(MintPress) – Emails from the private security firm Stratfor show the Bush administration and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asked the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to abandon an investigation in 2007 into drug trafficking by Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai.
The emails were published as part of a cache of over 2,600 diplomatic cables and emails indicating widespread corruption in the Karzai regime and lackadaisical U.S. drug interdiction policies. With the NATO pullout scheduled for 2014, one of the major challenges of post-occupation Afghanistan will be ensuring government transparency and a commitment to policing illicit narcotics trafficking.
Drug interdiction
Stratfor vice president of intelligence Fred Burton wrote an email in 2007 titled, “Humint – Afghanistan – Karzai”:
“The brother of President Karzai of Afghanistan is under investigation by DEA as a major narcotics trafficker. For political reasons, DEA has been told to backoff [sic] by the White House and CIA. DEA is seeing a direct nexus between terrorism and narcotics in Afghanistan with narcotics sales being used to fund jihadist operations.”
Before being assassinated by his head of security last year, Wali Karzai maintained a close working relationship with the CIA. According to a 2009 New York Times article, Wali Karzai was paid by the CIA to develop a paramilitary force to be used in anti-Taliban operation in Kandahar.
“Karzai is 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,” claim Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, the co-authors of the article. Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen continue, saying:
“The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.”
Many claim that the latest Stratfor email validates this close relationship, underscoring CIA commitments to working with suspected criminals. The robust opium trade, a major source of funding for the Taliban and the Karzai government, has contributed to the corruption and overall instability in the Central Asian country.
In April, the United Nations issued an urgent report on Afghanistan, saying that opium farming will likely rise in 2012 because of war, entrenched poverty and few crackdowns on opium production. Production rose by 61 percent in 2010-2011 and continues to increase through 2012. Profits from the illicit trade are estimated to bring in more than $60 billion annually.
The increases have contributed to the sharp rise in the number of Afghans suffering from serious opium and heroin addiction. According to reports, there are now an estimated 1 million citizens suffering from drug addiction in a country with a population of 30 million.
The opium trade funded much of the Taliban’s operations during the Soviet occupation in 1979-1989 and remains a viable source of income during the present NATO occupation as well.
However, the Stratfor emails indicate that government officials, many in high ranking positions, are profiting from the drug trade as well. The government’s drug money, often extorted as bribes, is typically flown out of the country in order to be laundered and later deposited in foreign banks.
Supporting corruption in the Karzai regime
One notable case occurred in 2009 when Ahmad Zia Massoud, then vice president of Afghanistan, was stopped at the Dubai international airport with $52 million in cash.
Emirati authorities detained Massoud briefly, before releasing him without charge. The incident was revealed by WikiLeaks after the site released a cache of diplomatic cables and classified emails. According to correspondence between authorities in Dubai and the U.S., airport police questioned Massoud, but did not ask him where the cash came from or where he intended to take the money.
Many diplomats and embassy workers in Afghanistan believe this incident is a part of rampant money laundering and cash smuggling out of Afghanistan. Because of ongoing political instability, drug lords and corrupt political figures frequently take their fortunes outside the country covertly to avoid transactions in Afghanistan’s unreliable banks.
U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry commented at the time of the incident, saying, “Vast amounts of cash come and go from the country on a weekly, monthly and annual basis. Before the 20 August [presidential] election $600 million in banking system withdrawals were reported; however, in recent months some $200 million.”
This level of widespread corruption has shaken the faith of those who are working to legitimize the Karzai government and prepare the country for post-occupation self-rule.
According to cables released by WikiLeaks, Eikenberry continues, accusing Karzai of “failing to grasp the most rudimentary principles of state-building,” adding, “His deep seated insecurity as a leader combine to make any admission of fault unlikely, in turn confounding our best efforts to find in Karzai a responsible partner.”
This point is underscored by independent studies measuring the level of corruption in governments around the world. Since 1995, the non-partisan group Transparency International has conducted an annual Corruption Perception Index, ranking governments on their relative transparency, fairness and commitment to the rule of law. Researchers also poll anonymously to determine citizens’ opinion on government practices and accountability.
Those countries that have relatively low levels of corruption and few irregularities score closer to 10 (Very Clean) while those with high levels of fraud in the government score closer to 0 (highly corrupt). Afghanistan has consistently ranked as having one of the most corrupt governments in the world, scoring an abysmal 1.5 in 2011. Only three countries — Myanmar, North Korea and Somalia — were considered more corrupt, according to the index.
Despite rampant corruption, money laundering and drug trafficking by members of the Karzai government, the U.S. has supported Hamid Karzai since his ascension to the presidency in 2001. With NATO forces set to withdrawal in 2014, one of the majors challenges for Afghanistan will be curbing corruption in the government and policing the now widespread opium trade.
Allegations of CIA drug trafficking
Much like the alleged Wali Karzai-CIA relationship, the CIA has been accused previously of using local sources for drug trafficking. Wali Karzai was compared in the Stratfor email to Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
The U.S. sent 25,000 troops to Panama in 1989 as part of Operation Just Cause, an invasion with the stated purpose of stopping the wave of democratically elected leftist governments from seizing power in Panama. The U.S. is alleged to have used Noriega as an ally in its fight to topple the Sandinista government in neighboring Nicaragua.
In exchange for his cooperation, the CIA allowed Noriega to continue his multi-million dollar drug trafficking operations.
Later, the Kerry Report, a Congressional account of CIA operations in Nicaragua, found that the CIA had aided the right-wing Nicaraguan paramilitary organization the Contras by providing training, intelligence and material support. The report found that the CIA had extensive drug links with the Contras as well.
According to the 1989 report, “Contra drug links included … payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. The US State Department paid over $806,000 to known drug traffickers to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.”