Hamid Karzai

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Taliban, Karzai In Talks to End War

Leaders seeking peace deal, role in government: sources

(Newser) - The Taliban are in secret talks with the Afghan government to end the war, according to the Washington Post , which cites Arab and Afghan sources. The Taliban's representatives are this time authorized to speak on behalf of Mullah Omar and other leaders and "they are very, very serious about...

Afghanistan Disarms Security Contractors

Including the artist formerly known as Blackwater

(Newser) - Afghanistan has begun disbanding the private security firms operating in the country, the Karzai administration announced today. Authorities have seized more than 400 weapons so far, according to Reuters . At the moment they're focusing on eight companies, including Xe Services, the artist formerly known as Blackwater, two other American...

Feds Focus Crime Probe on Karzai Brother

Afghan president's bro linked to tax evasion, extortion

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors in New York have launched a corruption investigation into business operations belonging to Afghan president Hamid Karzai's brother. Mamood Karzai, who is a US citizen, is being probed for tax evasion, extortion, and racketeering that may be linked in part to US loans he obtained to build his...

Afghan Elections: A Corrupt 'Free-for-All'

Widespread fraud reported in nearly a third of provinces

(Newser) - From stuffing ballot boxes to arresting election workers to, incredibly, haggling over the sales price of a vote, Afghanistan's election is so rife with corruption and fraud that the results are questionable in one-third of its provinces, reports the New York Times. And as a test of Afghanistan's nascent democracy,...

Karzai Diagnosed as 'Manic Depressive'
 Karzai Diagnosed 
 as 'Manic Depressive' 
WOODWARD BOOK
Sep 23, 2010 1:40 AM CDT

Karzai Diagnosed as 'Manic Depressive'

Tome exposes concerns about leader's erratic behavior

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wild mood swings that have often tested the patience of his international backers could be the result of manic depression, according to Bob Woodward's new book on the Afghan war. US intelligence reports found that Karzai has been diagnosed with the condition and is taking medication...

Thousands of Complaints Expected in Afghan Election

Karzai says it's 'too soon to tell' if it was successful

(Newser) - Looks like this weekend’s election in Afghanistan went about as poorly as the last one. Afghanistan’s official election watchdog says it’s already received more than 700 complaints, and expects the figure to reach 3,000 over the next two days, according to Reuters . An independent watchdog meanwhile...

US Lets Corrupt Afghan Officials Off the Hook

Cases will be worked behind closed doors to appease Karzai

(Newser) - The Obama administration intends to dial back its attempts to clean up Hamid Karzai’s government, sources tell the Washington Post . Senior administration officials say they’ve generally agreed that instead of prosecuting allegedly corrupt Afghan officials, they should work out backroom compromises that won’t embarrass Karzai. “The...

Karzai to Taliban: Join Peace Talks

Afghan president calls on Taliban leader to stop fighting

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai has officially invited Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to take part in Afghan peace talks. The Afghan president hopes Omar "gives up fratricide, gives up bombings and blasts, stops causing casualties to Afghanistan's children, women, and men" and instead "joins the peace process," he said...

Karzai's Brother Skirts Kabul Bank Freeze

Afghanistan's top bank teeters on the brink

(Newser) - With Kabul Bank in crisis , authorities in Afghanistan have frozen some assets of all the bank’s principal owners—except for Mahmoud Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The Afghan Central Bank has sent a letter banning the bank’s owners from selling property, the Washington Post reports, but...

Corrupt Karzai Aide Is on CIA Payroll

Official at center of corruption probe has fingers in many pies

(Newser) - The aide who Hamid Karzai intervened to free after his arrest on corruption charges has been on the CIA payroll for years, according to Afghan and US officials. It's not clear what exactly Mohammed Zia Salehi does to earn CIA cash, or whether the Afghan president knew he was an...

CIA Agent the Only 'Diplomat' Karzai Trusts

Kabul station chief relied on to reassure Afghan president

(Newser) - When the US needs to smooth over relations with Hamid Karzai, the State Department doesn’t get the call. Instead, the US is relying on the CIA’s Kabul station chief as its main go-between with the Afghan president, the Wall Street Journal reports, identifying the agent only by his...

Karzai Moves to Curb Afghan Anti-Corruption Agencies

Afghan president accuses agencies of abusing suspects

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai is looking to curb the powers of two American-supported anti-corruption agencies operating in Afghanistan with a presidential decree, the New York Times reports. The Afghan president claimed that abuses by the Major Crimes Task Force and the Sensitive Investigations Unit—in particular, the arrest of a close adviser...

Pakistanis Nabbed Taliban Boss to Stop Peace Talks

Naive CIA got played: sources

(Newser) - In an embarrassing development for the CIA, it looks like the capture last January of Taliban commander Abdul Ghani Baradar was anything but the joint US-Pakistani victory against terrorism it was presented as at the time. In fact, Pakistan captured Baradar to undermine secret peace talks between the Taliban and...

Karzai: US 'Mafia' Firms Are Looting My Nation

Demands contractors get out

(Newser) - In a rare US media appearance yesterday, Hamid Karzai blasted US private contractors in Afghanistan as "mafia-like" thieves and called for them to pull out of the country within the next four months. Appealing directly to US taxpayers on ABC's This Week, the Afghan president said the contractors waste...

Blago: I'll Be Back
 Blago: I'll Be Back 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Aug 22, 2010 12:44 PM CDT

Blago: I'll Be Back

Just as soon as all these pesky trials go away

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich isn't about to let a little thing like a corruption trial jettison his political career any more than he's about to have a droopy hair day, reports Politico. "I'm not ruling myself out from coming back because because I will be vindicated in this case," he...

Karzai Intervened in Aide's Corruption Probe

Bribery charge lifted after 'enormous pressure' from Afghan prez

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally stepped in to secure the release of an aide arrested on corruption charges, officials say. The aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi, was arrested for soliciting a bribe. He was also being probed by two task forces for supplying cash and gifts like luxury Lexuses to presidential...

Karzai to Kick Contractors Out of Afghanistan

Catches NATO unprepared with tough 4-month deadline

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai enraged the US and his other NATO allies today by ordering all private security contractors to leave the country within four months. Though NATO had been working on its own plan to register and regulate the mercenaries, they weren’t prepared for the move, or the...

Afghan Women Dread Peace With Taliban

TIME talks to woman mutilated by militants

(Newser) - It appears increasingly likely that the US exit strategy from Afghanistan will involve some form of reconciliation with the Taliban. But that’s a terrifying thing for many Afghan women, Time reports this week, plastering on its cover the grisly image of an 18-year-old woman who had her nose and...

Afghans: NATO Strike Targeted Civilians

Villagers: 52 civilians killed in Helmand skirmish

(Newser) - Amidst the flood of leaked news of previously unreported civilian casualties in Afghanistan, angry Afghans say a NATO rocket attack on their Helmand province town on Friday deliberately targeted civilians, killing 52. "The foreign forces could see us," a villager who claims 17 members of his extended family...

Top 9 Revelations From Leaked Afghan Reports

Biggest military leak in history underscores grim realities

(Newser) - Wikileaks has unveiled 92,000 secret documents about the Afghan war, which, in the New York Times ' words, "illustrate in mosaic detail why ... the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001." Don't have time to scan through 92,000 documents? Here are what appear to...

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