Afghan president's brother denies getting CIA pay
KABUL (AP) - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president, on Wednesday denied reports that he has received regular payments from the CIA for much of the past eight years.
The New York Times, citing current and former American officials, reported Tuesday that the CIA 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 Kandahar.
Karzai called the report "ridiculous."
"I work with the Americans, the Canadians, the British, anyone who asks for my help. They (CIA) do their own recruitment. I have no idea where they get their recruits. It's absolutely ridiculous," he told The Associated Press in Afghanistan.
The CIA's ties to Karzai, who is a suspected player in the country's illegal opium trade, have created deep divisions within the Obama administration, the Times said.
Allegations that Karzai is involved in the drug trade have circulated in Kabul for months. He denies them.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs refused to confirm, comment on or directly pass judgment on Karzai's relationship with the CIA, but suggested the Obama administration would not endorse that sort of arrangement.
"This administration is, as you know, conducting a comprehensive assessment as to where we are. And every participant in any meeting that's happened here as part of that assessment understands that we have to have and must have a partner that addresses governance issues as we move forward," Gibbs said Wednesday.
CIA spokesman George Little declined to comment on the newspaper report.
Critics say the ties with Karzai complicate the United States' increasingly tense relationship with his older brother, President Hamid Karzai. 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.
Some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, a central figure in the south of the country where the Taliban is dominant, undermines the U.S. push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.
Karzai helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists, according to several American officials, the Times reported. Karzai also is paid for allowing the CIA and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city, which also is the base of the Kandahar Strike Force, the newspaper said.
Karzai also helps the CIA communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban, the newspaper reported.
A congressional official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the story is accurate and said that some members of Congress have known about the relationship between Karzai and the CIA "for some time." The offical spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Afghans vote Nov. 7 in a runoff presidential election between Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah. The second round was ordered after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes from the Aug. 20 ballot, determining widespread fraud, and pushed Karzai's totals below the 50 percent threshold needed for a first-round victory.
MyWay
Finally, someone threw Karzai under the bus.
The New York Times, citing current and former American officials, reported Tuesday that the CIA 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 Kandahar.
Karzai called the report "ridiculous."
"I work with the Americans, the Canadians, the British, anyone who asks for my help. They (CIA) do their own recruitment. I have no idea where they get their recruits. It's absolutely ridiculous," he told The Associated Press in Afghanistan.
The CIA's ties to Karzai, who is a suspected player in the country's illegal opium trade, have created deep divisions within the Obama administration, the Times said.
Allegations that Karzai is involved in the drug trade have circulated in Kabul for months. He denies them.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs refused to confirm, comment on or directly pass judgment on Karzai's relationship with the CIA, but suggested the Obama administration would not endorse that sort of arrangement.
"This administration is, as you know, conducting a comprehensive assessment as to where we are. And every participant in any meeting that's happened here as part of that assessment understands that we have to have and must have a partner that addresses governance issues as we move forward," Gibbs said Wednesday.
CIA spokesman George Little declined to comment on the newspaper report.
Critics say the ties with Karzai complicate the United States' increasingly tense relationship with his older brother, President Hamid Karzai. 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.
Some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, a central figure in the south of the country where the Taliban is dominant, undermines the U.S. push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.
Karzai helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists, according to several American officials, the Times reported. Karzai also is paid for allowing the CIA and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city, which also is the base of the Kandahar Strike Force, the newspaper said.
Karzai also helps the CIA communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban, the newspaper reported.
A congressional official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the story is accurate and said that some members of Congress have known about the relationship between Karzai and the CIA "for some time." The offical spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Afghans vote Nov. 7 in a runoff presidential election between Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah. The second round was ordered after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes from the Aug. 20 ballot, determining widespread fraud, and pushed Karzai's totals below the 50 percent threshold needed for a first-round victory.
MyWay
Finally, someone threw Karzai under the bus.
9 Comments:
Yeah, you may be too young to remember, but that's the way Kennedy fucked up the VN war. Took the less than ideal leader and his people willing to take on our enemies, threw him under the bus (actually had him killed), and it was all downhill from there. From that point on, the VN willing to fight looked over their shoulder or got the hell out of Dodge and the rest hid behind US troops when they weren't running away. It became our war without the will to win. You know that thing about history?
If he was our last best only hope, then we might as well get out now while we are ahead.. I heard Rush today too..
I didn't listen to Rush, but I did talk to a VN vet who may have been reminded of the similarities. He's a big Rush fan. But it hardly takes an intellectual to recognize where this is headed... even I have it figured out. I won't support another of my kids taking part in this farce. We lack the will to win and pretend war is different than it has always been. If you won't mercilessly kill your enemy and all those who are willing to support them, you won't ever truly win.
You hang on to that idealism. It will get beaten out of you eventually. You REALLY think that Afghans want liberty for themselves and their neighbors and are willing to fight and die to get and keep it? And you thought Bush was naive? I don't think there are enough Americans willing to sacrifice for liberty HERE, TODAY! The best men and women we have are being wasted when they are needed here more than ever.
"The best men and women we have are being wasted when they are needed here more than ever."
I wont argue with that
"You REALLY think that Afghans want liberty"
It worked for the Indians, Afgh/Pak are after all extensions of India, sorta. Why not?
No one can know till it's tried, but I still think the wind can be on our side. All you have to do is point in the right direction.
Except for my great objections to declaring India to be a nation in which individual rights are valued, you seem to miss the point that Pak-Afghanistan are Islamic states. We are going to great lengths to pretend that's compatible with liberty, but we both know that's a joke and the reason why it will fail. Islam is antithetical to individual rights at it's heart. I wouldn't waste one drop of American blood to install or preserve an Islamic state. If that's what they want, let them have it and respond to it in the proper fashion when it intrudes upon our interests. Beyond that, have fun among yourselves. I gotta believe at this point they at least understand they can't harbor Osama's and enjoy their tyranny, I mean religion, to its fullest potential.
"you seem to miss the point that Pak-Afghanistan are Islamic states."
not our doing
"I wouldn't waste one drop of American blood to install or preserve an Islamic state."
Please, if the king walked by, you'd probably kiss his feet.
Not our doing? No, but we are enablers.
Kiss a king's feet? I have more respect for my ancestors than that. No matter who I'm with or where I am, I express disgust with various cursewords every time I see a US official pay homage to any royalty. I think it's disgusting to show special respect to a person holding a position of authority or honor merely by being born to it. That's as unAmerican as it gets. I was ready to go postal when Princess Diana died.
"No, but we are enablers."
We made the deal. Maybe that was a mistake, maybe we should seek amendments, or alternatives. But that still on us.
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