Karzai's brother said to be on CIA payroll: NYT

[Spring Onion]

Karzai's brother said to be on CIA payroll: NYT
Indo-Asian News Service
New York, October 28, 2009



Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, has been getting regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the last eight years, according to the New York Times.

The US spy agency pays Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Karzai's home, it said in a report Wednesday from Kabul citing current and former American officials.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Karzai raise significant questions about America's war strategy, the influential US daily said. The CIA's practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban, it said.

Ahmed Wali Karzai told the Times in an interview that he cooperated with American civilian and military officials, but did not engage in the drug trade and did not receive payments from the CIA.

The relationship between Karzai and the CIA is wide ranging, several unnamed American officials were cited as saying. He helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists.

On at least one occasion, the strike force has been accused of mounting an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government; the daily said citing unnamed officials.

Karzai is also paid for allowing the CIA and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city - the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's founder.

The same compound is also the base of the Kandahar Strike Force. "He's our landlord," the Times quoted an unnamed senior American official as saying.

Karzai also helps the CIA communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban, the daily said.

The Times said Karzai's role as those who support working with Karzai, as the Obama administration is placing a greater focus on encouraging Taliban leaders to change sides, now regard a go-between between the Americans and the Taliban as valuable.

 

[Spring Onion]

WASHINGTON: Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the embattled Afghan president and a suspected drug trafficker, has been on the CIA payroll for most of the past eight years, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The US spy agency pays Karzai for a variety of services, the newspaper said, such as fielding recruits for an Afghan paramilitary force operating at the CIA’s direction in and around his home city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold.

He also helps the CIA contact and sometimes meet Taliban followers.

Karzai, who is said to have ties to Afghanistan’s lucrative illegal opium trade, has a ‘wide-ranging’ relationship with the CIA, the Times said, citing US officials.

On top of helping the agency operate the paramilitary group that targets suspected violent militants — the Kandahar Strike Force, Karzai is also paid for allowing the CIA and US Special Operations forces to rent a large compound outside Kandahar that once served as the home of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.

‘He’s our landlord,’ a senior US official told the newspaper.

Karzai denied receiving CIA payments or playing any role in the booming opium trade that helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency.’

‘I don’t know anyone under the name of the CIA,’ he told the newspaper. ‘I have never received any money from any organization. I help, definitely. I help other Americans wherever I can. This is my duty as an Afghan.’

The report came amid increasingly tense ties between President Barack Obama’s administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, long a darling of the West but whose legitimacy has been shaken by a fraud-marred first round of elections in August. A run-off has been set for November 7.

Some US officials argued that relying on Ahmed Wali Karzai undermines Washington’s efforts to help develop an effective and reliable Kabul government that can stand on its own.

‘If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves,’ Major General Michael Flynn, the top US military intelligence official in Afghanistan, told the daily.

While some US officials said Karzai was likely linked to drug trafficking, others said the intelligence was inconclusive.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told the Times: ‘No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain these kinds of allegations.’ —AFP

 

[FireFighter]

Why is this even a 'news'? Isn't it so obvious?


The whole of Karzai's regime are CIA and Indian agents. The whole world knows about it already.


it's a no-brainer, really!


I wonder what are the motivations behind releasing this piece of info to the US public at this point? and what would be its implications with a re-election looming over their heads? Any educated guesses or readings?


I think Now the US has admitted some of their failings in Afghanistan, I personally think they're in the midst of finding a scapegoat to give their presence much needed legitimacy which had been destroyed by their own military and political establishments.


achieve two objectives which i should mention later on..maybe start a new thread

 

[Spring Onion]

Yeh keeping in view the use or drug money by CIA for all its worldwide operations, it is no surprise.

It is also no surprise that drug trade has gone to sky level under US forces in Afghanistan

 

[khanz]

Why is this even a 'news'? Isn't it so obvious?


The whole of Karzai's regime are CIA and Indian agents. The whole world knows about it already.


it's a no-brainer, really!


I wonder what are the motivations behind releasing this piece of info to the US public at this point? and what would be its implications with a re-election looming over their heads? Any educated guesses or readings?


I think Now the US has admitted some of their failings in Afghanistan, I personally think they're in the midst of finding a scapegoat to give their presence much needed legitimacy which had been destroyed by their own military and political establishments.


achieve two objectives which i should mention later on..maybe start a new thread

atleast they are looking at themselves and exposing their own blunders this time it's a start