[CitizensTruth] ARTICLE-Brother of Afghan Leader is Said to be ...

[Walterb306 at cs.com]

All,

FYI. Articlele:  Brother of Afghan Leader is Said to be on CIA Payroll

Anybody surprised?

Beverley

Brother of Afghan Leader is said to be on CIA Payroll

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=1&hp

By DEXTER FILKINS, MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN
Published: October 27, 2009 

KABUL, Afghanistan - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president 
and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets 
regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of 
the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
 
Banaras Khan/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
Ahmed Wali Karzai, right, the brother of President Hamid Karzai of 
Afghanistan, at a campaign event in Kandahar in August. 
Related
U.S. to Protect Populous Afghan Areas, Officials Say (October 28, 2009) 
Times Topics: Hamid Karzai | Ahmed Wali Karzai | Afghanistan
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to 
recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.'s direction 
in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home. 
The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence 
agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America's war 
strategy, which is currently under review at the White House. 
The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama 
administration. The critics say the ties complicate America's increasingly tense 
relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained 
popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an 
American puppet. The C.I.A.'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.
More broadly, some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali 
Karzai, the most powerful figure in a large area of southern Afghanistan 
where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, undermines the American push to 
develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and 
eventually allow the United States to withdraw.
"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," said Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military 
intelligence official in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Wali Karzai said 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 C.I.A.
The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the C.I.A. is wide ranging, several 
American officials said. He helps the C.I.A. 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 officials said.
Mr. Karzai is also paid for allowing the C.I.A. 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," a senior American 
official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Karzai also helps the C.I.A. communicate with and sometimes meet with 
Afghans loyal to the Taliban. Mr. Karzai's role as a go-between between the 
Americans and the Taliban is now regarded as valuable by those who support 
working with Mr. Karzai, as the Obama administration is placing a greater 
focus on encouraging Taliban leaders to change sides. 
A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment for this article. 
"No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain these 
kind of allegations," said Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman.
Some American officials said that the allegations of Mr. Karzai's role in 
the drug trade were not conclusive.
"There's no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai's involvement in drug trafficking , 
certainly nothing that would stand up in court," said one American official 
familiar with the intelligence. "And you can't ignore what the Afghan 
government has done for American counterterrorism efforts."
At the start of the Afghan war, just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 
the United States, American officials paid warlords with questionable 
backgrounds to help topple the Taliban and maintain order with relatively few 
American troops committed to fight in the country. But as the Taliban has become 
resurgent and the war has intensified, Americans have increasingly viewed a 
strong and credible central government as crucial to turning back the 
Taliban's advances.
Now, with more American lives on the line, the relationship with Mr. Karzai 
is setting off anger and frustration among American military officers and 
other officials in the Obama administration. They say that Mr. Karzai's 
suspected role in the drug trade, as well as what they describe as the mafialike 
way that he lords over southern Afghanistan, makes him a malevolent force.
These military and political officials say the evidence, though largely 
circumstantial, suggests strongly that Mr. Karzai has enriched himself by 
helping the illegal trade in poppy and opium to flourish. The assessment of these 
military and senior officials in the Obama administration dovetails with 
that of senior officials in the Bush administration.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money are flowing through the 
southern region, and nothing happens in southern Afghanistan without the 
regional leadership knowing about it," a senior American military officer in Kabul 
said. Like most of the officials in this article, he spoke on the condition 
of anonymity because of the secrecy of the information.
Dexter Filkins reported from Kabul, and Mark Mazzetti and James Risen from 
Washington. Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington



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