Karzai's Brother On C.I.A. Payroll: NYT

WASHINGTON — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the president of Afghanistan, gets regular payments from the CIA and has for much of the past eight years, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said that according to current and former American officials, 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.

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.

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.

"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," Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military intelligence official in Afghanistan, was quoted by the Times in an article published on its Web site.

Ahmed Wali Karzai told the Times that he cooperates with American civilian and military officials but does not engage in the drug trade and does not receive payments from the CIA.

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. 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 Times said.

Karzai also helps the CIA communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban, the newspaper reported.

CIA spokesman George Little declined to comment on the report.

Comments

[jackbutler5555]

In dealing with the bad guys, we've got two ways to go -- Put our youn people in harms way or get the CIA to deal with it. One kills our soldiers; the other involves us sometimes in a little corruption.

[darthmaul]

The irony of this is that Karzai's brother Ahmed, takes money from the CIA-USA with one hand ostensibly to "help" the US with intel etc. And then he in effect funds the Taliban by trafficking in Opium-Heroin with the other hand. It's a sweet deal for him! And very stupid for us. We look like we are funding and protecting a crime family consisting of the Karzai brothers.

Can anybody tell me when the CIA actually did something that benefited the United States? One of their "big successes" was to provide munitions, financial support etc to the Afghanistan Mujaheddin to fight the Soviet Union. Boy, that really turned out well, didn't it!

[JFD8]

The CIA is patriotic
In making a deal symbiotic;
With Karzai on board
The U.S. reward
Is access to his crop narcotic.

News Short n' Sweet by JFD8
http://twitter.com/JFD8

[jasonkulha]

And we wonder why Afghanistan has become the number one exporter or heroin since the good ole USA got there in 2003? Its clear that the CIA is supplying the drugs to the inner cities in the US in order to continue to feed their "War on Drugs". I believe that they are doing this in order to have a never ending supply of minorities to fill all of their jails and prisons. The correction's industry is HUGE, the money spent on law enforcement is HUGE, oh and bu the way it get people use to living in a police state. We need to stand up people. It breaks my heart to look at what MY Country is doing to people. God help the USA, we really need it.

[Durango]

They have been growing poppies in Afghanistan for a long long time.

They are growing more because their country has been devastated by 30 years of war. Other peoples war for the most part. And the lack of any authority.

In the old days anyone could grow hashish. But the opium trade was the Kings.

[Kaviraj]

Sorry mate, your information is incomplete. During the Taliban rule, poppies were no longer grown - result; price of opiates rose out of the pan. After the US attacked Afghanistan to "get bin-Laden", the Taliban allowed poppy growing to finance their war against the occupants. Now it is rampant again.

You want to bet with me that poppies will be outlawed again as soon as the US leaves?

[blueskybigstar]

The justice system in America is absolutely broken. We will not have confidence in our economy until the criminals are brought to justice. Everything wrong in America is because of corruption. The people are cynical.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STARVED FOR JUSTICE

[WeMustSpeakOut]

Justice will have to come from outside of our country. Our government of criminals certainly aren't going to hold themselves accountable.

[blueskybigstar]

Eric Holder is going after Allen Stanford who is CIA and a drug dealer, so this gives me hope. So does the fact that Sotomayor immediately began to take on the corporations. I hear Alito is under investigation.

[holeybuybull]

For anyone who didn't read "Confessions of aan Economic Hitman", Perkins describes the CIA as the enforcement arm of the multi-national corporations. While we're focused on the Afghanistan opium connection to the CIA, let's not forget the only country where we have a strong presence in South America is the major source of cocaine - Colombia.

[blueskybigstar]

Everywhere we go drugs seem to spread.

[ProudPrimate]

It goes way back, for that matter. Smedley Butler said in the 30's:

"There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its ‘finger men’ (to point out enemies), its ‘muscle men’ (to destroy enemies), its ‘brain men’ (to plan war preparations), and a “Big Boss” (super-nat­ionalistic capitalism).

It may seem odd for a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups.

I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested...."

[holeybuybull]

Looks like "Poppy" is still calling the shots.

[Marcospinelli]

"Obama is in a catch 22, and it is time he decide how he's going to get out of it....protecting the Bush family is not the way to go."
==========­==========­==========­====

Only the American people are ig.no.rant of what the CIA has been up to & doing to other people around the world for the past 50 years.

Obama really isn't in a catch 22. The secret & trick to America & democracy has always been embodied in that line from the old Superman TV series of the 1950s: "The neverending battle for truth, justice and the American way."

The minute you start to bargain over telling anything but the truth, upholding justice for all, you diverge from the American way. The real American way: Upholding the Constitution.

When we play it straight, it all works. The world loves us, the American people thrive with upward mobility for all of the classes (middle class expansion both in population size & wealth aquisition).

It's when we don't play it straight that everything goes to fashizzle. Because for every action there is an opposite & equal reaction. Beyond blowback, every problem we have can be traced to CIA's misadventures on behalf of corporations. Our foreign policy was designed by establishment elites (rich industrialists who hijacked control of the US government long ago) & has been driven by psychologically damaged conservatives.

By Obama's covering Bush's tracks, he's committed himself to continuing the crimes. More than an accessory after the fact; he's now a player.

[blueskybigstar]

I believe he is doing an investigation, but is cautious because he does not want to end up like what they did to J F K. You don't alert people to the fact that you are going to arrest them before you do it, especially when they are so ingrained and powerful.

Remember what happened to his p lane? That attempt on him?

[Marcospinelli]

"I believe he is doing an investigation"
==========­==========­=========

No, you've been taken in by the semantics' game of this very lawyerly administration.

Eric Holder has ordered what he calls "a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations."

Holder's decision does not amount to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, since a preliminary review is used, as he emphasized, "to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter."

More important, the scope of the "review" is limited at the outset to those who failed to "act in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance" -- meaning only those interrogators and other officials who exceeded the torture limits which John Yoo and Jay Bybee approved. Those who, with good faith, tortured within the limits of the OLC memos will "be protected from legal jeopardy".

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/24/holder/index.html

[Marcospinelli]

"he does not want to end up like what they did to J F K. You don't alert people to the fact that you are going to arrest them before you do it, especially when they are so ingrained and powerful."
==========­==========­==========­=

You do realize that these are pipe dreams that you're pulling out of your @$$, don't you?

[holeybuybull]

Wasn't it amazing when Clinton and GHW Bush started hanging out together? Now we see Obama giving a speech at the GHW Bush Presidential Library, with Bush's blessing. They've both been co-opted by Poppy.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

That is exactly right!! We would all be better off if more people understood this!

[monicaangela]

Not all of the American people are ignorant of the what the CIA has done, many of us who have lived in foreign nations among the people of those nations have heard accounts of the hair raising stories of what has been happening.

My idea of a catch 22 for the present President is this. How would he admit to injustices committed by past regimes and not have nations then take his admission of guilt to court, along with him and his evidence for knowing what the guilty parties did. Also too, a case like that definitely wouldn't be arraigned in American courts, so he would have to end up eventually in a world court...how would that look?

I believe all you have said, however I'm not so sure he is a player, I believe he trying to undo some of the wrong that has been done, without having to have those that are guilty taken to court in the name of the nation....those cases could last until nobody would know what the case was about or who started it. It's definitely a catch 22, d a m n e d if you do, d a m n e d if you don't .... the President is a lot smarter than I am, and if he can't figure out how to handle it, I'm sure I can't, and most other Americans probably can't either. 0 ;-)

[blueskybigstar]

I'm not concerned about lawsuits. I'm thinking Obama is more concerned about the demoralization of the troops if they find out the truth.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

A big time player. He covers the filthy tracks of Bu$h 41 and 43!

[sarah2010]

Maddow brought this up briefly during her show last night. I wonder if she'll delve off further into it tonight? She said she would, but after reading the stuff in these comments I can't even lie if I had my own TV show I would be scared to talk about it.

[harriettubman]

When I heard this on the news I almost fell off the couch!!!! No wonder no questions were asked of Karzai.

Between sending millions of tax payer dollars to Somoa, which was wasted, and this mess, no wonder the U.S. is near financial collapse. Totally irresponsible!!! What does Cheney have to say about this???????

The U.S. should call in all loans, tell countries we will not be sending any more funds to them, this includes ALL U.S. territories as well! We need to get this country back on track with fiscal responsibility.

[blueskybigstar]

Cleaning up corruption will save more money than that. A lot of the world depends on the money we send them.

[harriettubman]

Since when is it our responsibilty to provide for another country? When?

[KarateKid]

I've seen the comments in this blog about the CIA, but Karzai's exposure raises another disquieting thought: I agree that the CIA is embedded in the fabric of our society (without turning into a conspiracy theorist) but they are not the only organization of its kind. All the top powers of the world have similar organizations, so the broader question is: How deep is the corruption WORLDWIDE? And are most of them in cahoots?

If this is true, it is remarkable that OBL has been able to escape the dragnet and certainly explains why the new type of _warfare is so effective.

[blueskybigstar]

This is a false equivalency. The CIA has been involved with the d e a t h s of six million people. Just because ours is so bad does not mean all the others are.

[Kaviraj]

That is a naieve comment.
The MI5 and MI6 are as much involved as the CIA. So was the KGB, the Bundeskriminal Amt, the French and Italian secret services and even the Dutch BBI.

How did you think the British won the opium war with China? Because the Dutch East India Company forced the Indonesians to grow poppies to flood the Chinese market.

This goes back a long way and involves all governemnts.

[ProudPrimate]

OBL was CIA to the max until his death in 2001

[blueskybigstar]

No riega, S. Hussein, OBL.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

Yes.

[FrTown]

So does this mean that the See Eye Aye shot down the two helicopters yesterday? You know, to protect their crop from bad Dee Eee Aye agents.

[FrTown]

So does this mean that the C!.A shot down the two helico.pters yesterday? You know, to protect their crop from bad D3A ag.ents.

[Gracie fr]

Goodness…. The C.I.A. furnished pilots, planes and cold hard cash to the Golden Triangle drug smugglers before enlarging a lucrative idea into a carbon copy Golden Crescent enterprise . The October 2001 Afghan bombing campaign was followed by 5000 ground troops in what has rightly been called “counter terrorism on the cheap”. And in order to keep the operation going, the U.S. turned a blind eye to all those Warlords running opium. The dark side of adventure capitalism has added insult to injury in Afghanistan

[gladys46]

If you haven't already, and would like to, please take Sen. Durbin's urgent poll:

http://ga3.org/dickdurbin/po_poll.html?member_key=esi73ggr9j3e56wk&qp_source=popoll