International Security

Around Boston, Whitey and Billy Bulger are famous brothers. Whitey as the long-time head of a violent criminal gang; Billy for being a tenacious politician who fell out of favor near the end of his public career.  For many years, Whitey has been on the run and is on the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Now comes the Afghan version.

The NYT has the story on President Karai and his brother, Amed Wali, who apparently is not only a huge opium drug dealer but has been on the CIA payroll for eight years. One of the most disturbing aspects of this story is how the CIA uses Amed Wali

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The CIA denies the connection and allegations. But it does support the Kandahar Strike Force, that aforementioned paramilitary group, which is now living in Mullar Omar’s former compound. This story links back to that odd incident in Kandahar in June when the local police chief was killed

The debate over Ahmed Wali Karzai intensified in June when the C.I.A.’s local paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, shot and killed Kandahar’s provincial police chief, Matiullah Qati, in a still-unexplained shootout at the office of a local prosecutor.

The  fact is that credibility is hard for the CIA to come by these days. This story rings true. Drugs generate a phenomenal amount of money in Afghanistan. Corruption reaches up to President Karzai as we’ve seen in the recently rigged election. And, two brothers working on opposite sides of the law is not a new story.

One final question, so if we follow that money trail, will it lead to U.S. contractors somewhere in the pipeline?