Election Behind Him, Afghanistan's Karzai Vows to Combat Corruption

In his first speech since winning re-election as president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai vowed to fight corruption in his government, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

"Afghanistan has been tarnished by administrative corruption, and I will launch a campaign to clean the government of corruption," Karzai said. He offered few specifics, except to say that his anti-corruption crusade will not include replacing high-ranking leaders, many of whom have ties to Afghanistan's illegal opium trade. Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is a suspected leader in the booming industry, which is a major source of income for the Taliban.

President Obama congratulated Karzai on his victory, and said he hoped the Afghan leader would take on corruption. "I did emphasize to President Karzai that the American people and the international community as a whole want to continue to partner with him and his government in achieving prosperity and security in Afghanistan," Obama said at a press conference Monday afternoon. "But I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security."