Tit-for-tat mean spirited allegations seem to be the order of the day as the relationship between the Obama Administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai continues to worsen. The latest allegation, coming from former US envoy Peter Galbraith, is that Karzai’s recent outbursts are a consequence of the “impulsive” president’s “drug abuse.”
“There are reports to that effect,” claimed Galbraith, who previously served as the UN deputy mission chief in Afghanistan. Galbraith left that post after claiming his boss, former mission chief Kai Eide, was attempting to cover up fraud on behalf of Karzai in the August election.
Karzai won reelection in that vote with over a million fraudulently cast votes on his behalf. Recently, however, the Afghan president has claimed that the US was part of an international conspiracy to rig the election against him, an effort to deny him reelection.
The US condemned the claims, and the State Department was quoted as advising Karzai to watch what he says in the future. Karzai appears not to have taken that to heart, however, and over the weekend told MPs that he might join the Taliban over US “interference.”
It is hardly the first falling out between Karzai and the US, but the allegation of drug abuse is something new. Karzai spokesman Siamak Hirawi angrily denied the allegation, calling Galbraith a liar and saying his comments were “far away from the principle of diplomacy.“
Say Hello to My Little Friend"
In particular, it has been reported in the press that Ambassador Galbraith, as he is formally known, has had a fee arrangement with a Norwegian oil company to obtain 5% of the oil revenues generated in a particular large oil field in the Kurdish territories of Iraq. The amount of money at issue may be as high as $100 million, and perhaps even more. http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/18/peter-galbraith-… I guess even the neocons are a bit leery of him. Ruth Wedgewood, now there is a piece of work, the law means what WE say it means type of work. She was trotted as an expert on all types of war law by NPR during the early days of the Iraq war.
Peter Galbraith has released a spy report claiming that Karzai has a joint on the toilet everyday and often cries when he is alone.
This is an amazing own goal by the CIA as it only proves that Galbraith was a muckraking CIA agent and not the independent UN official he masqueraded as. Far from smearing Karzai, this only lends credibility to Karzai’s widely ridiculed claims that Galbraith was involved in vote-rigging.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/39Spy-report39-behind–claims.6211043.jp#5112798
Good call Danny, and also this would explain how murky the google results for Galbraith are…
His hits are Neocon and Neocons, but the verbage always seems to keep his involvement at arms length. AND W0W!!! What is with the VAST number of "Reason:Comment Removed By Administrator" at that Scotsman link you provided!! I have NEVER seen a site where half or MORE of the posts go missing…..WTF….. One gets the idea that they may prefer to keep SOMETHING from coming to LIGHT, or is the deletion a Scotsman normal occurrence?? This Galbraith guy and
"his" revelations sure make research interesting…. WE WANT MORE..!!!
I suppose Galbraith said this after downing a couple tumblers of Glenfidditch neat with rocks on the side. Maybe Galbraith is part of a CIA/White HOuse maneuver to end Karzai's reign and replace him with someone more willing to go along with the Obama/McChrystal escalation. The Diem scenario is worth keeping in mind here…..
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
Check out Galbraight role in Croatia. There he was part of the masterfull elimination of Serbian population — unknown numbers disappeared in thousands of "detention" places. All in the run up to the Operation Storm in August 1995, when one whole region populated by Serbs was depopulated in five days. But you would never have known it from the media in the Clinton days. His role, as always, was weird.
I am amused at the disscussion of the fraud in Afghanistan vote. First, the challenger, Abdullah Abdullah had zero chance to win, and zero chance of forcing a runoff. He could not get majority of his Tajik vote! The only way to "help" was to lob off a million or so votes, to force run off. And that over and above the ballot boxes from Karzai heavy districts that were "mistakenly" dropped from the helicipters that carried them for counting. Karzai called the bluff, and agreed to run-off. Abdullah did wise thing — exit stage left. Holbrooke theatrics are not woking.
I'm thinking that "Karzai" is Afghan for Diem…. Something's rotten in Denmark and I would encourage Mr. Karzai to avoid airplanes, cars, and going anywhere unless its to an unknown island far away from Kabul.
There they go again, Washington is cranking the "regime change", Karzai "demonization" machine. It is precisely as the man said, "It is dangerous to be America's enemy, but it it lethal to be America's friend."
This is really the Benny Hill Imperial show.
Interesting chronology:
April 7 Pro-Russian opposition takes control of Kyrghyzstan
April 3 Karzai reported to have twice threatened to join insurgents
March 28 Obama makes surprise visit to Kabul
March 27 Karzai in Iran
March 23-25 Karzai in China
March 10 Ahmadinejad in Kabul
No, Karzai somehow looks less and less like Diem–and Obama more and more like the emperor with no clothes.
Don't Bogart that joint my friend, pass it over to me. Roll another one…………just like the other one and……pass it over me. I have been smoking for forty-six years and never cried once. Karzai must be a lunatic.