Hamid Karzai Will 'Definitely Not' Allow Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Back Into Afghanistan

On his way to Kabul in March, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) suddenly found himself stranded in Dubai, banned from entering Afghanistan by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. While in Chicago for the NATO summit on Monday, Karzai told CNN that the ban would "definitely not" be ending any time soon.

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Karzai blamed the ban on Rohrabacher's provocative comments about his leadership and the future of Afghanistan. "A democratically elected congressman of the United States of America should not be talking of an ethnic divide in Afghanistan, should not be interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs," he said, adding, "If an Afghan did that from Afghanistan, how would you react to him in America?"

Rohrabacher has been a frequent critic of Karzai, accusing his regime of corruption and attempting to launch an investigation into his family finances. He has also repeatedly called for the United States to give a larger political role to groups like the National Front, formerly known as the Northern Alliance, with which he has long-standing ties.

While Rohrabacher has said he simply wants all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups represented, Karzai believes that his calls are disrespectful attempts to break up his country.

"No foreigner has a place asking another people, another country, to change their constitution," Karzai told Blitzer, asking, "If an Afghan member of parliament stood up and said the United States should be divided in five different regions, would you accept that?"

Karzai did leave open the possibility that Rohrabacher could be allowed back into Afghanistan in the future, but he demanded that the California Republican first change his tone. The ban will not be lifted, he said, "until he changes his tongue, until he shows respect to the Afghan people, to our way of life and to our constitution.

UPDATE: Rohrabacher fired back at Karzai in comments made on Tuesday, saying that "Karzai represents corrupt and incompetent leadership and a top down structure of government that is totally inconsistent with Afghan tradition and culture. He’s also totally misrepresented my position. I’ve never advocated splitting the country."

“Right now, I’m more concerned with getting American troops out of that country so they won’t continue to needlessly die than I am getting myself into Afghanistan to meet with officials like Karzai," he said.

Comments

[wooper]

07:05 PM on 05/25/2012

Oh, NOW he's concerned about getting the troops out of a war that we started.

Suddenly the GOP are doves....until they win the election. They want the troops available for the Iran invasion.

What BS!!

[carbar4647]

07:09 AM on 05/23/2012

But, hey, I will take the billions of dollars you will send to me so I can sock it away for my retirement, if I live long enough after the USA leaves.

[john649]

05:36 AM on 05/23/2012

ahhh, the big mouth republican is ganna show'em all right!!
Looks like this macho egotistical attitude works like charm!!

as they continue to make fun of Obama.....whose getting the respect.

[sakovkt]

11:21 PM on 05/22/2012

"A democratically elected congressman of the United States of America should not,,be interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs"

So, what, exactly, have we been doing in Afgahnistan for the last ten years?

[Rexter]

09:24 AM on 05/23/2012

Uh, um, nation building!

[wonderinoutloud]

10:00 PM on 05/22/2012

Karzai might be a train wrech, but I can't hate him from barring these bloviating rascals entry. However, it's not such a good idea, if he wants continuing $ flowing his way.

[ccsysglf]

06:21 AM on 05/23/2012

oh the $ will flow untill the last spoon full of their natural resources are gone.. business ya now...

[wonderinoutloud]

06:54 AM on 05/23/2012

What besides opium poppies in addition to murder, mayhem and supression of women are natural resources of Afghanistan? Yor marxist knee jerk mantra is tiresome.

[rockymtnleather]

09:59 PM on 05/22/2012

Did hell just freeze over!?! I agree with a republican!?!

Rohrabacher fired back at Karzai in comments made on Tuesday, saying that "Karzai represents corrupt and incompetent leadership and a top down structure of government that is totally inconsistent with Afghan tradition and culture. He’s also totally misrepresented my position. I’ve never advocated splitting the country."

“Right now, I’m more concerned with getting American troops out of that country so they won’t continue to needlessly die than I am getting myself into Afghanistan to meet with officials like Karzai," he said.

[windwisper]

12:13 AM on 05/23/2012

Too bad that Obama has already agreed to keep our troops there until 2024 at a cost of an additional 2 billion a year when they should be the ones paying us to be there instead of us paying them to do their dirty work

[JayBee 12]

02:46 PM on 05/23/2012

Apparently you really don't know what you're talking about. All combat troops will be out of Afghanistan by 2014. The Strategic Partnership Agreement, which you can read here...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/2012.06.01u.s.-afghanistanspasignedtext.pdf

doesn't call for keeping combat troops in Afghanistan past 2014. Maybe you could actually read it before you spout off nonsense.

[f1bravo]

09:46 PM on 05/22/2012

Based on their ations or lack of the same a lot of congressmen & senators should not be welcome in this country either. As a group their accomplishments speak for themselves. What a bunch of worthless shysters & self serving crooks. They should all be fired. Only problem with that is it would create a highly dense pocket of unemployed individuals in the Washington D.C. area with absolutly no viable job skills.

[ta2t2o]

07:31 PM on 05/22/2012

" Rohrabacher fired back at Karzai in comments made on Tuesday" -

but he did it from Dubai and not Kabul. Point Karzai.

[miketothad]

07:30 PM on 05/22/2012

Diplomacy?
Please. Dana's a Republican tough guy!

[Enrique Iglesias]

08:10 PM on 05/22/2012

And if you check the Bank Accounts in Dubai and the UAE States; you will find big time properties owned by the family and big accounts in Euro's, American Dollars, etc.,

[miketothad]

10:51 PM on 05/22/2012

wtf...?

[Jan Rice]

09:40 PM on 05/22/2012

YOu have to play "tough" with these people...they disrespect us, lie to us...and really couldn't care less about our country or its congressmen...pathetic

[john649]

05:31 AM on 05/23/2012

yea, like it really worked!! give me a break....

[skatulaki]

06:02 PM on 05/22/2012

Rohrabacher also has no business being elected to Congress:

On November 4, 2005, The Los Angeles Times reported that Rohrabacher "used his influence in Washington for a Hollywood producer pitching a television show after the producer paid him a $23,000 option on a screenplay." The producer, Joseph Medawar, has since been indicted on fraud charges by the FBI and plead not guilty.

Rohrabacher is connected to indicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was charged with fraud in connection with his purchase of the SunCruz Casinos. Rohrabacher was listed as a financial reference for Abramoff. "I don't remember it, but I would certainly have been happy to give him a good recommendation," Rohrabacher said. "He's a very honest manRohrbacher is a "college friend" of Abramoff, and has been "his most steadfast defender on Capitol Hill."

According to an article in The Weekly Standard, "...Rohrabacher was brought in to help muster support from inside the White House" for the 1985 Jamba Democratic International, a summit of right-wing insurgent groups at the headquarters of UNITA in the Angolan bush. It was co-organized by Abramoff and Jack Wheeler. According to the UK Observer, the event was "...attended by the extreme Right: members of the Oliver North group, Laotian guerrillas, Nicaraguan Contras, Afghan mujahideen and South African security police."

During the proceeding, the assembled fighters listened to " Lehrman read a letter Rohrabacher had drafted on Reagan's behalf, expressing solidarity with those struggling against the Soviet empire."

[falcon303]

05:57 PM on 05/22/2012

Thank stupid( bush) for driving America to a war we do not want. The cruds their are not worth one American life.

[shirleyA]

05:55 PM on 05/22/2012

Karzai IS corrupt!! "Leaders" such as Karzai, Calderon, and Chavez have
stood on US soil to denounce American citizens and their polices, yet he has
no problem with American blood on his soil. This guy makes me sick!

[bohikke]

05:54 PM on 05/22/2012

Karzai action shows the contempt he has for the American government and its president. He should know that when Obama withdraws [surrenders] in Afghanistan, Karzai will be looking for asylum.

[sigmetsue]

09:43 PM on 05/22/2012

Obama is not surrendering. He's just leaving an unwinnable war. Nobody has conquered and held Afghanistan - not the British, not the Russians, not Alexander the Great, - nobody. And not us, either.

Afghanistan is no longer a threat to us. We have no good reason to be there except to keep the Afghans from killing each other. And that's not our problem to solve. Yes, the Taliban probably will take over parts of the country, and they are wicked people. But, again, that's not our problem to solve.

If the Taliban are dumb enough to welcome Al Qaida with open arms - well, then we can teach them a few more lessons - with drones and missiles, not with American blood.

[snakedoctorPhD]

05:47 PM on 05/22/2012

In my humble opinion, we're pissing our treasure and lives away on Karzai's Folly. That backwords country will never be brought into the 21st century. I assume that Karzai and his cohorts are stealing millions. Do we really need another dictator of a "mickey-mouse" country?

[rockymtnleather]

10:01 PM on 05/22/2012

He wears pretty blankets though.

[tom sproule]

01:24 PM on 05/23/2012

And that Baked Alaska cake he balances on his head is so fly!!

[skatulaki]

05:46 PM on 05/22/2012

Rohrabacher has no business going there he is part of the problem not any solution.

Mr. Rohrabacher had a history of involvement in Afghanistan dating back to the Cold War, when he openly supported the groups that would later coalesce into the Taliban regime for their active opposition to the Soviet Union, including fighters under the command of Osama bin Laden.

In late 1988, Rohrabacher went to Afghanistan:

After I left the White House and was elected to Congress, but before I was sworn into Congress, I knew I had that two months between November and January to do things that I could never do once I was elected to Congress. I chose to hike into Afghanistan as part of a small Mujahedin unit and to engage in a battle against the Russian and communist forces near and around the city of Jalalabad.

In the November/December 1996 issue of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Rohrabacher was reported as saying that the Taliban were not terrorists or revolutionaries, that they would develop a disciplined society that would leave no room for terrorists, and that the Taliban posed no threat to the United States.[2]

However, in a September 11, 1998, editorial in the The Washington Post, Rohrabacher strongly rebuked the Taliban for their obstinacy in providing refuge to Osama bin Laden, mass killings of Shi'ites and ethnic Uzbeks, Turks, and Tajiks, and restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and children:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dana_Rohrabacher