Whatever sacrifices are needed to fulfill the agenda's requirements.
"US relies on, then arrests, drug lord; Afghan charged as trafficker was paid as informer on Taliban, drugs" by James Risen, New York Times / December 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — When Hajji Juma Khan was arrested and transported to New York to face charges under a new US narco-terrorism law in 2008, federal prosecutors described him as perhaps the biggest and most dangerous drug lord in Afghanistan, a shadowy figure who had helped keep the Taliban in business with a steady stream of money and weapons.
Related: Drug Money Saving Banks
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
WHAT OUR CHILDREN ARE DYING FOR IN AFGHANISTAN
Just thought you should know, America.
But what the government did not say was that Juma Khan was also a longtime American informer, who provided information about the Taliban, Afghan corruption, and other drug traffickers.
CIA officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents relied on him as a valued source for years, even as he was building one of Afghanistan’s biggest drug operations after the US-led invasion of the country, according to current and former American officials. Along the way, he was also paid a large amount of cash by the United States.
Related: Afghans Need Taliban Return
What do you mean they almost killed the bank-profiting crop?
At the height of his power, Juma Khan was secretly flown to Washington for a series of clandestine meetings with CIA and DEA officials in 2006. Even then, the United States was receiving reports that he was on his way to becoming Afghanistan’s most important narcotics trafficker by taking over the drug operations of his rivals and paying off Taliban leaders and corrupt politicians in President Hamid Karzai’s government.
Related:
"The CIA has multiple members of the Afghan government on its payroll in order to help it keep track of various factions within the Afghan government, according to former US officials."
I believe the term is hypocrisy.
YOUR TAX LOOT at WORK, America!
He had been well paid by the United States, according to people with knowledge of the case. Along with other tribal leaders in his region, he was given a share of as much as $2 million in payments to help oppose the Taliban. The payments are said to have been made by either the CIA or the US military.
In a series of videotaped meetings in Washington hotels, Juma Khan offered tantalizing leads to the CIA and DEA in return for what he hoped would be protected status as an American asset, according to American officials.
Until we decided to cut him loose.
And then, before he left the United States, he took a side trip to New York to see the sights and do some shopping, according to two people briefed on the case.
The relationship between the US government and Juma Khan is another illustration of how the war on drugs and the war on terrorism have sometimes collided, particularly in Afghanistan, where drug dealing, the insurgency, and the government often overlap.
To be sure, American intelligence has worked closely with figures other than Juma Khan suspected of drug trade ties, including Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s half brother, and Hajji Bashir Noorzai, who was arrested in 2005. Karzai has denied being involved in the drug trade.
Also see: Karzai Kin Agin
Afghan drug lords have often been useful sources of information about the Taliban. But relying on them has also put the United States in the position of looking the other way as these informers ply their trade in a country that by many accounts has become a narco-state.
And Obama is calling it progress!
The case of Juma Khan also shows how counter-narcotics policy has repeatedly shifted during the nine-year American occupation of Afghanistan, getting caught between the conflicting priorities of counterterrorism and nation building, so much so that Juma Khan was never sure which way to jump, according to officials who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
Defending the relationship, one American official said, “You’re not going to get intelligence in a war zone from Ward Cleaver or Florence Nightingale.’’
Unless that is their non-official cover provided by the CIA.
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Related:
"US cuts ties to contractor linked with Karzai kin" by Heidi Vogt, Associated Press / December 10, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — The US military is cutting ties with an Afghan security firm run by relatives of President Hamid Karzai that has been accused of bribing government officials and Taliban commanders, according to documents obtained yesterday.
The move is part of US efforts to clean up a contracting process in Afghanistan that has been riddled with corruption and allowed US funds to pass to insurgents.
Good way to keep a war going, though.
Cui bono?
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