Brother of Afghan President Said to Receive Payments From the CIA

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a suspected leader in the country's illegal opium trade, has been regularly paid by the CIA over the past eight years, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Karzai is paid for various services, including recruiting a paramilitary force that operates under CIA command in the southern province of Kandahar and providing a large military facility there.

The working relationship between the CIA and Ahmed Wali Karzai has raised questions and caused divisions in the Obama administration over whether it undermines the U.S. effort to establish the rule of law and a stable central government under President Karzai. Ahmed Wali Karzai's ties to the drug trade are also problematic for the American effort, as illegal opium is a primary source of revenue for the Taliban. Karzai, whom the Times interviewed, denies that he is involved in the drug trade and that he has received any money from the CIA.