Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video from the USA is called The Post-9/11 Afghan Heroin Explosion.

From the New York Times in the USA:

Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

October 27, 2009

This article is by Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. …

The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that 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.

More broadly, some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful figure in a large area of southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, undermines the American push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.

“If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves,” said Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military intelligence official in Afghanistan. …

The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the C.I.A. is wide ranging, several American officials said. He helps the C.I.A. operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists. On at least one occasion, the strike force has been accused of mounting an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government, the officials said.

Mr. Karzai is also paid for allowing the C.I.A. and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city — the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s founder. The same compound is also the base of the Kandahar Strike Force. “He’s our landlord,” a senior American official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

See also here. And here. And here. And here.

America’s Drug Crisis: Brought to You by the CIA: here.

USA: Rep. Jane Harman elaborated on her statement that further troop increases in Afghanistan wouldn’t be well received on Capitol Hill: here.

After several days in which US troops suffered their worst casualties in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan, it was revealed Wednesday that President Hamid Karzai’s brother, reputedly a key figure in the country’s drug trade, is on the CIA payroll: here.