Apparently you equate brilliance with planning. This is a false premise in this particular case. It's a matter of finding oneself in a particular situation (in this case captured by rebels) who then try and wean you over to their side. Suddenly an opportunity to get inside the enemies ranks! You play along, give what information you can, keep your eyes and ears open, work your way into their confidence and at an appropriate time (perhaps months in the future) pass off vital information or otherwise betray them to your leaders.
It doesn't have to be planned, it's simply taking advantage of a certain situation. And it certainly doesn't require one to be evil, either. A very lawful character is more likely to have that kind of loyalty to the regime and not so much in the way of qualms about betrayal.
Finally, there's no guarantee that these guys will be as easy to win over as Bishop Carr (who turned over pretty quickly...I was expecting much more resistance as that situation developed). We've been pretty fortunate along these lines thus far, I don't know how much we want to tempt fate.
Thus, I'd rather not worry about some overly complex scheme to do everything we possibly can at this place and time and just grab the blade and move on.
But I appear to be in the minority.
