Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai and a suspected player in the opium trade, has gotten payments from the C.I.A. for eight years, officials said. Full Story »
Posted by Dwight Rousu - via Jamal Dajani, Marc Ambinder, MuckRack, New York Times (Most Emailed), NewsRack (Afghanistan)
Anonymous sourcing this extensive is sometimes necessary to break a story this big. In addition to talking to U.S. officials on background and on the record, the Times provided ample context and evidence to establish the connection between Karzai's brother and the drug trade. A shocking story, published at the end of the deadliest month for U.S troops and on the heels of a Washington Post report identifying the first U.S. official to resign in protest of the war.
“No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain these kind of allegations,” said Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman.
“There’s no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai’s involvement in drug trafficking, certainly nothing that would stand up in court,” said one American official familiar with the intelligence. “And you can’t ignore what the Afghan government has done for American counterterrorism efforts.”
Consecutive non-denial denials.