had raised the issue with him yet and he wasn't volunteering it. "We are fighting one difficulty here, which is security; we don't want to create another."
But he agreed that the likely flow of reports to Nato forces would slow as news spread of the security breach.
