Karzai's Cronies

[bengalraider]

The Embattled Afghan president has a lot of friends and well-wishers not all of these are law abiding citizens ; this thread is dedicated to all such members of the karzai government.

The Brother
Ahmed Wali Karzai: Rumors are swirling about the president's younger half-brother and his mafia-like grip on Kandahar and involvement in the opium trade. He is also accused of fabricating ballots through the use of ghost polling stations, which never opened but somehow reported massive majorities for Karzai in this year's presidential election. A recent New York Times story said he has received regular CIA payments for the past eight years for activities that include involvement with a paramilitary force operating outside Kandahar. The relationship points to the tangled nature of the corruption surrounding President Karzai, which seems to enable him to rule and undermine his government at the same time. Above, Ahmed Wali Karzai talks on a cell phone as he celebrates his brother's reelection in Kandahar on Nov. 3, 2009.

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

 

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the general

Muhammad Qasim Fahim: The alliance between Karzai and Fahim, whom Karzai tapped as his first vice president, is an example of the lengths the Afghan leader has gone to patch up old feuds: Fahim once arrested and beat Karzai in the 1990s, on suspicions that he was a spy for Pakistan. Today, Fahim has leveraged his previous role as a leading military commander in the Northern Alliance to wield prominent influence in the new Afghan government. According to a 2003 Human Rights Watch report, Fahim was able to do this by threatening the members of several nascent political parties following the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Der Spiegel also reported that Fahim "head up the country's lucrative kidnapping industry." Above Fahim (R) walks with Karzai (C) and former Afghan King Muhammad Zahir Shah (L) on Nov. 3, 2003 in Kabul.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

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the warlord

General Abdul Rashid Dostum: One of the country's most infamous warlords, Dostum serves as the political and military leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek minority. Following an incident in early 2008 in which Dostum allegedly threatened and beat a political rival at gunpoint, he was stripped of his title as chief of staff of the Afghan Army and went into a brief, self-imposed exile in Turkey. But the general returned just before the election to deliver the Uzbek vote to Karzai, winning back his post in the process. Dostum is responsible for one of the most significant mass killings in Afghanistan post-American invasion. Thousands of Taliban militants, who surrendered to his forces, part of the American allied Northern Forces in 2001, were packed into closed metal shipping containers, where many -- a State Department report mentions 1,500 -- suffocated while being transported to prison. Despite rumors of a mass grave, U.S. officials discouraged an investigation of the case. Above, Karzai and Dostum during a ceremony at Rosa Sharif Azrat Ali shrine March 21, 2002.

HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images

 

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torture master

Asadullah Khalid: Karzai appointed Khalid the governor of Kandahar province, where he served from 2005 to 2008. During his tenure, Canada's government learned that he was "personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees," according to an article in the Globe and Mail. Khalid was accused of running a network of secret prisons which he visited himself to torture prisoners. In April 2008, Canadian foreign minister Maxime Bernier caused a stir in both Canada and Afghanistan by publicly suggested that Khalid should be removed from his post. Above, Khalid empties a ballot box to count votes in Kandahar, Sept. 20, 2005.

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

 

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The miner

Mohammad Ibrahim Adel: Adel was appointed the minister of mines in 2006, when the ministry was evaluating bids to privatize the country's only functioning cement plant. Karzai's brother Mahmoud was awarded the factory, after allegedly arriving in Adel's office with a cardboard box carrying a $25 million cash guarantee. The Washington Post reported that, according to a U.S. official, Adel also accepted a $30 million bribe to award a massive copper extraction project to the Chinese state-run Metallurgical Group Corp. Now Adel gets to pick a company to extract iron ore from another big deposit. Guess who's a front-runner for that deal...

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

 

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The Islamist

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf: Sayyaf is one of the most notable Pashtun leaders who fought with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s. He remains a pillar of Karzai's support in the Pashtun community, throwing his support behind the president during his re-election campaign. He is also a staunch Islamist with past ties to some of the world's most notorious terrorists. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Sayyaf gave future 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed his first introduction to the Afghan jihad in 1987. Sayyaf would become his mentor, and provide him with military training and connections to other jihadists until the late 1990s. Sayyaf also maintained a close relationship with Osama bin Laden, who funneled him money to continue the insurgency against the Soviets.

STR/AFP/Getty Images

 

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The Hazara

Karim Khalili: Khalili is an ethnic Hazara warlord who led one of the largest anti-Taliban militias during the 1990s. Selected by Karzai as his second vice president in both the 2004 and 2009 elections, he has helped Karzai expand his appeal beyond Afghanistan's Pashtun community. In 2003, Human Rights Watch quoted witnesses who reported that soldiers under Khalili's command continued to rape, kidnap, and forcibly recruit.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images