Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Karzai's Brother on C.I.A. Payroll

So the big story from last night, by the New York Times, Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll. "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."

I'm really not surprised, but I think Spencer Ackerman put it well: "At this point, everything about the U.S. policy toward the Afghan drug trade — from tolerance to eradication during the Bush administration to an evolving approach to cultivating alternatives — now ought to be questioned. As in questioned in open congressional session. CIA money funds a politically connected drug dealer. Opium funds the Taliban. We are in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. How much CIA money has indirectly funded the Taliban?"

And of course, this is right after John Kerry (D-MA) said (oh so slowly) all those good things about him.

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