As reported on the Rachel Maddow show tonight, the NY Times is reporting on its front page tomorrow that the brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is on the CIA payroll.
Follow me over the fold to see why this takes things from bad to worse.
This could not have come out at a worse time, and represents another failure of the CIA to understand how its actions have harmed rather than helped US interests in the country.
First, as a member of his brother's government, this will undermine the credibility of that government, potentially to the point of affecting the runoff election, although Karazi's opponent is not well funded and does not have the U.S. military providing him security and so not able to carry out an effective campaign. Does the CIA not understand that having such a rogue element on its payroll, a man who is involved in the opium drug trafficking and whose deputies are corrupt to the core, can do nothing but harm the government's credibility, as well as our interests.
Second, this will become recruiting point #1 for the Taliban and Al Queda, and will make the military's job that much harder.
Third, it will undoubtably affect Pakistan's efforts to clamp down on the Taliban by bolstering the faction within the Pakistani intelligence apparatus that sides with the Taliban. It bolsters the claim that the Pakistani government is kowtowing to the U.S. which cares nothing for true democracy or rule of law in the region, and will erode support for Pakistani government efforts.
Lastly, one wonders whether President Obama knew about this, and, if he did, why he didn't put a stop to it? One wonders if Hillary Clinton or anyone else at State knew about it, or whether Gates at Defense knew? I certainly doubt they ever told Congress about it, which further proves Nancy Pelosi's point that the CIA is a rogue agency accountable to no one which lies to Congress and to anyone else they want.
I can only pray that this doesn't harm more U.S. soldiers in what is already the deadliest month in this "war". Bring the troops home and end this farce.