Karzai's Brother Reportedly on CIA Payroll
(AP Photo/File)
The New York Times reported Wednesday that brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been on the CIA payroll for at least eight years, according to American officials.
Ahmed Wali Karzai (at left) is a powerful figure in the southern Kandahar province with reported ties to Afghanistan's opium trade, which is owned and operated largely by the Taliban.
According to the Times' sources, who were not named, Karzai has received "regular payments" from the American foreign spy agency in exchange for his organizing a paramilitary force in Kandahar which operates at the CIA's behest.
Allegations that Karzai is involved in the drug trade have circulated in Kabul for months.
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But Karzai denied the reports, calling them "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 American government's alleged clandestine partnership with such a controversial figure, reports the newspaper, has complicated President Obama's decision on how to alter the U.S. war strategy in the country and created divisions within Mr. Obama's administration.
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As the senior U.S. military intelligence official in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, told The Times: "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."
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.
(CBS)
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"I'm sure our military commanders there will disagree with it," said McCain, adding that it reveals a "possible lack of communication" between American military and intelligence operations in the Afghanistan.
"Karzai's brother should not be in the country," McCain added bluntly.
CBS News security analyst Juan Zarate told Smith that the timing of the New York Times report, "couldn't have been worse for the Obama administration."
"This undercuts any legitimate argument we were making about corruption in the Karzai regime," added Zarate.
According to the Times' report, Ahmed Wali Karzai has acknowledged cooperation with American officials, but denies receiving any payment from the Central Intelligence Agency, or involvement in the country's booming narcotics business.
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35 years. Islam is the only framework for governance in Afghanistan.
Sharia law will be the rule of law not are concept of rule of law and Iran, Pakistan, will send fighters if we send more troops and that may become a bloody truth because their all Islam. There are alot more of them than we can ever match and I think were going to get a bloody nose for sure.
As if the taliban are amy better than this drug dealer...
Thinking some of our more infamous companies must operate as fronts for the CIA. Wherever they go, corruption follows - whether it be in their billing, or among the officials of the indigenous governments.
Yet they are never really called on it - which is why I suspect a quasi-governmental function on their part.
The CIA is the biggest crime organization in the world. Drug traffickers, child sec traffickers, murderers, terrorists, torturers, black mailers and any thing else unimaginable.
It is more likely that the he was more useful in getting the CIA heroin. Or were you not aware the CIA has been busted at least 2 times for transporting huge amounts of narcotics by air?
.