The Toll - 5/9/10 - The Case Against Ahmed Wali... | Gather

The Toll - 5/9/10 - The Case Against Ahmed Wali... | Gather: "Ahmed Wali Karzai is the younger half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who will be in Washington for high level talks with the Obama administration over the next four days.
It has been widely alleged that Wali Karzai is a drug lord based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. He is also the Provincial Council leader and an elder of the Popalzai Pashtun tribe. Kandahar will soon be the site of a major assault by NATO forces in an effort to wrest control of the area from the Taliban.
On October 4, 2008, the New York Times published an article by James Risen charging that “numerous reports link Wali Karzai to the drug trade, according to current and former officials of the White House, the State Department and the United States Embassy in Afghanistan…”
Seven months earlier, London‘s New Left Review had reported that it was no secret that Wali Karzai had, by then, become “one of the richest drug barons in the country.” The article recounted how, in 2005, when President Karzai complained to Pakistan’s president Musharraf about the cross-border smuggling that was going on, the latter had suggested that “perhaps Karzai should set an example by bringing his sibling under control.”"