Taliban Kills Hamid Karzai's Half-Brother

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright July 12, 2011
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         Assassinated by the Taliban’s Sardar Mohammad July 12, the reputed opium-dealing half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was shot between the eyes at point-blank range.  Since coming to power Dec. 7, 2004, U.S.-backed Karzai government has played a dangerous game of “both sides against the middle,” supporting U.S. interests on the one hand and trying to placate the toppled Taliban regime on the other.   Driven from power by former President George W. Bush Nov. 15, 2001, only three weeks after launching Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001 and just over two months after Sept. 11, the Taliban went into guerrilla mode, now inching closer to President Karzai.  No matter how much Karazi placates the Taliban, they seek his head for supporting the U.S.  Assassinating Hamid’s half-brother proves the Taliban has patiently picked its targets.

            Heading the Kandahar Provincial Council, Hamid’s 50-year-old’s half-brother  was assassinated by a “trustworthy” friend, attesting, if nothing else, to the murky line between various tribes in the Pashtun-rich southern Afghan Kandahar region.  “This morning my younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was murdered in his home,” said Karzai at a joint press conference with French President Nicloas Sarkozy.  “Such is the life of Afghanistan’s people. In the house of the people of Afghanistan, each of us is suffering and our hope is, God willing, to remove this suffering from the people of Afghanistan and implement peace and stability,” said Hamid, mentioning nothing of the relentless Taliban insurgency now threatening his power.  Surviving for nearly seven years, Hamid has had to stay several steps ahead of the Taliban, now dangerously close to finishing him off.

            Since taking office, Jan. 20, 2009, President Barack Obama supported his Afghan commander, four-star Gen. David Petraeus.  While Petraeus was just confirmed as the next CIA director, he leaves a mixed legacy in Afganistan, promising Obama that another troop-surge, like the one in Iraq, would arrest the Taliban’s growing insurgency.  Ahmed Karzai’s assassination mirrors the extent of Taliban infiltration and subversion into Afghan security forces.  His murder harks back to the one of Northern Alliance Leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, killed Sept. 9, 2001 by the Taliban only two days before Sept. 11.  Unlike Ahmed Karzai, Massoud was a national hero leading the fight in the 1980s against the Soviet puppet regime.  Massoud served as Afghan’s Defense Minister after his mujahedeen fighters—together with Osama bin Laden—toppled Afghan’s Soviet-backed government Feb. 15, 1989.

            Obama followed Petraeus’ advice adding about 70,000 troops since taking office.  Instead of winding down the war, Petraeus believed that only by ratcheting up the pressure on the Taliban could the U.S. make progress, especially in the Southern Kandahar region.  “President Karzai is working to create a stronger, more secure Afghanistan, and for a tragic event to happen to someone with his own family is unfathomable,” former NATO and Afghan Commander David Petraeus said in a prepared statement.  Petraeus ignores Ahmed Karzai’s longstanding tie to Afghan’s profitable opium trade.  Of all the Taliban’s problems, it’s not well-known that they were vehemently against the centuries-old opium trade.  U.S. authorities carry a growing burden of explaining what compelling interest the U.S. has in Afghanistan—no easy feat for Obama or the Congress.

            Former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, who ran and lost to Karzai Nov. 2, 2009 in a disputed election, called Ahmed’s murder “an act against national personality and the ones who are at the service of the Afghan people,” stopping well short of condemning the attack.  While Abdullah has no love for the Taliban, he also knows what it’s like to lose in a disputed election.  Taliban insurgents have gunned for the younger Karzai for some time.  Karzai’;s bodyguard was killed when Taliban insurgents ambushed his motorcade in May 2009.  Only two months ago, four Taliban suicide bombers stormed Karzai’s Kandahar Provincial Council offices, killing 13 of his employees.  There’s little doubt that the next one targeted will be President Hamid Karzai, who rarely leaves his fortified Kabul compound without his highly sophisticated U.S. security detail.

            Assassinating Hamid’s younger brother mirrors the ongoing chaos and dilemma faced by U.S. troops:  That Karzai’s own security forces are heavily infiltrated by Taliban insurgents.  Hamid can’t make enough concessions or pay off enough Taliban insurgents to keep pace with growing attempts on his life.  U.S. and NATO officials haven’t been able to neutralize the Taliban’s growing Islamic movement.  Karzai’s security services and U.S.-backed military contend daily with personnel loyal to exiled one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.  While Navy Seals luckily got Osama bin Laden May 1, they haven’t had much luck tracking down the elusive Taliban leader.  With Egyptian-born physician Ayman al-Zawahiri now heading al-Qaeda, the Taliban has a zealous ally in their fight against Karzai and the U.S.  It’s only a matter of time before they strike again.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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