Maybe someone was sending a signal:
"Confidant kills Karzai’s brother in Afghanistan; Taliban claim credit in death of key US ally" July 13, 2011|By Joshua Partlow and Kevin Sieff, Washington Post
KABUL - The half-brother of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan was assassinated by a trusted security official yesterday, a killing that was immediately claimed by the Taliban and deprives the United States of a controversial but powerful ally in southern Afghanistan.
An inside job?
Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar’s provincial council, was meeting with tribal elders and politicians in his heavily fortified home in downtown Kandahar city when Sardar Mohammad, a longtime confidant and police commander, arrived and requested a private discussion, according to two people at the house at the time.
Karzai and Mohammad left for another room, the witnesses said. Soon, three gunshots rang out....
Related: Bodyguard who killed Karzai's brother was trusted CIA contact
And then he turned to the Taliban? Looks to me like a CIA rub out.
Remember rule number one of reading the AmeriKan newspaper: the opposite of what they claim is the truth.
The death underscores the continued vulnerability of Afghan officials as the United States prepares to reduce its military presence, and probably will complicate US efforts to bolster security in southern Afghanistan. Ahmed Karzai - long seen as acting primarily in his own self-interest - recently had seemed more willing to work with the United States to defeat insurgents and strengthen the local government....
Yeah, whatever. AmeriKan media points that way, better look other way.
The Taliban were quick to take credit for the assassination - though they did not offer any proof that the assassin was working under their auspices. The group frequently claims responsibility for killings to which it is not connected.
Yeah, I will remember that the "Taliban usually exaggerate the scale of their attacks."
What the paragraph is really hinting at is the inside job aspect, but they can't come out and say it.
Ahmed Karzai, who often was accused of narcotics trading and profiting from private security companies, had many enemies in Kandahar - any one of whom could have orchestrated the killing....
Yeah, I heard CIA is good at that sort of stuff. Or US special operations assassins.
At a news conference, President Karzai said he shared the pain of all of Afghanistan.
“This morning, my young brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was martyred at his home,’’ Karzai said in a strained voice. “This is the life of the people of Afghanistan, and each Afghan family has suffered in such a way.’’
Ahmed Karzai, who spent two decades outside of Afghanistan after the 1980 Soviet invasion, including a decade in the United States, to prominence as his brother assumed the presidency.
Where he was groomed to be a CIA contact.
Related: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Karzai's Kin
Then he was brought back after, well, you know.
He profited off his position to establish a powerful grip on Kandahar, but adamantly denied accusations of corruption and involvement in the drug trade, saying the allegations were motivated by his many political enemies.
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Also see:
Karzai Kin Agin
He'd become a liability, huh?
And now all of a sudden he's gone?
Also related(?): Doubts raised about Afghan death probe
Karzai attends funeral of half-brother (By Carlotta Gall and Ruhullah Khapalwak, New York Times)
My printed paper carried the WaPo pos:
"In Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, five French soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing for which the Taliban claimed credit, officials said. That attack was not linked to Karzai’s funeral, but it underscored the continued volatility in Afghanistan as the United States and other alliance members are trying to transfer security responsibility to Afghan forces.
At the cemetery in Karz, the president bowed his head and appeared to be crying. The crowd surged in all around. Frantic bodyguards shouted and pushed against the mourners in vain.
“Go away, go away — you’ll bring him more sin,” one person shouted. Men in turbans wailed their misery. Cabinet ministers and army generals craned their necks for a view.
The president did not make a sound. Carefully, he stepped down into the grave and knelt over his brother’s body; it is customary here to see the faces of close relatives before they are buried. A web of men closed over the president, interlocking limbs in a hot press of bodies sweating through their clothes.
After a few seconds, Hamid Karzai climbed out of the grave, walking past the burial site of his father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, whose murder in 1999 galvanized his own political ambitions. The president slipped into a waiting car and departed. The gravediggers went back to work.
As will I.
"Bomber attacks service for Karzai’s sibling; Blast at mosque leaves four dead, 15 wounded" July 15, 2011|By Joshua Partlow and Kevin Sieff, Washington Post
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The attack defied stringent security measures that were put in place after Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot dead at his home by a confidant Tuesday. By penetrating the high-profile event, the killer proved again the vulnerability of Afghan officials as the United States works to transfer security responsibilities to the Afghans and demonstrated the intensity of the campaign to take out Karzai government loyalists.
None of the Karzai family members died in the blast, but that was because of chance more than anything else....
Mahmood Karzai laid the blame for the attack on Pakistan, where many Taliban leaders reside. “How long are we going to pretend, Afghans and Americans? Why is there so much patience with Pakistan? Are they so powerful?’’
?????? Why is he blaming them?
Hamid Karzai, who attended his half-brother’s funeral Wednesday but was not at the memorial service, said the bombing “was entirely an act contrary to Islam and humanity, which has no justification in any religion or sect.’’
That's why I don't think they did it.
The Taliban’s reach in carrying out attacks was also highlighted yesterday by a United Nations report showing that civilian deaths in Afghanistan increased by 15 percent in the first six months of 2011 over the same period last year, even as attacks on NATO and Afghan forces began to decline.
The bulk of the 1,462 deaths during the period were caused by land-mine-like improvised explosive devices planted by the Taliban, according to the UN report. May and June were the two deadliest months for civilians since the organization began keeping count in 2007.
“Afghan children, women, and men continue to be killed at an alarming rate,’’ said Staffan de Mistura, special representative for the secretary general.
General David Petraeus, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, said last week that the number of insurgent attacks on NATO and Afghan forces declined in May and June by “a few percent,’’ compared with the same months in 2010.
Pfft.
The disparity between the NATO and UN data - attacks on military personnel declining while civilian deaths spike - gets at the challenge of gauging the success of the American-led effort in Afghanistan, even if the Taliban’s capacity to wage war on coalition forces is waning....
Translation: It's tough to tell lies.
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