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The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been getting
regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York
Times reported, citing current and former US officials.
Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected player in Afghanistan's opium
trade and has been paid by the CIA over the past eight years for
services that included helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary
force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the
southern city of Kandahar, the newspaper reported.
Ahmed Wali Karzai said in an interview that he co-operates with US
civilian and military officials but does not engage in the drug
trade and does not receive payments from the CIA, the Times
said.
The CIA neither confirmed nor denied the reported payments.
"No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain
these kinds of allegations," a CIA spokesman said.
According to the Times, the agency's financial ties to Ahmed Wali
Karzai and its working relations with him have created deep
divisions within the Obama administration.
Critics see the relationship as complicating Washington's
increasingly tense relationship with President Karzai, it
said.
The CIA's practices also suggest 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, the Times
said.
In addition, some US officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed
Wali Karzai undermines the push to develop an effective central
government that would eventually allow the United States to
withdraw, the paper reported.
