Solar Energy News  
THE STANS
Karzai's brother 'corrupt drugs baron' US says: WikiLeaks

Ahmed Wali Karzai.
by Staff Writers
Kabul (AFP) Nov 29, 2010
Leaked US documents on Monday painted President Hamid Karzai's controversial younger brother as a corrupt drugs baron, exposing deep US concerns about graft undermining the war against the Afghan Taliban.

Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks has started to release quarter of a million confidential US diplomatic cables, detailing embarrassing and inflammatory episodes in what the White House has condemned as a "reckless and dangerous action".

Ahmed Wali Karzai has long been dogged by allegations of unsavoury links to Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade and private security firms.

But as a powerful figure in Kandahar, where US forces are leading the fight to break a nine-year Taliban insurgency, Western officials have kept quiet in public on the president's younger half brother's tainted record.

Leaked cables from the US embassy in Kabul now reveal their true feelings in moves that could complicate already strained relations between Washington and Karzai at a key juncture in the war.

"While we must deal with AWK (Ahmed Wali Karzai) as the head of the provincial council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker," said one note that followed a meeting between the president's brother and US envoy Frank Ruggiero in September 2009.

Of the meeting itself, the report said Karzai "dressed in a crisp white shalwar kameez and pinstriped vest, appeared nervous, though eager to express his views on the international presence in Kandahar."

Kandahar is a make-or-break battleground in the US-led fight to defeat the insurgency, where the United States has poured in thousands of extra troops to wrest the initiative from the Taliban and bolster the Afghan government.

In May, British Major General Nick Carter, then NATO commander in southern Afghanistan, had said that he hoped Karzai -- chairman of the legislative council -- would cede power to the governor of the province, Tooryalai Wesa.

Afghanistan is ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where official graft undermines public support for the Western-backed government and is believed to help fuel support for the Taliban insurgency.

"The meeting with AWK highlights one of our major challenges in Afghanistan: how to fight corruption and connect the people to their government, when the key government officials are themselves corrupt," the report acknowledged.

In the 2009 meeting with American and Canadian officials, the president's brother urged the allies not to fund small-scale cash projects -- a cornerstone of its counter-insurgency strategy -- but to build large mega-projects instead.

"Given AWK's reputation for shady dealings, his recommendations for large, costly infrastructure projects should be viewed with a healthy dose of scepticism," the report said.

"We will continue to urge AWK to improve his own credibility gap," said the report.

Karzai, who also runs his own private militia in the province, is reported to have said the plethora of independent security firms run by different men in the region should be brought under the control of one man.

The cable noted: "AWK is understood to have a stake in private security contracting, and has aggressively lobbied the Canadians to have his security services retained."

The report said that both Karzai and Wesa had tried to influence the awarding of contracts in the province.

Karzai also showed disdain for democratic elections in the region, the report said, insisting that local elders were better placed to provide governance for the area.

In a second meeting in February, Karzai told Ruggiero that he was willing to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence over claims of his involvement in the opium trade.

"He appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities, and that the coalition views many of his activities as malign, particularly relating to his influence over the police," said the cable.

"We will need to monitor his activity closely...."

President Karzai has another brother, Mahmood Karzai, a former restaurant owner in the United States who is being investigated for tax evasion, according to a report in The Washington Post last month.

The Afghan government gave no immediate comment over the leaked documents.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
News From Across The Stans



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


THE STANS
Britain could begin Afghan drawdown early 2012: army chief
London (AFP) Nov 29, 2010
Britain could begin pulling its troops out of Afghanistan in just over a year, the head of armed forces told the Telegraph newspaper Monday. General David Richards said there was "certainly scope for reduction" of the British presence in the southern province of Helmand by 2012 while on a visit to the war-torn country. "I don't want to say it will definitely happen because the enemy has ... read more







THE STANS
Verenium Announces Collaboration With Edible Oil Leader Desmet Ballestra

Lufthansa First Airline To Use Biofuel On Commercial Flights

Brazil Invests In Scania Ethanol Buses

A High-Yield Biomass Alternative To Petroleum For Industrial Chemicals

THE STANS
Underwater Robots On Course To The Deep Sea

Development Of Humanoid Robot To Test Warfighter Protection Equipment

Robo-Op Marks New World First For Heart Procedure

NASA NIA To Sponsor Student Planetary Rover Challenge

THE STANS
Vestas Selects Broadwind Towers For Glacier Hills Wind Project

Optimizing Large Wind Farms

Enhancing The Efficiency Of Wind Turbines

GL Garrad Hassan Chosen For SMart Wind's 'Hornsea' Zone

THE STANS
In-car technology called dangerous

Copenhagen plans super highways ... for bikes

World Debut Of Honda Fit EV Concept Electric Vehicle

Daewoo, Doosan in Indonesian vehicle deal

THE STANS
Chinese boats near disputed islands: Japan coastguard

BP sells stake in Pan American Energy to Bridas

BP sells another $7 billion in assets

Oil-rich south Sudan must weigh progress versus environment

THE STANS
Pink diamond sold for 23 million US dollars at auction

Carbon price by 2011, Australia chief says

Kuwait's Equate launches first green CO2 project

EMPA Identifies Reaction Pathway To Fabricate Graphene-Like Materials

THE STANS
Developing Countries Can Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Help The Poor

Geothermal Energy Association Weaves The Geothermal Web

What Is EU's Strategy For Securing Energy Supply For The Future

LockMart Continues Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

THE STANS
Managing wood to carve a strong community

Mexico Forest Communities Excel In Capturing Carbon

Developing Countries Often Outsource Deforestation

Indonesia's billion-dollar forest deal in danger: Greenpeace


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement