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Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll
The Political Carnival —
By GottaLaff Double take. Triple take: 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. 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 ...
Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News —
... created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate Americas 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. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.ht...
Afghan President’s Brother is on CIA Payroll
Open Left - Quick Hits's RSS Feed —
From the NY Times:
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...
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 ...
Brother of Afghan President Receives Payments From the CIA
Politics Daily —
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a suspected leader in the country's illegal opium trade, has been regularly paid by the CIA over the past eight years, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Karzai is paid for various services, including recruiting a paramilitary force that operates under CIA command in the southern province of Kandahar and providing a large military facility there. ...
Newspaper Roundup for Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CNSNews.com Headlines —
... plan to appeal penalty for racist symbols Prince William officials recommend expulsion for August incident San Francisco Chronicle: Oops: School recalls student t-shirts with sex chat number Houston Chronicle/World Entertainment News Network: Do men cheat with younger women due to fear of dying? Fox News/AP: 12 New Jersey Women Pose Nude for Prostate Awareness Calendar Washington Post: October is deadliest month of Afghanistan war New York Times: Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll Washington Post: ...
NY Times: CIA Put President Karzai's Drug-Smuggling Brother on Its Tab
Daily Kos —
... Now there is a new allegation, which could have significant fall-out for the Obama administration. Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen of The New York Times write that: ...
The Note's Must-Reads for Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Note —
... “October Deadliest Month for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan” LINK
ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, Huma Khan, and John Parkinson: “Matthew Hoh, a Senior Civilian Official in Afghanistan, Resigns Over U.S. Strategy” LINK
The New York Times’ Thom Shanker, Peter Baker and Helene Cooper: “U.S. to Protect Populous Afghan Areas, Officials Say” LINK
The New York Times’ Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and Hames Risen: “Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll” LINK
The New York Times’ Sabrina Tavernise and Alissa Rubin: “3 U.N. Workers Killed in ...
Afghanistan = (f) Viet Nam mindset
Blue Virginia —
They are not identical, but for those who have been at this junction before, the road less travelled looks even better this morning. We have our own corrupt Ngo Dinh Diem style regime and an American public that was misled about the “war.” Recall, if Viet Nam fell, it would be the beginning of a domino effect that would result in the collapse of America. ...
Does this surprise anyone?
Brilliant at Breakfast —
... easily in that country's hot, moist climate. During our proxy war with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the late 1970's to early 1980's, in which we armed the mujehadeen that later became Al-Qaeda, there was an uptick in heroin use. During our involvement in Central America during the Reagan years, we saw cocaine use rise. And ever since we've been back in Afghanistan, it's been heroin again. Kind of a coinkydink, don't you think? So why is it any surprise that Hamid Karzai's brother is simultaneously an opium trader AND working for the CIA: ...
Need To Read: October 28, 2009
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo —
Today's must-reads are brought to you by the letters C, I, and A:
Holy Schnikes: Afghan President's brother, a major opium dealer, is on CIA payroll (NYT)
Is Obama Planning to Shut Down the Internet? (MoJo)
Bill would put costs of bank rescues on big companies (NYT)
Sen. James Inhofe, "the last flat-earther" (WaPo)
Crime and politics: The velvet glove (The Economist)
How the ...
Report: Karzai’s Brother On CIA Payroll
Below The Beltway —
Yea, this is gonna go well:
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.
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 ...
Hard Counts: There’s a big ‘I’ in ‘Win’ as Reid shops for votes
The Note —
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Who can count around here? (And who would want to know the results right now, anyway?) Surely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn't go through all that trouble just to give Sen. Joe Lieberman (or, in truth, any other senator in the Democratic caucus who feels like it at any given moment) ...
The Early Word: War Moves
The Caucus —
... take over the mission. The President’s Brother The success of any new strategy in the war is widely believed to hinge on the outcome of Afghanistan’s presidential election. The administration of Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, has been weakened by allegations of impropriety all the way up the chain of command. And the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is alleged to be complicit in the the country’s opium trade and recent vote fraud. It also happens that Mr. Karzai, the brother, has been on the C.I.A.’s payroll for the past eight years , officials told The Times’s Dexter ...
The Afghan's CIA President
Booman Tribune —
The GOP is right about some things. Government can sometimes waste your tax dollars needlessly. For example, the Ruler of Kabul's President of Afghanistan's brother and "alleged" drug dealer is a bought and paid for CIA asset. ...
Allison Kilkenny: CIA Pays Off Another Afghan Despot, Hopes For The Best
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... The New York Times reports that 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. ...
Round Two
Mudville Gazette —
By the looks of it, this NY Times story was going to tell the whole truth: The Great American Arm-Twist in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan -- By the looks of it, the ceremony that unfolded last week inside the Presidential Palace here was marking a joyous, even triumphant, occasion.
President Hamid Karzai, flanked by Senator John Kerry and an array of Western ambassadors, had just announced that he would accept the revised vote totals showing that he had not won re-election after all. The president's decision meant the Afghan election would go to a second round, one ...
Today in Afghanistan News
Matthew Yglesias —
... Meanwhile, Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen report that for all the shiny talk about counterinsurgency the CIA has been running an old-school operation in Afghanistan, paying bribes to Hamid Karzai’s opium trafficking brother “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.” Leading COIN theorists ...
Karzai’s Bro
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
... [If] this is true, and if the CIA is empowering Ahmed Wali Karzai
at the same time in which NATO/ISAF is saying abusive local
power-brokers are a threat to mission success, then this is yet another
example of NATO/ISAF carrying out one campaign in Afghanistan while the
CIA carries out another -- with both campaigns operating at cross
purposes to one another. I should say here that I am in no position to
confirm or deny this report. I can, however, say that numerous military
officials in southern Afghanistan with whom I have spoken identify AWK
and his activities as the ...
Karzai's Brother A Spook?
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo —
... Afghan National Army soldiers display more than six kilograms of opium discovered in a former insurgent safe house in the Farah province of Afghanistan Dec. 16, 2007. (Photo courtesy of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghanistan) Today's biggest news is that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected drug kingpin, is "said to be" on the CIA's payroll. The scoop by the New York Times' Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen adds even more drama to the already ...
Dave Lindorff: America's Drug Crisis, Brought to You by the CIA
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash —
Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: "Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work." Kudos to The New York Times and to reporters Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen for their lead article today ...
Ahmed's side
Ben Smith's Blog —
Karzai's brother responds to the Times story on his CIA ties:
So why doesn’t the U.S. government coordinate its actions? Is it Kerry who is speaking for the government and I am not this evil person, or is it the anonymous sources in the Times article that says I am spy and drug dealer?
Carpe Diem?
The Best Defense —
... This New York Times article saying that Afghan
President Karzai's
brother is on the CIA's payroll strikes me as tantamount to declaring open
season on him. ...
Karzai's Brother and Washington's Kept Politicians -- By: NRO Staff
The Corner on National Review Online —
Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of the Afghan president, “a go-between between the Americans and the Taliban,” and “a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade,” the New York Times informs us, “gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years.” ...
A War That Can't Be Won
DownWithTyranny! —
Sunday I passed a TV someone had left on and Christiane Amanpour was talking with some expert about the Afghan opium trade and how it's worth $65 billion a year. That's a lot of money and a lot of sharp operators would like to control that very special non-taxed resource. Let's see... the Taliban, the CIA, the Russian Mafia, Karzai, the Pakistanis... Yesterday's NY Times had this whole story about how the guy who runs the opium trade for President Hamid Karzai, his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, is a CIA asset. Gee, I hope all those American kids aren't over there dying because the CIA-- who, believe it or not, lies to Congress when ...
Kerry: WH must brief Congress on CIA's relationship with Karzai's brother
News —
The possibility that the United States is receiving intelligence from a suspected Afghan drug trader raises "serious questions about the information Congress is receiving," the chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee said Wednesday. The New York Times' recent discovery that Ahmed Wali Karzai -- brother to Afghan President Hamid Karazi -- is on the CIA payroll has riled many on Capitol Hill today. Although Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Wednesday took a more tempered tone, advising lawmakers not to prematurely condemn Wali Karzai, he is now calling on the Obama administration to reveal to Congress the extent of its relationship with the ...
Briefing Skipper: Hillary in Pakistan, the UN & Cuba, Honduras, Iran sanctions
The Cable —
Normal
0
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's
daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of today's briefing
by Department Spokesman Ian Kelly:
In Islamabad today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had
lunch with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, met with
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, attended a program designed to help
Pakistan's poorest women and their families, and attended a dinner hosted by
President Asif Ali Zardari at the presidential residence. She pledged
$55 million for ...
Wednesday's Mini-Report
Political Animal —
WEDNESDAY'S MINI-REPORT.... Today's edition of quick hits: * Pakistan : "The arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pakistan was overshadowed Wednesday by a devastating car bomb that tore through a market in the northwest city of Peshawar, an attack aimed at civilians and marking a clear escalation in the Taliban campaign to undermine the government." At last count, the bomb killed as many as 101 people, most of them women, and wounded about 160. * Kabul : "Taliban militants wearing suicide vests stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing 12 people -- including six U.N. staff -- in ...
Karzai's corruption pipe dream
Newshoggers.com —
By Dave Anderson: The San Fransisco Gate is carrying a great whopper of a tall tale:
With his reputation sullied by the messy election, Karzai gave assurances Sunday that he would rid his government of corrupt officials. "Individuals who are involved in corruption will have no place in the government," Karzai said in an interview ...
