CIA 'pays drug-linked Karzai'

US involvement in Afghanistan has come under new scrutiny with the claim that President Hamid Karzai's brother has for years been on the payroll of the CIA - even though he is suspected of being a major figure in the illicit opium trade.

The allegations against Ahmed Wali Karzai, set out in the New York Times and attributed to current and former US officials, paint a picture of a shadowy potentate and powerbroker with a finger in every pie, whose fief is the south of the country, heartland of the Taleban insurgency.

They could not have emerged at a more awkward time for the Obama Administration, as it approaches a critical decision on American troop strength in the country.

That decision in turn will be heavily influenced by the outcome of the run-off between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, scheduled for November 7.

Washington is counting on the run-off to produce a government that commands trust across the country. That, it is argued, is an essential precondition if Barack Obama is to authorise the major troop increase sought by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan.

The signs are that Obama is leaning towards a strategy that would focus on protecting major population centres. This would require more troops than the 68,000 in Afghanistan, but not as many as the 40,000 extra or more requested by McChrystal.

Yesterday, Karzai's brother described as "ridiculous" claims he was being paid by the CIA. "I work with the Americans, the Canadians, the British, anyone who asks for my help," he said. "I've no idea where they [the CIA] get their recruits. It's absolutely ridiculous."

The agency refused to comment. But the affair has already caused divisions within the administration - between "realists" who argue the US has no choice but to work with powerful individuals, however distasteful they may be, and those who insist that the links with Ahmed Wali Karzai made a mockery of America's avowed efforts to promote a clean, trustworthy government.

According to the newspaper, US officials have pressed the Afghan leader to move his brother out of southern Afghanistan, where he is said to have grown rich by charging large transit fees for the drug traffickers whose activities finance the Taleban and feed corruption in the Kabul government.

But President Karzai has refused, in effect protecting his brother from investigation.

- INDEPENDENT