John Sez: Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected big-wig in Afghanistan’s drug trade, which is a large part of the funding for the forces our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan - and is also receiving a check from our tax dollars via the CIA.

The brother of the President of Afghanistan is apparently getting paid to recruit and direct a private mercenary force which acts at the behest of the CIA. Considering we already have a great many boots on the ground (as well as mercenaries  and contractors hired by our government), the only reasons that I can think of which would explain why the CIA would need to bankroll yet another mercenary force in Afghanistan is to grease the palms of the power players (in this case the Karzai family)and to have a group of killers for hire that will commit themselves to acts of violence that our military would consider illegal according to their charter and rules.

Additionally, such a mercenary force would not fall under the direct scrutiny of congressional oversight, which mean that they could be directed to do just about anything. Indeed, it seems that these mercenaries (known as the Kandahar Strike Force) have already been used in a political assassinations and thuggery, one instance resulting in the bloody murder of Kandahar’s provincial police chief.

According to the New York Times, hundreds of millions of dollars are being made from the drug trade in Afghanistan, with a good portion of that money going into the coffers of the Taliban. So, in effect, the CIA has on its payroll a man who is funding the very people our military claims we are fighting; in other words, our tax dollars are being used to create a perpetual war footing in Afghanistan, as well as being spent to fund the very same groups that are killing our soldiers.

And our President and Congress are allowing it to happen.

Story from the New York Times:

Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A. By DEXTER FILKINS, MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN

KABUL, Afghanistan — 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.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America’s increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.’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.

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