American and NATO dependence on Afghan warlords

Written by Gareth Porter, Australia.to, Oct. 30, 2009

October 29, 2009 — WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (IPS) – The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

U.S. and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan’s predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases and other bases and to guard convoys.

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Tags: Afghan warlords, Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai and CIA, Col. Matiullah Khan, U.S. and NATO military