Did Former CIA Contact Kill Karzai's Brother?

The bodyguard who assassinated Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's brother was a trusted CIA contact and worked closely with the Special forces and the CIA before defecting to the Taliban, reports The Independent.

The report stated that Sardar Mohammad, who shot Ahmed Wali Karzai at his home in Kandahar City, held regular meetings with British officials, and had two brothers-in-law serving in a CIA-run paramilitary unit, the Kandahar Strike Force.

It was assumed that Mohammad, a trusted lieutenant and friend to Ahmed Wali Karzai, killed the President's brother over personal resentments at being accused of joining forces with the Taliban. Yet emerging evidence suggests that he had in fact been recruited by the Taiban - an infiltration by the Islamist movement into Karzai's innermost circles, reported the newspaper.

The insurgents get these very big victories quite often and I think probably we underestimate the [Taliban's] intelligence components, a Western analyst told The independent. ........ And that's not just about gathering information but also about infiltration, using whatever combination of blackmail or ideological levers......., he added.

The report also stated that security analysts believed Mohammad's recruitment into the Taliban, if true, added to Afghan army's and police's problems as they start taking control of the country from Nato. It was a growing indication of the levels of sophistication that the Taliban has achieved and its reach even into the inner circles of power of the Afghan government's security apparatus.

Mahmoud Karzai, another Karzai brother told reporters, Our investigation shows that for the last three months he was acting out of character, not normal, erratic. He wasn't sleeping, he was nervous, he was getting phone calls in the middle of the night, and our information shows he made a trip to Quetta [in Pakistan] and met with some Taliban. His father was a mullah. So all these things combined, plus the Taliban claim of responsibility... but our preliminary investigation indicates this was the work of the Taliban.