Taliban assassinate Karzai's younger brother.

[EFerrari]

President Karzai Loses His Younger Brother

Head of the Kandahar Provincial Council and brother of President Hamid Karzai, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was assassinated by his bodyguard at his home on Tuesday morning.

Mr Wali Karzai was shot dead by his body guard, a decade-long loyal bodyguard Sardar Mohammad, at his home, a spokesman for Kandahar governor, Zalmai Ayubi told TOLOnews.

Hours after the attack, President Karzai appeared at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and expressed regret over the death of his brother, hoping the miseries of the Afghan people will end one day.

French President Sarkozy also expressed condolence to President Karzai, adding the Afghans are going through a difficult time.

http://tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/3330

[Demeter]

1. Events Overtake Them

[malaise]

2. Was his bodyguard Taliban?

How does a decade long bodyguard become a Taliban member?
That's way too easy.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. As the saying goes, Every man has his price.

The Taliban obviously found a number that the bodyguard liked.

[EFerrari]

4. Amy says he was one of the most powerful government officials

in the south. And that there have been other attempts on his life.

[malaise]

5. It could have been a falling out of thieves

or others (including intelligence folks from more than a few countries) could have provided the 'price'.

[EFerrari]

7. Yep, more likely than anything else, imo. n/t

[EFerrari]

6. Ahmed Shuja, an Afghan blogger in Pakistan, says Abdul Razzak

is now the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan. He is apparently a youngish general.

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. So who's running the drug trade in the south now?

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/ahmed-wali-karzai-drug-enforcement-agency

In a country brimming with warlords, strongmen, and opportunists, AWK has attained an aura of controversy all his own. For years, he's been at the center of drug smuggling and corruption allegations, accused of undermining the central coalition objective of forging a stable central government. From his perch as the chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council, he's said to control a vast patronage network that gives him a stranglehold over the local economy; his sprawling web of financial interests allegedly includes holdings in the lucrative private security and contracting industries.

[Javaman]

9. Maybe Karzai is consolidating power. nt

[EFerrari]

10. MoJo: Ahmed Wali Karzai: The Devil We Knew

At various points over the years, US military leaders and diplomats have pondered how to get rid of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger half-brother of the Afghan president and the key powerbroker in Kandahar province. But it was ultimately the Taliban that claimed credit for completing the job: Early reports suggest he was shot dead in his home on Tuesday by a bodyguard, an assassination the Taliban described as "one of our biggest achievements" in the Afghan war.

The fact that Ahmed Wali, or AWK as he was sometimes known, was considered such an impediment by both sides highlights the exceedingly complex role he played in this conflict. His death comes at a fragile stage of the war, as the Obama administration prepares to withdraw 33,000 troops by next summer in advance of a full-fledged security handover in 2014. Meanwhile, the Taliban is ever working to re-entrench itself after being beaten back by US military forces.

There was a time that the military commanders viewed Ahmed Wali as such a barrier to progress in the restive south, where he officially chaired the Kandahar Provincial Council and unofficially controlled much of the region's economy, that efforts were afoot remove him from power. (At one point, there was even talk of taking potential "law enforcement actions" against Ahmed Wali and other "malign actors," according to a leaked State Department cable.) AWK was accused of being a key player in the opium trade and a high profile example of Afghanistan's out-of-control corruption problem. Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded proof, and while a dossier was compiled enumerating his misdeeds, the evidence was apparently never compelling enough to warrant his ouster. Also complicating matters was the fact that AWK was reportedly a longtime CIA asset who helped to run a paramilitary outfit called the Kandahar Strike Force that joined agency personnel and US Special Forces teams on raids against the Taliban. (Ahmed Wali denied being on the CIA's payroll.)

Eventually, NATO military commanders adopted a better-with-us-than-against-us attitude to the mustachioed and perpetually scruffy Kandahari leader, who, years before becoming the eminence grise of the south, had worked in the family restaurant business in the US. He may have been corrupt, the thinking went, but he was still an important ally in a region where we had few. It was with his cooperation last year that coalition troops conducted a sustained offensive that forced Taliban insurgents out of their strongholds and brought a measure of peace to the south.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/07/ahmed-wali-karzai-assassinated?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+|+MoJoBlog%29&utm_content=Twitter

[JCMach1]

11. Don't be too quick to blame the Taliban for this one...

He was hated by a lot of people.