Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the intelligence community can't publicly deny that perhaps the most prolific child rapist in known history was an asset, we have serious problems. Regardless of standard policy.
Imagine being a regular forces soldier at a base in Afghanistan who discovers that an allied local commander likes to rape little boys. On base. Imagine being told that you can't do anything about it, because if you piss him off Americans will die. The world is a really, really, really shitty place for the powerless and for naive idealists. Epstein was scum, but he's not as bad as some of the people we regularly work…
If upholding the puppet government in Afghanistan requires allying with pederasts the US should get out. Afghanistan has never had anything worth an occupation. The only reason the US is still there is to try and wash away the stain of Vietnam. As soon as the US leaves the Taliban will take over again within a year, just like al Shahab in Somalia. Afghanistan is already lost because there's no appetite to completely remake the country; colonialism has gone out of style.
There are evil men in Afghanistan raping boys and there are evil men in Washington defending allowing them to do so.