U.S. Military Links Karzai Brother to Drugs
EmailU.S. military documents, obtained by ABC News, list the brother of Afghanistan president Karzai as a "problem maker" in the pay of drug lords. Wali Karzai is described in the documents as "receives money from drug lords as bribe to facilitate their work and movement." The documents, marked secret, appear to be part of a "U.S. military targeting assessment" produced in January 2005. The documents were downloaded from a computer flash disc sold at an Afghanistan street bazaar for $200. Nine other prominent Afghanis are also listed as "problem makers" for a variety of reasons, including connections to opium drug lords. Wali Karzai strongly denied the allegations in an interview with ABC News today in Kandahar. "I was never in the drug business, I never benefited, I never facilitated, I never helped anyone with the transportation of any kind," he said. There had been previous speculation of the presidential brother’s alleged connection to drugs, but the U.S. military documents are the first indication of how seriously the charges are taken by American officials. A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the content of the documents although one official said, "They do appear to be genuine." The Los Angeles Times reported on similar documents discovered in a street bazaar in April, but did not report the allegations about Karzai. U.S. officials say they continue to investigate how sensitive documents ended up in the street bazaar.
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In Risen’s book, “State of War,” specifically in the chapter, Losing Afghanistan, he talks about the Pentagon’s permissive attitude toward heroin there, because so many people in the Afghan government were involved.
It looks like the dots are being connected here…
Posted by: SPENCER ADAMS | June 22, 2006, 5:43 pm 5:43 pm
Well it runs in the family. Karzai was many years in the pay of the oil lords as a US oil company executive helping them to pander to America’s addiction to oil.
Posted by: Paul Gore | June 22, 2006, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
How else would the intelligence community get the drugs they need to sell to fund black operations? Nobody remembers Iran Contra either, eh?
Posted by: Eric | June 22, 2006, 8:29 pm 8:29 pm
If they read it from papers they bought at a flea market…hey, it must be true.
Right?
Posted by: zach | June 22, 2006, 8:48 pm 8:48 pm
Hey! What can I say?…Jimmy Carter had brother Billy…and Hamid Karzi has brother Wali.
Hopefully, President Karzi, a critical partner to the US initiative against regional terrorism, will not be seriously
weakened by this incident. Especially, a partner who is on the front lines in the war against the Taliban thugs and the Bin Laden gangsters.
Posted by: Kevin Gilday | June 22, 2006, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
This is a serious allegation! If it is found to be true, major clean up is needed in the Afhgan goverment…
Posted by: Chris Wong | June 23, 2006, 5:37 am 5:37 am
So, Karzai’s brother is a “problem maker”. Yawn. Too bad that monitoring the Kennedy clan is off limits to the US military.
Posted by: penny | June 23, 2006, 8:02 am 8:02 am
I am not suprise at all it seem that every head of state thru out the world has somebody involved in some kind of under hand deals going on. What we need to do is find out if it is 100% true and then take him out so his brother, will not be touch by this and the President can run the country the right way, and do the job that need to be done.
Posted by: Ken Lotito | June 23, 2006, 8:16 am 8:16 am
Crime Don’t Pay!.
Posted by: Sharon Compton | June 23, 2006, 8:30 am 8:30 am
Maybe we should buy all the flash disks we can and uncover where Bin Laden is so that those who REALLY want to end this war can go get him. Think about this: If we had captured or killed Bin Laden we would have no villain to stay there indefinitely for, and this would cost the military Industrial Complex many Billions in profits! Also without Bin Laden’s perfectly timed rhetorical attacks on Bush maybe he would have lost the election! Bin Laden and Bush obviously want the same things….Recruiting strategies for soldiers and political leverage. They need each other in the current positions to achieve this. Bin Laden can proudly take credit for several thousand more dead American soldiers and citizens and Bush can get credit for killing tens of thousands of “Terrorist” and Arab Citizens. Why would either of them want the other to go away?
Posted by: Matt | June 23, 2006, 9:00 am 9:00 am
Interesting how this tidbit turns up in the news the day after President Karzai dared to question hundreds of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. operations in his country. I am disappointed that ABC News failed to recognize the obvious relevance of that context in reporting this story.
Posted by: Steve | June 23, 2006, 11:44 am 11:44 am
Hmmm shades of Noriega. Cross the USA and you suddenly become a drug lord that must be removed from the power that the USA placed you in , in the first place. If Karzai stopped complaining about American military practices his drug connection would disappear. It would be laughable if people didn’t suffer and die because of the nonsense our government spouts.
Posted by: Melissa | June 24, 2006, 4:36 am 4:36 am
Pure Hipocracy!
Posted by: Ed May | June 25, 2006, 7:48 am 7:48 am
the problem is kharzai is george w bush’s employee STILL to this day
Posted by: hamza | August 26, 2006, 10:53 pm 10:53 pm
And the Afghan government has the gall to complain about U.S. military operations? It’s the U.S. military who’s trying hard to rebuild his country! Now if only they let them do their jobs, there wouldn’t be druglords.
Posted by: marg | August 4, 2007, 8:16 pm 8:16 pm
I have to say no body likes him, not only in kandahar all over the country he is not helping the people in fact he’s using his power on poor Afghan people it has been mentioned many times there is no one to hear all the people
Posted by: gran | August 29, 2007, 5:03 pm 5:03 pm
It is not close to the justice, his otherp partner ( Bush) aslo should be publicized.
Posted by: Malyar | September 19, 2007, 7:58 am 7:58 am
Hi all.
beig a resident of Kandahar city, I can say that those documents were true, Wali Karzai is the only problem maker in Kandahar,he was also supported by Kandahar previous governer Khalid.
He is too much against the Sherzai because of this drug business.
Posted by: Seddiqullah | September 10, 2008, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
Being a frequent visitor to Kandahar, I can tell you that Wali Karzai is not only involved in the drug trade but is involved in the theft of property such as houses, and is involved in protection.
But be careful, S, careless talk costs lives.
Posted by: Hipshot | October 18, 2008, 3:11 pm 3:11 pm