Karzai's brother 'on CIA payroll'
US engagement under question after deal with suspected drug dealer
Thursday, 29 October 2009
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US involvement in Afghanistan has come into new question with the claim that President Hamid Karzai's brother has for years been on the payroll of the CIA – even though he is suspected of being a major figure in the illicit opium trade that Washington and its allies are pledged to do everything to stamp out.
The allegations against Ahmed Wali Karzai, set out yesterday in The New York Times and attributed to current and former US officials, paint a picture of a shadowy potentate and powerbroker with a finger in every pie, whose fief is the south of the country, heartland of the Taliban insurgency.
They could not have emerged at a more awkward time for the Obama administration, as it approaches a critical decision on American troop strength in the country. That decision in turn will be heavily influenced by the outcome of the run-off between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister, scheduled for 7 November.
After the uproar over the fraud-ridden original election that purported to return Hamid Karzai with an absolute majority of the vote, Washington is counting on the run-off to produce a government that commands trust across the country. That, many policymakers here argue, is an essential precondition if Barack Obama is to authorise the major troop increase sought by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan. The signs are that Mr Obama is leaning towards a strategy that would focus on protecting major population centres. This would require more troops than the 68,000 currently in Afghanistan, but not as many as the 40,000 extra or more requested by General McChrystal. But the calculations will inevitably now be even more delicate, amid the controversy over Ahmed Wali Karzai.
Yesterday, he described as "ridiculous" the claims he was being paid by the CIA. "I work with the Americans, the Canadians. The British, anyone who asks for my help," he said. "I've no idea where they [the CIA] get their recruits. It's absolutely ridiculous." The Agency refused to comment, as did Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman. But the affair has already caused divisions within the administration – between "realists" who argue the US has no choice but to work with powerful individuals, however distasteful they may be, and those who insist that the links with Ahmed Wali Karzai made a mockery of America's avowed efforts to promote a clean, trustworthy government.
It has also added to tensions between Washington and Hamid Karzai. According to the newspaper, US officials have pressed the Afghan leader to move his brother out of southern Afghanistan, where he is said to have grown rich by charging large transit fees for the drug traffickers whose activities finance the Taliban and feed corruption in the Kabul government. But President Karzai has refused, in effect protecting his brother from investigation.
Afghan president’s brother is a dope dealer and CIA informer?
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and the brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, has been paid by the CIA for the past eight years, The New York Times reported this week.
The newspaper claims he provides bases for the agency and acts as a Taliban contact. The newspaper also states Ahmed Karzai is deeply involved in the Afghan drug trade.
The Afghan President's brother has denied the allegations in The New York Times.
This leak is politically timed, argues American investigative journalist Gerald Posner, noting that intelligent agencies leaking information to a major newspaper right before the presidential run-off is suspect.
 Ahmed Wali Karzai |
The CIA always pay for the information but it never comes with a check marked “CIA, Langley, Virginia,” Posner said. It comes from a foreign company, so Ahmed Wali Karzai could probably swear under oath that he never got any financial support from the CIA and everybody would confirm it – with a wink of an eye.
Ahmed Wali Karzai is the brother of Hamid Karzai, who won the recent elections amid numerous accusations of fraud, and this creates a political problem for President Barack Obama. Afghanistan produces 93% of the world’s opium. Ahmed Wali Karzai is accused of being involved in the opium trade and working for the CIA simultaneously, making him a perfect political bomb.
Ahmed Wali Karzai has defenders at the highest levels of American politics, said Posner.
“Just the other day Senator John Kerry happened to be visiting Afghanistan and being asked what he thought about the evidence on Ahmed Wali Karza being a dope dealer,” he said. He answered that “he said he asked intelligence [about Karzai] and they have not produced one [piece of evidence].”
Karzai brother a drug-dealing CIA agent?
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