The Karzai brothers respond to the allegations in today’s New York Times that Ahmed is in the employ of the C.I.A. and involved with the heroin trade:
It was probably a coincidence, but the gods had conspired to block the Karzais from getting on a phone or the Internet to see what had been dumped on them.
But Wednesday morning, the Karzais came out swinging. I woke up to an email from Mahmoud. “Here we go again, a clear case of hearsay and rumors. NY Times is becoming an instrument for special interest of the evil-doers of the world to achieve their political goals. What Mr. Risen [New York Times reporter James Risen, who co-authored the Times’ report] has published against me, convinced me that presenting the truth about the world outside of the United States is not part of the agenda of the NY Times. In fact, misrepresentation of the international facts to the American people could be considered a serious national security threat to the United States of America. I will appreciate it if you could answer this propaganda, as I told you in the past, removing Ahmed Wali Karzai [sic] from Kandahar is a perfect strategy for Taliban to take over Kandahar.”
I called Mahmoud. He, too, was angry. “This is being coordinated by the ISI (Pakistani intelligence service). They have been behind the assassinations of several provincial leaders who are against the Taliban. And my brother is the last major obstacle to them in the south. If they remove Ahmed Wali, the Taliban will fill the void.”
Mahmoud had particular venom for The New York Times even though James Risen is one of the paper’s most respected foreign affairs journalists and his article was replete with specifics and seemed a bullet-proof piece of reporting. “We [the Karzais] are being harassed by The New York Times. This is a smear campaign. James Risen has a vendetta against us. And the Times is obviously being fed by the far-left lobbyist groups who are paying them to do this. These leftists want Afghanistan destabilized, they want the Karzais out of power so there is a vacuum, and then they can say it is such a mess that the Americans should abandon the country. This is a coordinated plan, have no doubt about it.”